page_title: Early 2014 North American cold wave
section_title: United States
hierarchical_section_title: Early 2014 North American cold wave / Record temperatures / United States
caption_attribution_description: English: Frozen Schuylkill River in Philadelphia, January 7, 2014. The temperature reached +4ºF (-16ºC), record low. Previous record was +7ºF (-14ºC) in 1988. View from South St. Bridge.
context_page_description: The 2014 North American cold wave was an extreme weather event that extended through the late winter months of the 2013–2014 winter season, and was also part of an unusually cold winter affecting parts of Canada and parts of the north-central and upper eastern United States. The event occurred in early 2014 and was caused by a southward shift of the North Polar Vortex. Record-low temperatures also extended well into March.
  On January 2, an Arctic cold front initially associated with a nor'easter tracked across Canada and the United States, resulting in heavy snowfall. Temperatures fell to unprecedented levels, and low temperature records were broken across the United States. Business, school, and road closures were common, as well as mass flight cancellations. Altogether, more than 200 million people were affected, in an area ranging from the Rocky Mountains to the Atlantic Ocean and extending south to include roughly 187 million residents of the Continental United States.
context_section_description: On January 5, 2014, Green Bay, Wisconsin was −18 °F (−28 °C). The previous record low for this day was set in 1979.
  On January 6, 2014, Babbitt, Minnesota was the coldest place in the country at −37 °F (−38 °C). The cold air reached as far as Dallas, which experienced a low temperature of 16 °F (−9 °C).
  On January 7, 2014, the cold air reached even farther south to Houston, where the low temperature for that morning was 21 °F (−6 °C), two degrees shy of the record-low temperature of 19 °F (−7 °C) for that day.
  The low temperature at O'Hare International Airport in Chicago was −16 °F (−27 °C) on January 6. The previous record low for this day was −14 °F (−26 °C), set in 1884 and tied in 1988. The National Weather Service adopted the Twitter hashtag #Chiberia (a portmanteau of Chicago and Siberia) for the cold wave coverage in Chicago and local media adopted the term as well. In spite of cold temperatures and stiff winds which exceeded the 29 miles per hour (47 km/h) and −23 °F (−31 °C) air temperature when Chicago set its all-time wind chill record of −82 °F (−63 °C) in 1983, Chicago did not break the record because the NWS had adopted a new wind chill formula in 2001.
  The average daily temperature for the United States on January 6 was calculated to be 17.9 °F (−7.8 °C). The last time the average for the country was below 18 was January 13, 1997; the 17-year gap was the longest on record.
  On January 7, at least 49 record lows for the day were set across the country. On the night of January 6–7, Detroit hit a low temperature of −14 °F (−26 °C) breaking the records for both dates. The high temperature of −1 °F (−18 °C) on January 7 was only the sixth day in 140 years of records to have a subzero high. On January 7, 2014, the temperature in Central Park in New York City was 4 °F (−16 °C). The previous record low for the day was set in 1896, twenty-five years after records began to be collected by the government. Marstons Mills, Massachusetts bottomed out at −9 °F (−23 °C) on the morning of January 8, just one degree above their record low, as did Pittsburgh, which also bottomed out at −9 °F (−23 °C), setting a new record low on January 6–7. Cleveland also set a record low on those dates at −11 °F (−24 °C). Temperatures in Atlanta fell to 6 °F (−14 °C), breaking the old record for January 7 of 10 °F (−12 °C) which was set in 1970. Temperatures fell to −6 °F (−21 °C) at Brasstown Bald, Georgia. Although the cold air moderated, the freezing-cold temperatures even reached Florida and as far south as Tampa which had a low of 31 °F (−1 °C) on January 7, 2014.
caption: Ice formations on the Schuylkill River in Philadelphia
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