December Wind Chills
Jan 12, 2017
Hennepin County saw some chilly temperatures in December! We were particularly cold on the 17th and 18th, with consistent wind chills around and below zero. Wind chill is an apparent temperature designed to be representative of the effect temperature and wind speed have on exposed skin.
The 17th started out somewhat mild, but temperatures constantly dropped as the day progressed. The morning of the 18th was when we hit minimum temperatures for the two days, across all the Mesonets. Generally, temperatures are cooler at night due to the Sun not being able to heat the Earth’s surface and warm during the early afternoon because of the radiation from the Sun. However, during these couple December days, wind chills were sometimes just as cold or colder during the day than they were at night, primarily because winds were so strong.
The featured image was the forecasted lowest wind chills for the weekend of December 17-18, 2016. The Twin Cities was forecasted to reach -36°F early Sunday morning. However, the coldest wind chill recorded by the Hennepin West Mesonets was -38°F in Medina at 6:00am on December 18th.
| Date | Time | Mesonet Stations Wind Chill (° F) | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hanover | Maple Grove | Medina | Minnetrista | Plymouth | Rockford | St. Bonifacius | ||
| 12/17 | 12:00AM | 8 | -1 | 1 | 0 | -1 | 2 | 4 |
| 1:00AM | 4 | -1 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 0 | |
| 2:00AM | -2 | -1 | -3 | -3 | -2 | -3 | 0 | |
| 3:00AM | 2 | -2 | -2 | -6 | -5 | 0 | -1 | |
| 4:00AM | -7 | -8 | -6 | -5 | -4 | -5 | -4 | |
| 5:00AM | -2 | -6 | -5 | -8 | -6 | -7 | -7 | |
| 6:00AM | -8 | -9 | -6 | -9 | -4 | -8 | -2 | |
| 7:00AM | -11 | -11 | -9 | -13 | -9 | -10 | -12 | |
| 8:00AM | -10 | -9 | -12 | -12 | -13 | -13 | -9 | |
| 9:00AM | -8 | -6 | -9 | -15 | -10 | -8 | -8 | |
| 10:00AM | -12 | n/a | -12 | -14 | -11 | -12 | -6 | |
| 11:00AM | -11 | -6 | -11 | -12 | -9 | -8 | -9 | |
| 12:00PM | -10 | -6 | -8 | -11 | -10 | -12 | -7 | |
| 1:00PM | -10 | -9 | -11 | -13 | -9 | -1 | -10 | |
| 2:00PM | -5 | -9 | -8 | -14 | -13 | -5 | -7 | |
| 3:00PM | -8 | -10 | -14 | -11 | -11 | -11 | -11 | |
| 4:00PM | -10 | -10 | -13 | -13 | -13 | -5 | -10 | |
| 5:00PM | -12 | -8 | -13 | -12 | -14 | -10 | -13 | |
| 6:00PM | -15 | -11 | -18 | -18 | -15 | -9 | -19 | |
| 7:00PM | -21 | -18 | -22 | -20 | -16 | -19 | -19 | |
| 8:00PM | -20 | -21 | -24 | -21 | -25 | -8 | -24 | |
| 9:00PM | -22 | -21 | -24 | -20 | -18 | -19 | -28 | |
| 10:00PM | -22 | -23 | -28 | -22 | -23 | -23 | -26 | |
| 11:00PM | -25 | -22 | -29 | -24 | -26 | -21 | -31 | |
| 12/18 | 12:00AM | -25 | -26 | -30 | -26 | -28 | -24 | -31 |
| 1:00AM | n/a | -23 | -28 | -31 | -25 | -27 | -27 | |
| 2:00AM | n/a | -26 | -33 | -29 | -30 | -26 | -20 | |
| 3:00AM | n/a | -29 | -33 | -23 | -32 | -28 | -25 | |
| 4:00AM | n/a | -30 | -34 | -27 | -30 | -25 | -30 | |
| 5:00AM | n/a | -31 | -36 | -16 | -30 | -29 | -25 | |
| 6:00AM | n/a | -28 | -38 | n/a | -31 | -28 | -28 | |
| 7:00AM | n/a | -31 | -35 | n/a | -24 | -32 | -30 | |
| 8:00AM | n/a | -32 | -37 | -29 | -29 | -31 | -28 | |
| 9:00AM | n/a | -30 | -34 | -31 | -31 | -34 | -30 | |
| 10:00AM | -26 | -26 | -17 | -26 | -25 | -29 | -30 | |
| 11:00AM | -17 | -20 | -19 | -28 | -23 | -28 | -28 | |
| 12:00PM | -21 | -19 | -8 | -25 | -22 | -25 | -22 | |
| 1:00PM | -17 | -20 | -15 | -23 | -21 | -25 | -21 | |
| 2:00PM | -19 | -17 | -22 | -18 | -18 | -24 | -22 | |
| 3:00PM | -17 | -16 | -23 | -20 | -18 | -25 | -23 | |
| 4:00PM | -19 | -24 | -21 | -23 | -19 | -22 | -20 | |
| 5:00PM | -19 | -24 | -22 | -22 | -20 | -22 | -21 | |
| 6:00PM | -23 | -21 | -24 | -22 | -21 | -27 | -23 | |
| 7:00PM | -19 | -22 | -23 | -22 | -20 | -24 | -26 | |
| 8:00PM | -19 | -17 | -18 | -22 | -20 | -23 | -21 | |
| 9:00PM | -14 | -16 | -18 | -19 | -18 | -19 | -18 | |
| 10:00PM | -19 | -15 | -15 | -15 | -13 | -17 | -15 | |
| 11:00PM | -15 | -12 | -12 | -15 | -18 | -16 | -14 | |
| 12/19 | 12:00AM | -14 | -13 | -14 | -11 | -11 | -11 | -14 |