A Look Back: The Winter Of 1993-94

[Chicago WX]

The winter of 1993-94 will probably be best remembered by quite a few for the arctic outbreak in mid January. But snowfall got off to a early start for a few, as Marquette had measurable snowfall in late September...as well, places like Columbus recorded snowfall in late October. Then it got quiet for November and December. Fast forward to mid January and an intense arctic outbreak crashed through the Midwest, setting many records...especially on January 18th and 19th. Snowfall was generally above average for places east of the Mississippi River...and the season was extended for places like Ottawa who saw heavy snowfall in March and April.

Monthly and season temperature departure maps, and then the monthly 500H maps.

December 1993

January 1994

February 1994

Winter (DJF) 1993-94

December 1993 500H

January 1994 500H

February 1994 500H

[Chicago WX]

Winter and season snowfall statistics.

January 14-21 daily high and low temperatures. Blue highlighted boxes indicate a daily record low max or low min temperature.

500H mean for January 14-21, 1994

850 temps for 1/18 12z and 1/19 0z

[buckeye]

If i recall correctly, (and that's a stretch), that cold in Mid January came ushered in on a pretty intense storm system that cut up just to our west, or very close to us. We actually had warning criteria snows from the wrap around and the next day another winterstorm warning for a pretty intense clipper that came diving in.

[Ottawa Blizzard]

Great write-up! How well I remember that winter. I was in Grade 8 and December was largely mild and dreary with one or two rain events. It seemed that winter would never come. Then it hit with a fury after December 21st and January was incredibly cold. Toronto saw the coldest January-February period since 1920, while Pearson saw the coldest January since 1945. Ottawa actually saw the coldest January of the 20th century. I remember the january 16th-17th storm as I took the 17th off school. It was the morning of the LA earthquake and I remember turning on the TV after shoveling waiting for news about how extensive the damage was. people were waiting for the sun to come up in LA in order to ascertain the damage. I remember January 19th,1994 being bitterly cold in Toronto, so cold that I couldn't get the front door open due to the lock being frozen. Luckily my Dad came home early that day and managed to get the door open, although even he had difficulty. I remember walking through the park to school that morning and having a bitterly cold wind blow in my face. Recess was indoor that day due to the bitter cold. Other memories include the January 6-7,1994 snowstorm in Toronto which lasted on-and-off for 48 hours.

[Chicago WX]

If i recall correctly, (and that's a stretch), that cold in Mid January came ushered in on a pretty intense storm system that cut up just to our west, or very close to us. We actually had warning criteria snows from the wrap around and the next day another winterstorm warning for a pretty intense clipper that came diving in.

I think you may be right. The data I have for Columbus has 1.4" over four days before the first cold wave (on the 15-16th), then a "warm up" to 28º on the 17th, with 7.8" of snow on January 16-17, and then the second wave of cold hit.

[Chicago WX]

I was a freshman at Purdue in 1993-94, and remember the cold of January. Classes were actually cancelled one day due to the extreme cold-wind combo, which produced "old" wind chill values of greater than -60º. Of course on the evening of the day that classes got cancelled, me and 3 of my friends walked appoximately 3 miles to watch Purdue and IU play basketball at Mackey Arena. Well, it was the Big Dog (Glenn Robinson) days back then.

The daily high/low temps at LAF during that stretch.

1/14: 6/-16

1/15: -3/-13

1/16: 16/-11

1/17: 17/-7

1/18: -7/-19

1/19: 0/-22

1/20: 15/-12

1/21: 17/-15

[Ottawa Blizzard]

If I remmeber correctly, the NWS had called for a mild winter that year. Environment Canada called it correctly, saying it would be very cold that year due to a similar atmospheric set up to that seen in 1976 and 1977

[cyclone77]

I remember us getting slammed in late Feb that season. About a foot on the 22nd, and then a very powerful clipper on the 25th. That one deposited about 4" of fluff, but the 50mph+ winds later that day whipped around the foot+ of powder on the ground like crazy.

[dmc76]

I remember 2 shots of snow in one week around the Holidays 93' (Remember Tonya Harding Era?)... About 12" in 1 week. Lots of Snow Up North. I remember a 36" snow depth in parts of NW Lower MI. Also the Amazing deep freeze in Jan 94' -22 degrees around here with a high of -5. Also a Feburary Clipper that dropped 6-7" in 4-5 hours.

[Jonger]

We had 10 inches and temps of -25 or lower in Howell. My daily high the coldest day was -8.

[snowstormcanuck]

Good on MKE. Over 80" on the season but less than 2" in December.

[Chicago WX]

Good on MKE. Over 80" on the season but less than 2" in December.

