Extreme Cold Stats: Canada, Oklahoma Breaks Record

NOON UPDATE: The OK Mesonet is now reporting a low temp of -31 F at Nowata, OK (and -47 wind chill at Medford). Bartlesville ended up falling to -28, breaking the state record (pending verification).

Scott from the CIMSS blog tweeteda satellite image showing -50 C in Canada and -38 C in Oklahoma.

ORIGINAL POST: The official National Weather Service station in Bartlesville, Oklahoma reached -27 degrees this morning, colder than the South Pole and most stations in Antarctica. If that temperature verifies, it will tie the all-time state record. The map below shows temperatures at 7 AM Central Time.

An amateur station nearby recorded -29. The Oklahoma Mesonet only recorded a low of -22, but that may change because several of their coldest stations went offline this morning, or were not reported due to quality control algorithms which flagged the extremely low temps. Ponca City and the Stillwater Hydro station also recorded -25. Additional information on the cold temperatures in the South Central US is available on our news story.

It was also the coldest in 25 years out at our Wichita, Kansas office this morning, and -20 in northwest Arkansas (which holds the same all-time record as Oklahoma: -27). Ironically, we are predicting a high of 66 in Bartlesville, OK on Monday, which would be a 93-degree temperature swing over the weekend!

And if you think it's cold down there, our satellite image started showing colored "clouds" in eastern Canada this morning when ground temperatures measured below -40. Surface stations in Nunavut showed -30s, and way north at Eureka near the Arctic Circle, it was -45 after dipping to -56 yesterday.