Mt. Carroll reclaims the title for the record minimum temperature in Illinois
From the Illinois State Climatologist:
Champaign, Ill., 3/6/19: An Arctic outbreak in late January 2019 led to widespread bitterly cold temperatures across much of the Upper Midwest, including Illinois. On the morning of Jan. 31, the cooperative weather observer at Mt. Carroll, located in Carroll County, reported a temperature of -38 degrees.
After a comprehensive review, the State Climate Extremes Committee (SCEC) unanimously voted to validate the -38 degrees reading as the new official state record minimum temperature. This committee ensures that the observation is meteorologically plausible, is within a range that the reporting instrument can detect, and that the instrument is in proper working order.
Brian Kerschner at the Illinois State Water Survey represented the Illinois State Climatologist Office as a member of the SCEC, along with delegates from the National Weather Service (NWS), the Midwest Regional Climate Center (MRCC), and the National Center for Environment Information (NCEI).
The previous minimum temperature record for Illinois was -36 degrees set in Congerville, located in Woodford County, on Jan. 5, 1999. The coldest temperature prior to the Congerville record, -35 degrees, was also set at Mt. Carroll in January 1930, and was later tied with Elizabeth in February 1996.
The Mt. Carroll station is a traditional daily observing station located in northwestern Illinois. It has been in service, with minor interruptions, since 1895, and has been observing temperatures since 1897. It is operated by the City of Mt. Carroll and attended by staff at the city’s water treatment plant.
You can view the final report on the NCEI website here: https://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/extremes/scec/reports
A complete list of current state records can be found here:
https://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/extremes/scec/records/IL
Feb. 1, 2019.
Photo: NWS Quad Cities WFO
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Is there any climate model that predicts consistent low temperatures on a century plus basis?
normal march morning here mid maine.
-4f with w/c around -9f.
noon now and 15f.
It is actually quite comical how the slightly unusual but totally normal can be made into evidence of dangerous climate change.
So it hasn’t been this cold in about 130 years. That is not even one tick of the geological time clock.
Will the BBC report this? Probably not, they are too busy being impartial ……
Great comment!! +42
Jim
Just like the warmistas tell us ‘It is warming! It is warming! It is warming!” all the time, coolistas tell the inverse, coldest winter evah etc etc.
I agree: Mt Carroll had its coldest temperature since record begin. That you see when processing the GHCN daily record for Illinois in absolute mode:
USC00115901 IL MT CARROLL 2019 1 31 -38.9
USC00111836 IL CONGERVILLE 2NW 1999 1 5 -37.8
USC00115901 IL MT CARROLL 2019 2 1 -37.8
USC00112745 IL ELIZABETH 1996 2 3 -37.2
USC00112745 IL ELIZABETH 2019 1 31 -37.2
USC00115833 IL MORRISON 2019 1 31 -37.2
USC00115901 IL MT CARROLL 1930 1 22 -37.2
USC00112745 IL ELIZABETH 2009 1 16 -36.7
USC00115079 IL LINCOLN 1927 1 15 -36.7
USC00110072 IL ALEDO 2019 1 30 -36.1
The numbers differ a bit from those in the head post: GHCN daily is raw data.
But the cold wave in IL must have been very short: when you generate the monthly average time series for the station for 1900-2019, you obtain this top 10:
1977 1 -16.30
1912 1 -15.63
1979 1 -15.60
1982 1 -13.33
1936 2 -13.28
1918 1 -12.94
1963 1 -12.48
1979 2 -12.31
1978 1 -12.21
2015 2 -11.90
2019 appears at position 37 of 1430.
The same applies for Illinois’ station average:
1977 1 -11.78
1918 1 -10.75
1979 1 -10.41
1912 1 -9.78
1940 1 -9.44
1978 1 -8.61
1982 1 -8.23
1963 1 -8.18
2000 12 -8.11
1978 2 -8.05
Here, 2019 is at position 72.
*
It is really cold during the winters in North America. Interesting for me European is that 1963 appears in these top 10 above, because UK and Germany for example had harsh winters in that year too.
But actually, these two countries experience mildest winters, and I prefer not to tell you about Norway: you wouldn’t believe me.
No, It’s not the Gulf Stream. The guy is loosing power since a while.
So what is it then? Don’t ask me.
Now lets see – mmm
– Over the last 6 months I have read about “record low daily lows”, “record high daily highs”, “record high daily lows”, but not a “record low daily high” Get to work you are missing an opportunity!
On a serious note: I am no a statistician but have a highly tuned instinct for chance and risk. Correct me if I am wrong.