MKE had 8" on 11/28, but nothing else but the 1.2" by the end of December. Very good January and a big big February helped rally the troops to a fantastic winter. Proving, miracles are possible.

[beavis1729]

Good on MKE. Over 80" on the season but less than 2" in December.

Tim - thanks for another good post.

And Chicago only ended with around 40"...pretty odd for MKE to get 40 more inches of snow than ORD in a winter!

That was a very up-and-down winter in Chicago...February was very snowy, but also had frequent warm spells. I was attending NIU in DeKalb at the time...and I recall an ~8" storm, followed by temps in the 60s two days later, then a ~10" storm two days after that. And, of course, the arctic outbreak in January. 1/18/94 was our first day of classes for the Spring semester, and school wasn't cancelled. I walked 20 minutes across campus for an 8 AM class and loved every minute of it The high/low that day was -14/-24. They did cancel classes the next day, after brake lines on the university buses began freezing.

[Chicago WX]

Tim - thanks for another good post.

And Chicago only ended with around 40"...pretty odd for MKE to get 40 more inches of snow than ORD in a winter!

That was a very up-and-down winter in Chicago...February was very snowy, but also had frequent warm spells. I was attending NIU in DeKalb at the time...and I recall an ~8" storm, followed by temps in the 60s two days later, then a ~10" storm two days after that. And, of course, the arctic outbreak in January. 1/18/94 was our first day of classes for the Spring semester, and school wasn't cancelled. I walked 20 minutes across campus for an 8 AM class and loved every minute of it The high/low that day was -14/-24. They did cancel classes the next day, after brake lines on the university buses began freezing.

As I posted up thread, Purdue cancelled classes on 1/18, but we were back to school the next day. It was only marginally "warmer" (0/-22)...but my walk to campus for my 8:30AM class was indeed refreshing. I think I recall only about 25% of the class showing up.

My other favorite memory of that season was a surprise 4" snowfall on April 7th, 5 days before my birthday. Again, another nice walk home from classes that day.

[Hoar_Frost]

Tim - thanks for another good post.

And Chicago only ended with around 40"...pretty odd for MKE to get 40 more inches of snow than ORD in a winter!

That was a very up-and-down winter in Chicago...February was very snowy, but also had frequent warm spells. I was attending NIU in DeKalb at the time...and I recall an ~8" storm, followed by temps in the 60s two days later, then a ~10" storm two days after that. And, of course, the arctic outbreak in January. 1/18/94 was our first day of classes for the Spring semester, and school wasn't cancelled. I walked 20 minutes across campus for an 8 AM class and loved every minute of it The high/low that day was -14/-24. They did cancel classes the next day, after brake lines on the university buses began freezing.

I think that 07-08 was another winter in which the MKE-ORD snow-total differential was close to 40 inches. MKE had 99.1 inches, and ORD had 62 inches (both full-season, not DJF).

By the way, that -14 at DeKalb/NIU (the CO-OP station) is the coldest daily maximum on record since 1896 at DeKalb-Sycamore. (DeKalb's CO-OP station record goes back to 1965, but Sycamore had a station from 1896 to 1965 whose record is typically used to extend DeKalb's.) Only 20 January 1985 (-11/-27 with a daily mean of -19) had a colder daily mean during the 1896-present period.

[Hoar_Frost]

Just to give a taste of the changeability of the weather in northern Illinois in January and February 1994, here are the daily data for DeKalb for those two months. The data are from the Midwestern Regional Climate Center's MACS database. Apologies for the mean column being partially cut off in the January data-set.

[dmc76]

I remember 2 shots of snow in one week around the Holidays 93' (Remember Tonya Harding Era?)... About 12" in 1 week. Lots of Snow Up North. I remember a 36" snow depth in parts of NW Lower MI. Also the Amazing deep freeze in Jan 94' -22 degrees around here with a high of -5. Also a Feburary Clipper that dropped 6-7" in 4-5 hours.

That actually might have been after new years or 1 after xmas and 1 after new years.

[Hoosier]

850 temps for 1/18 12z and 1/19 0z

Stealing my thunder dude I don't know about elsewhere but that arctic outbreak is easily in the top 3 of the 20th century for our area.  Almost everything else can go home.  Nice job once again.

[michsnowfreak]

Just light spits of snow in Oct, Nov, and Dec at DTW (incl Christmas), but never enough to fully cover the grass until the Jan 6 storm dropped over 10". Then we saw our coldest day on record Jan 19th (hi -4, lo -20), though not alltime coldest temp. Good snows in Feb as well. An above normal season that started with rare measurable Oct snow but a disastrous Nov-Dec, with Jan-Feb more than making up for it.

