The Great Blue Norther of 1911
It's cold mid-Missouri. Real cold. The coldest air we've seen since 1911!
An impressive arctic air mass settled over mid-Missouri after a sunny, beautiful weekend. It brought snow, wind and generally miserable Monday conditions for our viewing area.
Fresh snowfall and light winds overnight allowed temperatures to drop to 7 degrees this morning; this led to a struggle to get out of the teens today.
![](https://abc17news.b-cdn.net/abc17news.com/2020/03/afternoontemps.jpg)
While yesterday's cold front was strong, the temperature drop experienced during the Great Blue Norther of 1911 shows yesterday was just child's play.
![](https://abc17news.b-cdn.net/abc17news.com/2020/03/ColdFront-2.jpg)
We're all aware of the clash warm humid air and cold dry air can have. A cluster of tornadoes broke out across the Great Lakes. The strongest of them rated F-4 (207-260mph).
One of the most intriguing weather reports includes a double dose of impactful weather. Rock County, Wisconsin was reported to have been struck by one of the F-4 tornadoes. One hour later, blizzard conditions were reported in the county... quite an out the door forecast.
This titanic cold front brought a massive temperature drop to mid-Missouri. Columbia weather spotters recorded a balmy 82° at 2pm with a line of storms approaching. By 3pm, 38° with sleet. At midnight, temperatures fell to 13° with reports of hurricane-force wind gusts (74 mph) across southwestern portions of Missouri. 1-2" of snow fell overnight.
The 69 degree temperature drop in 10 hours was one of the largest recorded during this event.
![](https://abc17news.b-cdn.net/abc17news.com/2020/03/Columbia-3.jpg)
![](https://abc17news.b-cdn.net/abc17news.com/2020/03/Columbia2-1.jpg)
While we didn't see a violent outbreak of storms, yesterday's cold front left us with a similar result-- bitterly cold temperatures.
At this point we're just trying to stay warm. 🔥🔥
-Luke