Five years ago this week: Lows plunge below -20 during Chicago's polar vortex cold snap
CHICAGO (CBS) -- The high will reach nearly 50 degrees Thursday – but five years ago, the story was much different.
On Jan. 30-31, 2019, it was so cold that wind chills plunged to 50 below zero.
Surface temps fell to minus 23 – and then we got snow! We endured 52 hours of below zero temperatures, the fourth-longest such deep freeze ever recorded in Chicago.
It was so cold, that experts warned people that they shouldn't talk too much—or breathe deeply outside "to protect your lungs from severely cold air."
It was colder in Chicago than the South Pole, Barrow, Alaska, and Greenland during that polar vortex plunge. It was also colder in Chicago than Mars and Mt. Everest and the places in Russia north of the Arctic Circle.
It was so cold, the sun appeared to rise in two places over Lake Michigan – a phenomenon known as a "sun dog."
While schools were closed and many people worked from home, the City of Chicago ordered school crossing guards to work outside.
But was it the coldest weather Chicago had ever experienced? No siree.
The coldest day ever happened on Jan. 20, 1985. The low was 27 degrees below zero that day – and conditions were dangerous.
Over the night leading into that Sunday, Chicago firefighters fought frost bite and frozen water lines as they confined a major blaze to three apartment buildings on South Morgan Street – the fire displaced 13 people, and one firefighter was treated for frostbite. Meanwhile, on a call on South Honore Street, a hook and ladder truck froze to the street and got stuck.
The worst-ever wind chill happened on Christmas Eve 1983: minus 57, adjusted for a new wind chill formula adopted about 15 years ago. Under the old formula, the chill was recorded at minus 82.
The wind chills in 2019 came close to that record, with those readings of around 50 below zero.