Cold/Wind Chill in Illinois

Events

903

Deaths

160

Injuries

1

Damage

$8,000

• Cold in Illinois, December 3 to 7, 20105 deaths · 2 eventsThree people died from cold exposure in Cook County on December 5th and 6th including a 34 year old man in Chicago; a 69 year old man in Hanover Park and a 50 year old woman in Palos Park.
• Cold in Illinois, December 21 to 25, 20085 deaths · 1 eventVery cold air spread across northern Illinois starting on December 21st and continuing through December 25th. Low temperatures dropped to 5 below to 10 below zero on the 21st and 22nd, and were in the low single digits on the 23rd, 24th and 25th.
• Cold in Illinois, December 28 to 31, 20094 deaths · 3 eventsA 55 year old woman died due to cold exposure on Kolmar Street in Chicago on December 29th. Low temperatures were in the single digits. A 58 year old man died from cold exposure in Mount Vernon Park on Aberdeen Street in Chicago on December 31st.
• Cold in Illinois, January 1 to 5, 20104 deaths · 2 eventsVery cold air spread across northern Illinois in early January with high temperatures in the teens and low temperatures in the single digits. The coldest low temperature was 1 degree below zero at O'Hare Airport, which was measured on the morning of January 3rd.
• Cold in Illinois, December 18 to 22, 20054 deaths · 1 eventVery cold temperatures continued into the middle of December. Low temperatures dropped into the single digits for 5 days in a row, with the morning of December 19th the coldest of the entire month, with a low of one degree below zero.
• Cold in Illinois, February 2 to 4, 19963 deaths · 18 eventsA bitter cold arctic air mass moved into northern Illinois Thursday night February 1. Temperatures didn't moderate until the afternoon of Sunday February 4. The coldest temperatures occurred Saturday February 3.
• Cold in Illinois, January 11, 20163 deaths · 2 eventsMorning lows on January 11th dipped into the range of 5 to 10 degrees below zero.
• Cold in Illinois, December 5 to 7, 20053 deaths · 1 eventDecember 2005 started very cold. The low temperature dropped to 4 degrees at Chicago Ohare Airport on the morning of the 5th and 6th. The temperature dropped to zero on the morning of the 7th. Three people in Chicago died from the cold weather.
• Cold in Illinois, December 4 to 5, 20083 deaths · 1 eventLow temperatures dropped into the lower teens on December 4th and to 5 to 10 degrees above zero on December 5th. Three people died from cold exposure in Chicago.
• Cold in Illinois, February 3 to 4, 20143 deaths · 1 eventTemperatures fell to -6 F on February 3rd, then to 7 F on February 4th. Three deaths were reported in Cook County.
• Cold in Illinois, January 12, 20153 deaths · 1 eventThree homeless men were found dead in an abandoned building in Avondale from hypothermia due to cold exposure. The low temperature at O'Hare that day was 15 F.
• Extreme Cold and Cold in Illinois, January 14 to 17, 20242 deaths · 44 eventsBitterly cold air combined with winds gusting to 35 mph at times allowed wind chills to drop to 30 below to 45 below zero across all of northern Illinois from the early morning of January 14th through the morning of January 15th.
• Cold in Illinois, February 2 to 4, 19962 deaths · 35 eventsBitterly cold weather took hold of Central Illinois on the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th of this month. New record low temperatures were made with a low of minus 19 in both Peoria and Springfield on February 3rd.
• Heavy Snow and Cold in Illinois, January 5 to 6, 20152 deaths · 3 eventsA swath of 4 to 7 inches of snow fell from eastern Iowa into east central Illinois. Observers in LaSalle County reported snow totals of 5.5 to 6.5 inches.
• Cold in Illinois, December 27 to 29, 20102 deaths · 2 eventsA 36 year old male died in Tinley Park from hypothermia on December 28th. Low temperatures were in the lower teens. A 90 year old woman was found dead in her home in Crest Hill in Will County. The temperature inside the home was 50 degrees.
• Cold in Illinois, January 21 to 24, 20112 deaths · 2 eventsVery cold temperatures persisted from the evening of January 20th through morning of January 24th. The coldest morning was January 21st when many locations measured low temperatures in the single digits below zero.
• Cold in Illinois, November 23, 20132 deaths · 2 eventsHigh temperatures were in the mid 20s with lows in the low to mid teens during the weekend of 23-24 November, when two people died with causes related to cold exposure.
• Cold in Illinois, January 2 to 3, 20082 deaths · 1 eventVery cold air moved across northern Illinois on January 2nd and January 3rd with low temperatures in the single digits. Two people died due to cold exposure.
• Cold in Illinois, December 8 to 9, 20092 deaths · 1 eventA 51 year old man died on Monroe Street in Chicago due to cold exposure. A 42 year old man died due to hypothermia from cold exposure near Belmont Road in Chicago. He was found unresponsive in an alley. Low temperatures were in the lower teens.
• Cold in Illinois, January 26 to 28, 20102 deaths · 1 eventLow temperatures were in the single digits on January 27th and 28th. An 86 year old woman died on Newland Avenue in Chicago on January 27th due to cold exposure. A 60 year old male died on Austin Road in Chicago on January 28th from hypothermia due to cold exposure.
• Cold in Illinois, February 14, 20152 deaths · 1 eventCanadian high pressure brought a very cold airmass into central Illinois on February 14th. While temperatures hovered in the teens, strong northwesterly winds of 15 to 25mph produced wind-chill readings from 0 to -5F.
• Cold in Illinois, January 15 to 16, 20152 deaths · 1 eventLow temperatures in the teens and low 20s mid January contributed to the death of two people in Will County. An elderly man was found outside his home in Bolingbrook. A 30-year-old female was found in a self storage facility.
• Cold in Illinois, January 18, 20162 deaths · 1 eventMorning low temperatures were mainly in the single digits across northern Illinois. Winds were blustery from the west to northwest between 15 and 20 mph, which resulted in dangerously cold wind chills across the area.
• Cold in Illinois, January 10 to 11, 19971 death · 19 eventsArctic air blew into the region in the wake of a departing snowstorm. A wind chill advisory was issued for wind chills as low as minus 30. A woman in her 60s froze to death after she slipped and fell outside her home near Orient in Franklin County.
• Cold in Illinois, December 23 to 25, 20041 death · 19 eventsBitterly cold temperatures arrived in the wake of a paralyzing snowstorm. In Murphysboro, an 84-year-old woman died from hypothermia after venturing outdoors to locate her pet dog on the evening of December 22.

Cold/Wind Chill everywhereEvery kind of event in Illinois

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 2026-09-24.