Arctic Outbreak - Brief Extreme Cold - High Wind
Friday-Saturday February 3-4, 2023
The cold was stinging and brutal, especially with it hitting in the middle of our extended run of exceptionally mild weather with January just landing as the 5th warmest on record at Albany. The warmth to date has been due in large part to a strong and stable stratospheric polar vortex which has effectively bottled arctic air well north of the border. This has left the on going La Nina pattern to dominate with a persistent high pressure ridge aloft over the Southeast and east allowing for all the mild weather.
So, the arctic front that came through between midnight and 1 am on Friday February 3rd, and subsequent plunge in both temperatures and wind chills, was a hostile reminder of how fierce true winter cold can be, especially since such outbreaks have become increasingly rare as the climate continues to warm. The last very similar arctic outbreak event here occurred from February 13-14, 2016 (7 years ago) when temperatures and wind chills dropped to similar levels in what was also a very brief incursion of bitterly cold air.
This arctic blast came from a piece of exceptionally cold air that originated over Greenland which broke off and moved west to Hudson Bay before being dislodged by a building upper level ridge over the western U.S. which was the feature that directed the bitter surge southeast through New York and New England on February 3rd. With a lack of any kind of blocking in the atmosphere, however, this mini polar vortex in the troposphere moved quickly with the core of the cold air aloft already east of the region early on Saturday the 4th. Low level cold air hung around through Saturday with daytime temperatures in the single digits, but the bite was gone with light winds. By 11am Sunday, a strong southerly flow had pushed temperatures up some 30-40 degrees marking a reset to mild conditions.
Time Line
The arctic front plowed through eastern New York and western New England between midnight and 4am on the Friday the 3rd and was initially accompanied by a vigorous line of snow showers and squalls. The snow band was most organized over the Adirondacks, Mohawk valley and western Catskills, benefiting from moisture streaming along the front off of Lake Ontario. A few lightning strikes were even observed with the squalls over northwest and northern New York. But, with much drier air over the Capital Region and points south and east through the Berkshires and mid Hudson valley, the line broke up and weakened considerably to light snow showers and flurries before moving out of the area by 4am.
Albany Doppler radar image just after midnight on Friday February 3, 2023 showing a strong band of snow showers over eastern Montgomery, northwest Schoharie and eastern Otsego counties. Anywhere from 1/2" to 1.00" of snow accumulated in this area before the band fell apart on arrival in the Capital Region through 1am.
The temperature at Albany dropped from 32 degrees at 1am on the 3rd to 18 degrees at 4am and then to 8 degrees at 9am, a 24 degree drop in just 8 hours. Albany's temperature then leveled off at 8 degrees due to sunshine and held steady from 9am to 1pm before resuming a rapid drop during the late afternoon and evening plunging to 0 degrees at 7pm and then to the low for the day of -10 degrees at 11:59pm. (The record low temperature at Albany for February 3 is -18 degrees set in 1955, so the -10 degree low that occurred, as cold as it was, did not set a record for the date.)
The temperature then dropped a few more degrees hitting bottom at -13 degrees for three consecutive hours at Albany from 5-7am on the 4th. This temperature did tie the record low for the date of -13 degrees previously set in 1978. Temperatures throughout the rest of the region dropped to a -8 degree to -15 degree range with colder areas in the Mohawk valley, southern Adirondacks, Vermont, the western Catskills and Berkshires experiencing some exceptional cold with a range of -15 degrees to -25 degrees. Old Forge in northern Herkimer County, in fact dropped to an amazingly cold -36 degrees at 7:10am on the 4th. For a list of low temperatures, wind chills, peak wind gusts, and the hourly wind, dewpoint, temperature and wind chill trace at Albany, see the detailed February 3-4, 2023 Arctic Outbreak report in the cbs6albany.com climate and storm summary database.
Strong winds accompanied the cold with a period of powerful gusts that ranged from 40 to 55 mph on average between 9am and 5pm on the 3rd. Wind chills subsequently plunged along with the temperatures dropping to about -20 degrees at 4pm in the Capital Region. Wind chills then consistently ranged from -25 degrees to -35 degreesin all areas to as low as -40 degrees to -50 degrees in higher elevation locations between 6pm on the 3rd and 8-9am on the 4th creating a 12-16 hour period of truly brutal conditions.
At Albany the wind chill ranged from -29 degrees to -34 degrees for 12 consecutive hours from 9pm on the 3rd through 8am on the 4th with the lowest wind chill at Albany for the event down to -34 degrees at 11pm on the 3rd and then again at midnight and 5am on the 4th.
Both Albany's low temperature of -13 degrees and low wind chill of -34 degrees were the lowest recorded since February 14, 2016. The dewpoint at Albany dropped to -29 degrees at 1pm on the 4th with records showing a dewpoint as low as -29 degrees has not occurred at Albany since January 27, 1980 with an extreme low dewpoint on record on Christmas day, December 25, 1980 of -35 degrees. The lowest dewpoint observed in the February 2016 arctic outbreak, for reference, was -27 degrees, very similar level to this event.
Local Records
- @ Albany
Low Temperature Record Tied on the 4th: -13 degrees @ 7:38am, previous -13 degrees/1978 - @ Glens Falls
Low Temperature Record Set on the 4th: -24 degrees, previous -22 degrees/1978
NOTEWORTHY - Mount Washington, N. H. Temperature and Wind Chill
The likely official all time United States record for lowest wind chill of -108 degrees was recorded in this event on Saturday February 4 around 4am at the meteorological station at the summit of Mount Washington, N. H. (6288' elevation). The temperature at the time was -47 degrees (tied the all time record for Mt. Washington) with a sustained NW wind of 102 mph and gust to 112 mph at the time. Previously on the 3rd the wind chill touched -107 degrees at 8 and 10pm, then again at midnight on the 4th.
Whiteface Mountain Wind Chill and Temperature for the 4th
New all time record low temperature of 40.2 degrees, previous 38.9 degrees on February 14, 2016
60 mph wind at the time creating a low wind chill for the event of -91 degrees.
9pm February 3, 2023 and midnight February 4, 2023 Northeast regional temperature and wind chill observations
Low temperature and wind chill observations reported the New York State Mesonet stations on Saturday February 4, 2023
WIND
Strong winds accompanied the arctic outbreak Friday into Friday night with a burst of 35-45 mph gusts with the frontal passage itself between midnight and 4am and then through a more prolonged period of gradient winds which were enhanced by the push of dense arctic air. The strongest gusts occurred between 9am and 9pm on Friday and with the cold flow being from the west, northwest, were particularly enhanced in the Mohawk valley, Capital Region to the Berkshires due to Mohawk valley channeling. Gusts as high as 60-65 mph were recorded at the Stratton air base to Adams, MA in the Berkshires during the afternoon.
After the peak, wind gusts still ranged from 25-35 mph at times through midnight before diminishing to 10-20 mph into Saturday morning and then to light by late Saturday morning into the afternoon.
Select Peak Gust Observations
- Pittsfield, MA: 58 mph
- North Adams, MA: 56 mph
- Adams, MA: 61 mph
- Albany: 54 mph
- Amsterdam: 53 mph
- East Glenville: 64 mph
- Kerhonkson: 57 mph
- Chestertown; 52 mph