Chris Dolce and Jonathan Erdman
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An arctic cold front surged through the Plains Wednesday sending temperatures plunging at record rates in at least a pair of cities along the Front Range.
In Cheyenne, Wyoming, the temperature plunged from 43 degrees to 3 degrees in just 30 minutes, a record temperature drop for any one-hour period in the city's history, topping a record from Dec. 30, 2017. It went on to plunge 51 degrees in two hours.
The front then crashed south into Colorado's Front Range Urban Corridor, also setting record one-hour temperature plunges dating to the 1990s in Fort Collins and at Denver International Airport.
Denver then plunged to minus 24 degrees Thursday morning, their coldest low in 32 years.
That was 75 degrees colder than their temperature almost 18 hours earlier of 51 degrees, nearly tying their all-time record temperature change over two calendar days from Dec. 13-14, 2008, according to the National Weather Service.
The High Plains of the U.S. are notorious for these spectacular temperature changes for several reasons.
First, they're far from any ocean that smooths out and modifies air masses.
Second, they're right in the alley for sharply cold air masses that spill south from Canada, bank up against the mountains and accelerate southward.
Ahead of those south-plunging fronts, winds out of the west or southwest blow down the slopes of the nearby foothills and mountains. Air moving downhill warms and dries. Thus, there's usually a pronounced warm-up in the hours ahead of a cold front in the High Plains.
Here are some other amazing temperatures swings that have previously happened in this part of the country.
1. 82 Degree Rise in Less Than 24 Hours
On Feb. 13, 2018, Chinook winds caused the temperature in Fort Belknap, Montana, to rise from an early-morning low of minus 37 degrees to an afternoon high of 45 degrees, a temperature change of 82 degrees in less than 24 hours. Fort Belknap is in northern Montana, about 135 miles northeast of Great Falls.
Chinook winds happen when an air mass rising over mountain ranges – in this case, the northern Rockies – reaches ridge tops and starts to sink and warm as it descends the mountain slopes. The winds that result can be strong and gusty and can also create dramatic temperature changes.
2. 100-Degree Drop in 24 Hours
Montana is also the location of a 100-degree temperature drop in 24 hours.
In Browning, Montana, the temperature fell from 44 degrees above zero to 56 degrees below zero from Jan. 23-24, 1916.
Strong arctic high pressure plunging southward along the front range of the Rockies was likely responsible for the massive temperature plunge.
3. 49-Degree Change in Two Minutes
With the temperature a frigid minus 4 degrees, Spearfish, South Dakota, residents would've bundled up before heading out the door at 7:30 a.m. on Jan. 22, 1943.
Spearfish, South Dakota, temperature changes Jan. 22, 1943.Just two minutes later, the frigid air was not so frigid anymore, as the temperature had shot up to 45 degrees. That's right, a temperature increase of 49 degrees in just two minutes.
That's not the end of this wild morning weather story. After the temperature climbed all the way to 54 degrees by 9 a.m., it crashed down 58 degrees in 27 minutes back to minus 4 degrees, right where it had started.
The National Weather Service office in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, described the cause of the dramatic temperature changes:
"The wild temperature fluctuations were likely due to cold air and warm air sloshing back and forth along the plains at the base of the Black Hills. A similar effect would be to pour warm water into a shallow bowl of cold water. The water would slosh back and forth a few times before settling down. This is likely what happened with the warm and cold air along the Black Hills."
4. Record High and Record Low in One Day
Oklahoma City accomplished a rare feat on Nov. 11, 1911.
Warm air ahead of a cold front allowed the afternoon temperature that day to reach a record high of 83 degrees.
The cold front was almost to the East Coast by the following morning, with very cold high pressure taking over the middle of the country.Then, the sharp cold front sliced through the Heartland and dropped temperatures in an extreme way. Just before midnight, the low temperature bottomed out at a record of 17 degrees. That is a total drop of 66 degrees from the record high to the record low.
Both of these temperature records for Nov. 11 remain intact more than 100 years later.
Springfield, Missouri, was another city that set a record high and record low on that same day in 1911.
5. From 67 Degrees at Lunch to 1 Degree at Dinner
A temperature of 67 degrees at noon on an early-December day might give you thoughts of an outdoor lunch. If you were in Amarillo, Texas, on Dec. 12, 1919, this would have been a bad idea, unless you're a weather enthusiast.
A powerful cold front raced through the northwestern Texas city during the lunch hour, ushering in cold northerly winds that dropped the temperature to 23 degrees by 1 p.m., an incredible plunge of 44 degrees in one hour.
It got even worse through the afternoon and early evening. In fact, by the time people were cleaning up from dinner around 7 p.m., it was only 1 degree above zero.
6. 110-Degree Temperature Rise in a Week
This next amazing temperature swing from winter 2011 had some residents of Oklahoma changing their wardrobe from thick winter coats to shorts and t-shirts in the span of a week.
A cold air mass, combined with a fresh snowpack and calm winds, allowed the town of Nowata, Oklahoma, to reach a low of minus 31 degrees on Feb. 10, 2011. This was confirmed as the all-time coldest temperature ever recorded in Oklahoma.
Gradual warming accelerated over the course of a week, and temperatures peaked at a record high of 79 degrees on Feb. 17.
According to the National Weather Service office in Tulsa, Oklahoma, this 110-degree temperature rise is the greatest change within seven days in Oklahoma history.
7. 181-Degree Difference in Months
This one is not a major temperature drop or rise in minutes or hours, but rather a very unique occurrence within a matter of months.
On Feb. 15, 1936, the town of Parshall, North Dakota, bottomed out at minus 60 degrees, a new record low for the state. Almost five months later on July 6, the town of Steele, North Dakota, recorded a new all-time state record-high temperature of 121 degrees. This is a temperature range of 181 degrees in North Dakota from February to July in 1936.
South Dakota accomplished a similar feat in the same year around the same dates. McIntosh set a state record-low temperature of minus 58 degrees on Feb. 17. Then, on July 5, Gann Valley set a new record high of 120 degrees for the state (this record was equaled in 2006 near Fort Pierre).
The Weather Company’s primary journalistic mission is to report on breaking weather news, the environment and the importance of science to our lives. This story does not necessarily represent the position of our parent company, IBM.
The Weather Company’s primary journalistic mission is to report on breaking weather news, the environment and the importance of science to our lives. This story does not necessarily represent the position of our parent company, IBM.
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