Extreme Cold/Wind Chill in Illinois
Every extreme cold/wind chill event the National Weather Service has filed in Illinois, year by year, with the most significant episodes. Temperatures or wind chills at or below the local warning criteria, or cold that caused deaths.
The most significant on the map
The most significant extreme cold/wind chill episodes in Illinois.
- Tornadoes
- Tropical storms and surge
- Floods
- Wind
- Hail
- Winter weather
- Heat and drought
- Cold
- Fire, smoke and dust
- Marine and coastal
- Other
The record
- Events
- 633
- Deaths
- 51
- Injuries
- 5
- Damage
- None recorded
Every year
The most significant
Ranked by deaths, injuries, damage and size together.
- Extreme Cold in Illinois, February 1 to 19, 2007High temperatures were below freezing for the first 18 days of the month. February 4th and 5th were the coldest with high temperatures at Chicago Ohare Airport of only 2 above on the 4th and 5 above on the 5th.
- Extreme Cold in Illinois, December 2 to 8, 2006After the winter storm brought several inches of snow to northern Illinois, cold temperatures settled across the area. Low temperatures on the morning of the 3rd, 4th and 5th were in the single digits.
- Extreme Cold in Illinois, January 22 to 25, 2008Very cold air moved across northern Illinois during the middle of January. Low temperatures at Chicago O'Hare Airport reached -4 on the 24th and -5 on the 25th. Five people died due to cold exposure.
- Extreme Cold in Illinois, January 6 to 7, 2014An extremely cold arctic airmass settled over northern Illinois with minimum observed wind chills falling into the -40 F to -50 F range area-wide.
- Extreme Cold and Cold in Illinois, January 14 to 17, 2024Bitterly 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.
- Extreme Cold in Illinois, January 29 to 30, 2008Very cold air moved across northern Illinois on January 29th and January 30th. Low temperatures at Chicago O'Hare Airport reached 2 degrees on the 29th and -2 on the 30th. Two people died due to cold exposure.
- Extreme Cold in Illinois, January 24 to 25, 2009Low temperatures ranged from zero to 5 below zero on the morning of January 24th and January 25th. A 74 year old man died in Chicago due to cold exposure.
- Extreme Cold in Illinois, January 4 to 5, 2009Low temperatures dropped into the middle to lower teens on January 4th and 5th. A 56 year old man in Chicago died due to the cold. In Davis Junction, a 47 year old man apparently abondoned his car and began walking. His car was found along the side of a road on January 4th.
- Extreme Cold in Illinois, December 30 to 31, 2017An Arctic cold front plunged through central Illinois on December 29, 2017...setting the stage for a prolonged period of extremely cold conditions from December 30, 2017 through January 2, 2018.
- Extreme Cold in Illinois, January 28 to 31, 2007Most of January 2007 was mild across northern Illinois, but the last four days of the month, starting on January 28th, turned bitterly cold.
- Winter Storm and Extreme Cold in Illinois, December 22 to 24, 2022A powerful cold front swept through the region, with wind chills dropping to 20 to 30 below zero. These were the coldest wind chills observed in over 25 years across the region. Paducah, KY dropped down to a -21 wind chill, which was the coldest since February 3, 1996.
- Extreme Cold in Illinois, January 6 to 7, 2014A bitterly cold airmass spilled into central and southeast Illinois on January 6th and 7th after passage of an Arctic cold front.
- Extreme Cold in Illinois, January 13 to 16, 2024As a deepening area of low pressure lifted northeastward into the Great Lakes, strong northwesterly winds gusting over 40mph brought sharply colder air into central Illinois during the night of January 12th.
- Extreme Cold in Illinois, January 15 to 16, 2009Bitterly cold air poured into central Illinois in the wake of a departing storm system. Thanks to clear skies over a fresh snow cover, early morning temperatures on January 15th and 16th plunged well below zero in much of central and eastern Illinois.
- Extreme Cold in Illinois, December 16 to 17, 2000A strong cold front moved across the area the afternoon of December 16 bringing in a blast of Arctic air. Temperatures by 900 pm on the 16th had dropped into the single digits with wind chill values down to 30 below zero.
- Extreme Cold in Illinois, January 27 to 28, 2014Following a strong arctic front, temperatures plummeted across northern Illinois with breezy conditions leading to wind chill values falling into the -30 F to -35 F range. An elderly woman died due to complications of hypothermia and cold exposure.
- Extreme Cold and Cold in Illinois, January 7 to 8, 2015An arctic airmass across the region brought single digit highs and below zero lows several days in a row in early January. The coldest period was January 7th through 8th. The low temperature at O'Hare on the 7th was -6 F with a high of 6 F.
- Blizzard and Extreme Cold in Illinois, March 2 to 3, 2007A narrow band of moderate to heavy snow fell across central DeKalb County into Kane County and extreme northwest Cook County during the afternoon of March 2nd. Wind gusts ranged between 35 and 45 mph. DeKalb measured 6.0 inches of snowfall, St.
- Extreme Cold in Illinois, December 22, 2000A 58 year-old man from Godfrey, Illinois was found dead in his home. He has not been seen for several days. Hypothermia was the suspected cause of death as the temperature in the home was 35 degrees at the time he was found.
- Extreme Cold in Illinois, February 5, 2009An elderly woman wandered outside of a nursing home in Itasca during the early morning hours of February 5th. She was found a few hours later, but had died from cold exposure.
- Extreme Cold in Illinois, January 21, 2009Low temperatures dropped into the lower teens on January 21st. A 75 year old woman died in Mt. Prospect due to cold exposure.
- Extreme Cold in Illinois, January 29 to 31, 2019An Arctic cold front plunged through central Illinois on January 29th, bringing a bitterly cold airmass into the region. Temperatures bottomed out on the morning of January 30th when readings ranged from 15 below to 25 below zero everywhere north of the I-70 corridor.
- Extreme Cold in Illinois, December 23 to 24, 2022A strong low pressure system and its associated cold front moved through the Midwest on December 22nd, 2022.
- Extreme Cold in Illinois, January 1 to 2, 2018Bitterly cold air spread across northern Illinois on January 1st & 2nd. Wind chill values ranged from 30 below to 40 below zero during the morning of both January 1st & 2nd.
- Extreme Cold and Cold in Illinois, January 25 to 26, 2022Wind chills dropped to 20 below to 30 below zero across most of northern Illinois during the morning of January 26th with some areas dropping into the 30 below to 40 below zero range.
More
Extreme Cold/Wind Chill everywhereEvery kind of event in Illinois
Sources
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.