January 20, 1985

[Hoosier]

If you're a fan of Arctic outbreaks, you should know this one. I thought I'd share a few maps...

-40C at 850 mb makes a rare appearance in the lower 48:

These maps just floor me. Truly one of the great Arctic outbreaks of the 20th century for much of the central/eastern US.

[Cory]

A week before this outbreak, I saw the most snow on record in parts of South Texas....14" in my hometown of Sabinal (hour west of San Antonio).

[Indystorm]

Yep. Definitely remember this as I do some special tornado days. Was at Marion Indiana at the time and definitely cancelled church services due to the cold. But when you think of reading historical stories about how the Ohio River froze at Cincinnati in earlier years and people walked across the river there must certainly have been outbreaks such as this in the past. -23 at Marion and -27 at Chicago.

[csnavywx]

Incredible maps... just incredible. <-35C 850s over St. Louis

LOL at the warm front moving SOUTH over south central Canada later on.

[Hoosier]

Yep. Definitely remember this as I do some special tornado days. Was at Marion Indiana at the time and definitely cancelled church services due to the cold. But when you think of reading historical stories about how the Ohio River froze at Cincinnati in earlier years and people walked across the river there must certainly have been outbreaks such as this in the past. -23 at Marion and -27 at Chicago.

I think ORD registered a wind chill close to -80 on the old scale.

[Chicago WX]

-7º/-22º at LAF that day, although the low may have been a bit lower I guess...not sure on any intra hour "bump" down as the temp at 7AM, 8AM, and 9AM was -22º. The dewpoint at those times was -35º...wow. Combine it all with winds that gusted from the 20's to lower 30's all day and brutal conditions indeed.

[Hoosier]

Incredible maps... just incredible. <-35C 850s over St. Louis

LOL at the warm front moving SOUTH over south central Canada later on.

This is probably the coldest 850 mb map I've ever seen for the southern Midwest/OV region. I've looked at some other notable events and none were quite that cold.

[beavis1729]

This is probably the coldest 850 mb map I've ever seen for the southern Midwest/OV region. I've looked at some other notable events and none were quite that cold.

Agree. Most often, you get brutally cold temps in the Midwest due to radiational cooling (e.g., the cold temps in mid-January 2009). But the 1985 event was completely airmass-driven. To hit -27 in Chicago with such strong winds is incredible. No radiational cooling in this case...although of course the snow cover helped. I'm in awe at this event.

The -27 in Chicago on 1/20/1985 still stands as their all-time record low.

[Hoosier]

Agree. Most often, you get brutally cold temps in the Midwest due to radiational cooling (e.g., the cold temps in mid-January 2009). But the 1985 event was completely airmass-driven. To hit -27 in Chicago with such strong winds is incredible. No radiational cooling in this case...although of course the snow cover helped. I'm in awe at this event.

The -27 in Chicago on 1/20/1985 still stands as their all-time record low.

The map is really insane in every sense of the word, and it happened to be timed right at the coldest time of the year climatologically.

Here is the RAOB from International Falls showing 850 mb temps of -40C. Look at what it's showing for PWAT.

[IWXwx]

Yep. Definitely remember this as I do some special tornado days. Was at Marion Indiana at the time and definitely cancelled church services due to the cold. But when you think of reading historical stories about how the Ohio River froze at Cincinnati in earlier years and people walked across the river there must certainly have been outbreaks such as this in the past. -23 at Marion and -27 at Chicago.

I remember this quite well. I was also in Marion IN at that time. I had a Jeep CJ ragtop. The coldest ride to work in my life! I worked about 20 miles away in Hartford City.

At least it started, one of the few vehicles that would.

I remember a couple of thermometers reading -20 to -24. I thought that they had to be a little off due to the extremely cold air. I figured it was more like -18 or so. They were right!

[buckeye]

I remember well, I was in college and all the pipes in the house that I was renting with my buddies froze up and we had to go take showers at other friends houses...also it was superbowl sunday and pats got spanked by bears.

[buckeye]

This is probably the coldest 850 mb map I've ever seen for the southern Midwest/OV region. I've looked at some other notable events and none were quite that cold.

where did this compare vs. the Jan '94 outbreak? My guess is the '94 outbreak was centered slightly more east as OH seems to have been hit hardest in that one than the '85 one.

[Chicago WX]

I remember well, I was in college and all the pipes in the house that I was renting with my buddies froze up and we had to go take showers at other friends houses...also it was superbowl sunday and pats got spanked by bears.

Bears-Pats Super Bowl was in January 1986.

[buckeye]

Bears-Pats Super Bowl was in January 1986.

well....then Morgantown WV had one hell of a cold outbreak in January 1986....

....or....the beer i consumed and the fact that it was 25 years ago could have mixed my memory.

