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.

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.

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.

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