[dmc76]

Just light spits of snow in Oct, Nov, and Dec at DTW (incl Christmas), but never enough to fully cover the grass until the Jan 6 storm dropped over 10". Then we saw our coldest day on record Jan 19th (hi -4, lo -20), though not alltime coldest temp. Good snows in Feb as well. An above normal season that started with rare measurable Oct snow but a disastrous Nov-Dec, with Jan-Feb more than making up for it.

YEP now I remember! It was a very active first 10 days I believe. I was thinking Holidays. Then I looked up the Tonya Harding incident and it was around the 10" snowfall.

[Harry]

Ahhhh..The winter of epic Ice back east.

Tim - thanks for another good post.

And Chicago only ended with around 40"...pretty odd for MKE to get 40 more inches of snow than ORD in a winter!

That was a very up-and-down winter in Chicago...February was very snowy, but also had frequent warm spells. I was attending NIU in DeKalb at the time...and I recall an ~8" storm, followed by temps in the 60s two days later, then a ~10" storm two days after that. And, of course, the arctic outbreak in January. 1/18/94 was our first day of classes for the Spring semester, and school wasn't cancelled. I walked 20 minutes across campus for an 8 AM class and loved every minute of it The high/low that day was -14/-24. They did cancel classes the next day, after brake lines on the university buses began freezing.

Chicago on over to here was in the screwzone that winter.

Just light spits of snow in Oct, Nov, and Dec at DTW (incl Christmas), but never enough to fully cover the grass until the Jan 6 storm dropped over 10". Then we saw our coldest day on record Jan 19th (hi -4, lo -20), though not alltime coldest temp. Good snows in Feb as well. An above normal season that started with rare measurable Oct snow but a disastrous Nov-Dec, with Jan-Feb more than making up for it.

Biggest storm here was 6.5" and ended the season with a little more then a foot below normal snowfall. The kind of winter i would have hated had i lived here. Cold with all the decent storms going north and south of here. Despite all of the ice i still managed to sneak in a 9.0" event back east and from a clipper at that if i recall correctly. Ofcourse 94-95 ended up being worse around here for snowfall with just under 35" on the season it did however feature both a 6+ and a 8+ event.

[wxman_ind]

I was a freshman at Purdue in 1993-94, and remember the cold of January. Classes were actually cancelled one day due to the extreme cold-wind combo, which produced "old" wind chill values of greater than -60º. Of course on the evening of the day that classes got cancelled, me and 3 of my friends walked appoximately 3 miles to watch Purdue and IU play basketball at Mackey Arena. Well, it was the Big Dog (Glenn Robinson) days back then.

The daily high/low temps at LAF during that stretch.

1/14: 6/-16

1/15: -3/-13

1/16: 16/-11

1/17: 17/-7

1/18: -7/-19

1/19: 0/-22

1/20: 15/-12

1/21: 17/-15

I was at Purdue then too. I remember walking from the house I lived in all the way across campus early in the morning to the ATMS department, so that I could take the maps off of the "fax machine" and post them on the wall. My glasses at the time froze to my face on the way there!

[arizonasooner]

I lived outside of Lima, OH during the winter of 1994. January 18th (or 19th) was a brutal day when the temperature fell from about -5F at daybreak to -20F when I went home from work at 4pm. We bottomed out at -28F the next morning.

Ridiculous. But not as ridiculous as -22F was at my house in Bixby, OK (suburb of Tulsa) was this February. It is not supposed to be that cold that far south!

[daddylonglegs]

Freshman in high school.... Don't remember much about that winter, although we must have had some snow days with that kind of snow and cold.

Just shows you how it can turn around and in a hurry.

[cyclone77]

Freshman in high school.... Don't remember much about that winter, although we must have had some snow days with that kind of snow and cold.

Just shows you how it can turn around and in a hurry.

I was a junior. As for the Feb 22 event, I remember getting worried as the day went on that it hadn't started snowing. It was forecast to start snowing by noon, and by 3 there wasn't a single flake. I distinctly remember it going from nothing to S+ in about 15 minutes around 4pm. There were several reports of thundersnow in eastern Iowa that night.

[Chicago WX]

I was looking at old vs new wind chill values for January 18, 1994. The coldest combo I found for LAF that day was at 10:00AM with a temperature of -16º and sustained winds of 22MPH...which equated to a -64º old school wind chill value and -44º on the new scale.

Calculator found here: http://www.erh.noaa.gov/iln/tables.htm

[hawkeye_wx]

I was a freshman in college in '93-'94, but I really have little if any recollection of winter weather that far back.