One thing about the cold weather and Chicago — it’s not new.
While the record took place Jan. 20, 1985, many of the city’s lowest recorded temperatures came from arctic snaps in 1872 and 1899. The 1980s and 1990s saw frigid temperatures among the city’s coldest recorded, however only three days at or colder than 16 below — Jan. 6, 2014, and in two in January 2019 — took place after the year 2000.
Here’s a look back at Chicago’s coldest recorded temperatures.
Jan. 20, 1985: -27
Chicago shivers through lowest of lows
“You really have to be a little crazy to go out in this type of cold.” — Dr. Jeff Graff, at the emergency room of Evanston Hospital
Jan. 10, 1982: -26
The coldest day in history: 26 below!
“The lowest our instruments go out there is 20 below zero and the temperature was below that.” — Greg Dickey, National Weather Service public services forecaster on Chicago’s lakefront weather station
Jan. 16, 1982: -25
It’s Awful!
“How cold it gets here depends on how cold it is up in the Arctic and right now it is very cold up there.” — Allen Morrison, lead forecaster for the National Weather Service Chicago-area office
Dec. 24, 1983: -25
25 below! It’s misery
“We’re spending Christmas Eve in this Holiday Inn. We just have a bottle of Champagne. My husband is showing the baby the swimming pool.” — a woman who was stranded in Merrillville after I-65 was closed
Jan. 30, 2019: -23
Hardy souls brave freeze to work and help others
“A couple of people have come in asking me if I’ve seen a penguin outside.” — David Avalos, server at La Luz Bakery in Mundelein
Dec. 24, 1872: -23
The Ice King: His persistent tyranny and despotic exercise of power
“Boreas still persists in sending mercury to the lower end of the thermometer tube, thereby provoking Mr. Frost to lunch on people’s ears, and to insinuate himself where his company is not ardently desired. This persistent tyranny and despotic exercise of power is becoming well nigh unbearable, and will shortly terminate in a cry of rebellion, if not in rebellious acts.”
Jan. 17, 1982: -23
Warming trend as crews clear icy highways
“If they plow a spot and there’s an eighth of an inch of ice beneath it, what are they going to do? There are definitely problems with this kind of weather.” — Joe Condon, radio dispatcher for the Illinois Department of Transportation
Jan. 21, 1984: -22
Arctic blasts may be part of pattern
“You have deep troughs (in upper-air patterns) set up over the Pacific and over eastern Canada, and this is a perfect setup to tap into Arctic air and deliver it directly to the lower 48 states.” — Robert Dickson, meteorologist with the National Weather Service
Jan. 31, 2019: -21
Chicago’s polar vortex freeze makes it the coldest it’s been since 1985
“It feels colder than the North Pole right now. This is like Chi-Laska.” — Roy Townsel, Oak Park resident on his way to work
Dec. 22, 1872: -21
The cold snap
“When a man is pierced through and through with the cold, even to the marrow, it is of very little consequence to him whether the thermometer is 20 below or 40 below.” — Chicago Tribune editorial
Feb. 9, 1899: -21
Coldest day in last 26 years
“The city entered on the climax of its glacial experience with the bursting of hundreds of water pipes in every section of town. One death and a long list of men and women who were found half dead from cold emphasized the human aspects of the coldest day since the fearful year following the fire, when thousands had been made homeless.”
A list of the dead and injured at the bottom of the front page.
Dec. 23, 1983: -21
Cold wave falls to danger level
“I’ve had it with the cold. I can’t stand it any more. I can tolerate bugs, but I can’t tolerate this.” — Steve Paradise, a traveler at O’Hare International Airport
Jan. 18, 1994: -21
Why, oh why, is it so cold?
“Even a car that is in tip-top shape won’t start.” — Phil Arendt, auto consultant for AAA
