It will be a December Arctic Outbreak to remember with the strongest arctic front/air mass is descend over the Lower 48 in several years. For some it was the coldest December weather since 1996.

This 3rd arctic air mass to descend North America within 10 days remained powerful with the aid of an expansive snowpack.

Highlights

Aberdeen, SD smashed a 1951 record of -28F with a new record low of -37F Saturday morning. WINDCHILL hit -59F

Bismarck, ND sets new record low of -31F

Valentine, NE -31F (lowest temperature since 1994) WINDCHILL hit -52F

Minneapolis-St Paul, MN -20F (Coldest December low since 1996)

Dodge City, KS -16F (2nd coldest December low on record & coldest low in 26 years)

Amarillo, TX -3F

SUN AM RECORD LOWS

SUNDAY AM RECORD LOWS

A low of -9F at Kansas City, MO tied for 3rd coldest reading in a century!

MON AM LOWS

This morning’s frigid sunrise over a steaming Chicago.

This bitter blast created incredible scenes such as this.

St Joseph Lighthouse, MI

Textbook ‘Blue Norther’ Sweeps Through Oklahoma, Texas

Pre-frontal temps climbed well into the 70s and 80s but as the front swept through, temps dropped up to 30 degrees within minutes, up to 70 degrees within 24 hours.

Stunning shelf cloud marking the arctic front of Killeen, TX Saturday

Even a dust storm in Midland, TX

Why so warm south of the CF? Potent fronts tend to pull air up from the SSW out ahead, thus driving temps to record values and this makes the drop behind the front all the more impressive.

By 11am, it’s into single digits on the Panhandle while upper 80s on the Lower Texas coast!

Note Amarillo dropping while Dallas rises!

Amarillo went from 74F Friday afternoon to -3 Sunday morning.

Midland hit a record 80 degrees Saturday afternoon but by 11.59pm (same day), the thermometer was reading 18 degrees and 1 shy of a record low!

From Capital Weather Gang Blog.

Fiercest cold front of the year flash-freezes much of the nation

Capital Weather Gang

December 19 at 12:08 PM

Eighty-five percent of the nation was frozen solid Monday morning after the most powerful cold front to traverse the Lower 48 this year.

Scores of record low temperatures were set in the wake of the Arctic blast between Friday and Monday morning. But most amazing was the breakneck speed at which temperatures nose-dived as the front blew by.

The core of cold air will retreat into Canada over the next day, and milder temperatures are expected across the nation, but this has been a serious and significant early winter Arctic outbreak.

Incredible temperature drops

As this front charged southeastward from the Dakotas into the Southern Plains and Texas, the mercury plunged up to 35 degrees in an hour and 70 degrees in a day

Texas also witnessed some remarkable drops:

• Amarillo’s temperature fell 32 degrees in an hour from 49 at 2 a.m. to 17 at 3 a.m. Saturday.
• Dallas’s high temperature Saturday was 73 and its low Sunday was 17, a swing of 56 degrees.
• Austin and San Antonio had nearly 40-degree swings in back-to-back high temperatures (Saturday to Sunday), which ranked in the top five greatest on record for December.
• San Angelo saw its temperature drop from 80 to 43 in an hour (between 4 and 5 p.m. local time) Saturday. That same day, it hit a record high of 84 degrees in the afternoon and the temperature fell to 22 degrees before midnight, just 4 degrees above its record low.

In Missouri on Saturday afternoon, Kennett in the southeast part of the state was reporting a temperature 74, while Rock Port in the northwest posted a temperature of 8.

As the front cut across Kentucky, temperatures were more than 35 degrees colder in the western part of the state compared to the east:

While the front lost some of its intensity as it reached the East Coast on Sunday, it still packed some punch. D.C.’s temperature dropped 14 degrees in an hour as the front passed Sunday afternoon, and winds gusted to 54 mph.

Coldest weather in years and record low temperatures

Many areas in the middle of the nation witnessed their coldest weather in years and scores set record lows.

The intensity of the cold air mass in the Lower 48 was presaged by extraordinary cold in Canada. Val Marie, a prairie village in southwest Saskatch ewan, dropped to a frigid minus-44.3 (minus-42.4 Celsius) Saturday, a record for the date and its seventh coldest December temperature on record.

On Sunday morning, the U.S. had an average low temperature of 16 degrees, which was colder than any time last winter. The average low temperature in Minnesota was a bone-chilling minus-26.

The coldest temperatures in the Lower 48 were colder than the coldest temperatures in Antarctica on Sunday.

Many cities in the central U.S. had their coldest weather since the polar vortex outbreak of early January 2014, including Omaha (low of minus-11) and Minneapolis (low of minus-20) on Sunday and Chicago (low of minus-13) on Monday.

On Monday, Indianapolis had its coldest December morning in nearly 12 years, with a low of minus-1.

Here are a few of the record lows that were set in the U.S.:

• Aberdeen, S.D., set a record low of minus-37 Sunday with an astonishing wind chill of minus-59. Many other record lows were set by South Dakota, including minus-27 in Sioux Falls.
• Denver dropped to minus-14 Saturday (and had a wind chill of minus-35 at the same time).
• Dodge City, Kan., dropped to minus-16 Sunday, not only a record low for the date, but also its second-coldest December temperature on record.
• Garden City, Kan., set record lows on back-to-back days of minus-19 Sunday and minus-12 Monday.
• Several record lows were set in western and north central Nebraska on Sunday, including minus-31 at Valentine and minus-17 at North Platte.

 

Miami Sees Warmest December day on record.

While dozens of cities broke record lows this weekend, Miami witnessed the opposite by recording their warmest December day on record with record tying monthly minimum of 79 and record high of 86!