I was telling someone about it today and realized that it’s been 20 years now. Do you remember December 1989? If you were anywhere in the middle of the country and were old enough to remember, then you probably can recall how cold it was.

Several area cities hit all-time record lows during that Arctic blast. Dec. 21-25, 1989, was unbelievably cold as a very large Arctic high pressure system moved into the central United States. Back then, we used what is called the “old wind chill” formula. It would show wind chills colder than the current scale we use. The reason for the switch is a subject I might try out on another blog, but back to 1989. The wind chills were commonly dipping into the -40 to -50 range (again, old formula) and the air temperatures hit records of -23 in Kansas City, -26 in Topeka and -26 in Concordia.

Just a quick blog to help what could be some single-digit wind chills by Friday morning not seem so bad!