Brrrrr!!

No doubt about it:  We've hit a cold snap!  With air temps, accompanied by wind chills, well below freezing, we all need to bundle up before heading outdoors.  Yet this recent outbreak ponders the question:  When was it the coldest, on record, in Oklahoma?  The answer may surprise you (the temperature will!), as it was not that long ago!

The coldest air temperature EVER recorded in Oklahoma occurred on February 10, 2011, in Nowata.  At 7:40 in the morning, the thermometer dipped to an astonishing minus 31 degrees Fahrenheit!  That record shattered the previous low temp recorded in the Sooner State, a minus 27 degrees, set in Vinita on February 13, 1905.  Not to be outdone, on the same morning Nowata dipped to --31, the community of Medford set a record of its own, recording a frigid wind chill of minus 47! 

So what about Northwest Oklahoma that bone-crunching morning of February 10, 2011?  Though obviously not as cold as Nowata, it was still frigid!  Woodward was --18; Shattuck was --13; Laverne at --14; and Alva also at --14.  So, compared to that record-setting February morning three years ago, this current cold snap is comparatively balmy!