The above records all relate to one station among the hundreds that are recorded around the world. Therefore the event of such records (usually within 1 or 2, 10’s of a degree) occurring on a monthly basis would be very common. I would place some money on say – mmmm – 10 records being broken every year. Consider that sister stations are often 10’s of a degree in disagreement in spite of being calibrated.
Anyone want a game of poker?
Cheers
M
We just had a record low daily high here in the Dallas/Ft Worth area on Tuesday.
Cool! 🙂
Here in Nebraska, the migration of snow geese and sandhill cranes is way behind schedule. The woodpeckers may have arrived a little too early. With a foot of snowpack and below freezing temps, the bugs that are usually out this time of year aren’t. We got another 5″ of that crap my grandkids aren’t supposed to see last night. When I fill my birdfeeder, the birds don’t even wait until I get back in the house to hit it now.
Sorry chaps,
but I think you have it all wrong
A friend of mine (a certain Mr E. N Tropy) pointed out very succinctly that the 2 opposing force, (he mentioned another chap called Newton or something like that) of global cooling AND global warming are in play at all times and virtually equal in force, and that just because a slight perturbance allows global warming to manifest itself to a greater degree does not mean that global cooling is not right there at nearly the same level fighting to re-stabilize the order of things.
In fact he was such a good friend he even sold me an adult sized see-saw to show me how the theory worked and I`ve now joined his new inaction group called ENTropy Reduction UK , easy to join, one just has to sit and do nothing for hours. What could be better ?
Not only that, we also have our good friend Mr. N. Thalpy residing currently visiting the Arctic, keeping winters from being as frigid as they were in the ’70s. Every spring he moves to lower latitudes to make things uncomfortable at otherwise pleasant temperatures. He causes all the ruckus that Mr. C. O’too gets the blame for. The climate police are after the wrong dude here.
Can’t be right. It’s a whole number. Whole numbers are not allowed.
It’s OFFICIAL!! No more global warming.
“New All-time Record Low Temperature in Illinois”
Is there anything Gerbil Worming can’t do?
I like the long term record at this site, but that looks like a giant open-air tank in the background of the photograph in the post. Is that part of the sewage treatment plant, and is it active? This could bias the recent records unless the tank is as old as the thermometer record.
If AGW causes more polar vortex splits, why aren’t most polar vortex splits in the middle of the summer?
According to their theory, a warmer Arctic leads to less latitudinal temperature variance, which leads to a weak and unstable jet stream, which leads to polar vortex splits and incursion of polar air into North America.
But empirically speaking, the jet stream is weaker in the summer and the temperature variance is less in the summer. Yet don’t most polar vortex splits and incursions happen in the winter, during the times of highest temperature variance?
Maybe I don’t understand.
“Strengthening winds will greatly lower the visibility and cause extensive blowing and drifting snow,” said AccuWeather Senior Meteorologist Alex Sosnowski. “During Saturday night to Sunday, the storm will likely be at its strongest with windswept snow from the Dakotas and northern Nebraska to much of Minnesota, northern Wisconsin and part of northern Michigan.”
As the storm progresses into Ontario and Quebec on Sunday, strong northerly and northwesterly winds will continue to pummel the Upper Midwest. While not as cold as recent weeks, temperatures will fall back to below-average levels, with RealFeel® Temperatures dipping into the single digits.
Of the 50 states’ hottest recorded temperatures, fully 36 were set before 1940 (31 still standing, 5 since tied but not exceeded.) How’s that warm yer wigwam?
You are right.
And? What is your point, please? The US country is about 6 % of Earth’s land surface.
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2019/02/25/how-to-make-use-of-the-worlds-most-accurate-temperature-data/#comment-2641420
Looks like it is situated in the center of a Sewage Treatment Plant too. So maybe reading a degree high…
https://www.google.com/maps/search/sewage+treatment+plant+near+Mt+Carroll,+Illinois/@42.0980729,-89.9844979,89m/data=!3m1!1e3 ??
No, that’s the city potable water treatment plant. The sewage plant is much larger.
https://www.google.com/maps/place/Sewage+Treatment+Plant/@42.2970601,-89.6038825,88m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m8!1m2!2m1!1ssewage+treatment+plant+near+Mt+Carroll,+Illinois!3m4!1s0x8808693f751a1c05:0xefa60b5758435434!8m2!3d42.2967941!4d-89.6038646
My experiences with the Il. State Water Service during my career as a state university facility manager were always positive. They never wavered from pure science to make recommendations which sometimes had political consequences in the institutions which contract them. I was proud to post their awards and commendations to our facilities on my office wall. If I could believe anybody in Illinois’ government, it was them.