As You'd Expect, Many Records Smashed In Historic Cold Blast

A map showing temperature departures from normal
on the morning of February 16. Pink in the middle is 
more than 30 degrees colder than normal.

Record cold and record warm temperatures happen virtually every day and cities and towns across the nation. 

Last week was really in once in a blue moon territory, though. 

It's extremely rare to have so many records broken in so many places by so much in just one week.  

The hype about last week's cold wave being historic in many parts of the nation is not hyperbole. It's true. 

During that cold spell at least through February 18, there were no fewer than 2,290 daily record lows set in the nation. Also 3,499 records were set for lowest daily maximum temperatures set.

Even more impressively, 85 cities in towns in the United States set all-time record lows for any date. And 270 places had lowest temperatures for the month of February. 

According to The Weather Channel, some of the towns and cities experiencing all time record lows include Bottineau, North Dakota,  (-51); Owen, Wisconsin (-45); Spearfish, South Dakota (-33); Sioux City, Iowa (-28); Lawton, Oklahoma, (-12) and Tyler, Texas (-6). 

 If you add up all the weather stations in Oklahoma, February 18 ended up being the coldest day on record for the entire state and the first day with a mean statewide temperature below zero - the average was -0.4 degrees that day. 

Little Rock, Arkansas got below zero for the first time since 1989. That city has also had its snowiest month on record, with 20.3 inches. All of that snow came within a week.

Dallas, Texas endured its fifth longest streak on record where the temperature continuously stayed below freezing. 

This was also the first time on record that the National Weather Service office in Houston, Texas saw fit to issue a wind chill warning. 

Records and near-records were also set for the length of the cold, notes the Weather Channel. Oklahoma City spend a week at or below 20 degrees, which is a record. Note their normal low temperature this time of year is 34 degrees.

Wichita, Kansas spend 10 straight days under 20 degrees and Kansas city went 11 straight days at or below 15 degrees. 

A lot of these records you're reading about were compiled by meteorologist Alex Lamars, who has a great thread on the records on his Twitter page, @AlexJLamars.

Other records Lamars compiled involve snow. Abilene, Texas has its biggest snowstorm on record 14.8 inches. 

Even areas outside the core of the cold set records for snow.  Salt Lake City had its snowiest February day on record with 11.7 inches. 

Seattle, with 11.1 inches had its biggest snowstorm since 1972.  Portland Oregon, 9.4 inches had its biggest snowstorm since 1968. Boise, Idaho, 9.9 inches had its biggest dump since 1996. 

It had been a mild winter before this, so there wasn't much ice on Lake Superior as the cold wave began. When the cold blast hit, the lake effect flood gates opened up.

The result was a dump of snow near Thompson in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, which got 46.5 inches of snow in less than 36 hours. 

For us Vermonters, we missed out on the action, which of course is a good thing. I'm not aware of any record temperatures or snowfall around here. During this event, our temperatures ran a little cooler than normal but nothing earth shattering. During this time, snowfall was about normal. 

We really dodged that bullet!