Frigid air temperatures below zero combined with very strong northwesterly wind gusts from 40 to 60 mph to result in a prolonged period of life-threatening wind chills. The entire region exceeded Wind Chill Warning criteria for multiple days and most locations bottomed out between 45 below and 55 below zero.
Every event with a place to put it; 8 filed by county or forecast zone are drawn at its center, in a lighter ring. Tap one for its entry below.
Deaths and injuries are direct and indirect together, as the offices filed them. Damage is property and crops in the dollars of the year, not adjusted for inflation, and only where an office estimated it.
The episode as NWS FSD wrote it up.
Frigid air temperatures below zero combined with very strong northwesterly wind gusts from 40 to 60 mph to result in a prolonged period of life-threatening wind chills. The entire region exceeded Wind Chill Warning criteria for multiple days and most locations bottomed out between 45 below and 55 below zero. Numerous reports were received of frozen pipes and water-damaged or flooded structures.
The local office's own words before the first event, as it sent them, from the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service text.
NWS Sioux Falls, SD wrote its last area forecast discussion before the first event at Dec 21, 5:08 PM CST, 3 hours 52 minutes earlier.
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</html>The national radar mosaic for the moment the first event began.
8 extreme cold/wind chill. Local standard time, as filed.
Wind chills dropped as low as -50F at Florence (Minnesota Road Weather Information System site MN160) and -47F at Marshall (AWOS site KMML) and Tracy (AWOS site KTKC).
Wind chills dropped as low as -46F 5 miles south of Ivanhoe (personal weather station site AT653).
Wind chills dropped as low as -50F 2 miles west of Dovray (Minnesota Road Weather Information System site MN038) and -48F at Slayton (AWOS site KDVP).
Wind chills dropped as low as -50F 4 miles east-northeast of Jeffers (Minnesota Road Weather Information System site MN071), -48F 3miles west-southwest of Mountain Lake | (Minnesota Road Weather Information System site MN150) and -46F at Windom (AWOS site KMWM).
Wind chills dropped as low as -47F 3 miles southeast of Lakefield (Minnesota Road Weather Information System site MN007) and -45F at Jackson (AWOS site KMJQ).
Wind chills dropped as low as -52F 1 mile northeast of Rushmore (Minnesota Road Weather Information System site MN007) and -51F at Worthington (AWOS site KOTG).
Wind chills dropped as low as -52F 1 mile southwest of Magnolia (Minnesota Road Weather Information System site MN147) and -48F 2 miles south of Luverne (AWOS site KLYV).
Wind chills dropped as low as -45F 1 mile north of Pipestone (RAWS site RPPM5).
After NWS Directive 10-1605, the rules offices file Storm Data by.
Every storm in Minnesota in 2022Every state in 2022This day in weather historyWarnings in Minnesota, December 2022
NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database, compiled from the National Weather Service’s monthly Storm Data. Complete through 2026-06; NCEI adds each month about 75 days after it ends and revises past years a few times a year. Rebuilt 2026-10-01. Each event’s entry at NCEI: 1069868, 1069867, 1069882, 1069876, 1069879, 1069885, 1069892, 1069888.