[weathafella]

I just remember the Reagan inauguration for term 2 and it was near 0 in DC mid day. That's impressive! I was lolling around in LA deluding myself that I didn't miss winter at all.

[Chicago WX]

well....then Morgantown WV had one hell of a cold outbreak in January 1986....

....or....the beer i consumed and the fact that it was 25 years ago could have mixed my memory.

[buckeye]

well maybe I wasn't as drunk as i thought. this is the map for the tuesday after superbowl sunday Jan 1986... It might have actually been a colder period for WV in Jan86 vs.Jan85....that's why I assumed it was what Hoosier was referring to.

[RIC Airport]

We have not had anything like this since early February 1996 and then January 1994. We are way overdue!

[Chicago WX]

well maybe I wasn't as drunk as i thought. this is the map for the tuesday after superbowl sunday Jan 1986... It might have actually been a colder period for WV in Jan86 vs.Jan85....that's why I assumed it was what Hoosier was referring to.

Looks like 22º/3º for Morgantown on 1/27/86 and 10º/2º on 1/28/86. Certainly cold enough...your memory is indeed not that bad.

BTW, here's the temps for 1/20/85 at MGW...14º/-15º and 1/21/85...1º/-17º.

[buckeye]

Looks like 22º/3º for Morgantown on 1/27/86 and 10º/2º on 1/28/86. Certainly cold enough...your memory is indeed not that bad.

hmmm, i wonder what the coldest it got in morgantown during the arctic outbreak this thread is referring to. We lived in that same house in 85 and 86 and the days after the 86 superbowl is the only time i remember the pipes freezing and the brutal cold.

[buckeye]

Looks like 22º/3º for Morgantown on 1/27/86 and 10º/2º on 1/28/86. Certainly cold enough...your memory is indeed not that bad.

BTW, here's the temps for 1/20/85 at MGW...14º/-15º and 1/21/85...1º/-17º.

ok....

we'll just chalk it up to beer memory

[Chicago WX]

hmmm, i wonder what the coldest it got in morgantown during the arctic outbreak this thread is referring to. We lived in that same house in 85 and 86 and the days after the 86 superbowl is the only time i remember the pipes freezing and the brutal cold.

I edited the 1985 temps into my previous post. '85 was colder.

[buckeye]

I edited the 1985 temps into my previous post. '85 was colder.

...and apparently i was drunker

[jbcmh81]

I remember well, I was in college and all the pipes in the house that I was renting with my buddies froze up and we had to go take showers at other friends houses...also it was superbowl sunday and pats got spanked by bears.

It was a Saturday. Temps for Columbus that day were -5/-19. Noon temps were -15 with winds 25-35mph. Nice and frigid.

[jbcmh81]

well....then Morgantown WV had one hell of a cold outbreak in January 1986....

....or....the beer i consumed and the fact that it was 25 years ago could have mixed my memory.

The lowest temps in January 1986 occurred on January 27th with a high/low of 17/1 in Columbus. A fairly normal cold spell for January in what was mostly an uneventful month.

[mempho]

10AM ob in Memphis on January 20, 1985....-4*F with a -22*F Dewpoint. The highest temp during the daylight hours was 1.9*F and that would've been the all-time lo max if it hadn't been for the midnight reading of 17.

At 3pm on the 19th, the ob from Memphis was 49*F.

4p...36

5p...29

6p...27

12a...17

1a...11

4a...5

5a...2

6a...0

10a...-4

12p...-2

2p...0

4p...2 (temp held at 1.9 from 4p through midnight).

A 15-20mph south wind began the next day which caused the temp to get up 24*

Jan and the first part of Feb in 1985 were really crazy. Very cold. Lots of snow.

[mempho]

Lots of old videos of January 1985 posted by a member of another forum here. Some are TWC and some are local Memphis news, but I'm sure some of you will enjoy. Coverage is of the major snowstorms that year and of the cold blast:

Vintage Weather

[aslkahuna]

Looking at the sounding, the break in the temperatures around H5 with the H5 height of 485 dm with that slight inversion would suggest to me that the Arctic Tropopause was located at about H5 in MN that day and yes, the Arctic Trop CAN get that low. The PW is zero because the old type sondes could not measure humidity below a temperature of -40C consequently there was no moisture data for calculating the PW.

Steve

[baroclinic_instability]

The map is really insane in every sense of the word, and it happened to be timed right at the coldest time of the year climatologically.

Here is the RAOB from International Falls showing 850 mb temps of -40C. Look at what it's showing for PWAT.

Never as a meteorologist have I ever seen a pretty much isothermal sounding through the depth of the atmosphere.

[Guru Of Reason]

Temperature dropped to -18 at St. Louis.