record cold
It's only the 6th day of March but records have already been broken because of the cold temperatures across the West, Midwest and Plains!

This cold snap was caused by a blocked jet-stream pattern in the Arctic. That just means an area of high pressure stretching from the Gulf of Alaska to the Canadian Arctic forced the bitter cold air south and into the United States.

Here in Northern Michigan, Houghton Lake set a record low on March 4, 2019 of -11 degrees. This broke the old record of -7 degrees set back in 2016.

Record lows were broken for four different cities in Montana on March 4, 2019. Elk Park saw the coldest temperature with a record breaking low of -46 degrees! Miles City saw -31 degrees, Eureka saw -23 degrees and Livingston saw -27 degrees.

On March 4, 2019 Chicago, Illinois fell below zero. This has only happened eight other days in March on record at the Chicago O'Hare International Airport. The last day the airport saw a below zero temperature in the month of March was March 3, 2014. It was also the coldest morning in March to occur since March 4, 2002.

Daily record lows on March 3, 2019 were set for Sioux Falls, South Dakota at -17 degrees and Billings, Montana at -19 degrees.

Denver, Colorado saw a temperature of -6 degrees the morning of March 3, 2019. According to the National Weather Service, that is the coldest March low temperature to occur since March 2, 1960.

Cheyenne, Wyoming saw -16 degrees on March 4, 2019 which is the coldest temperature to occur in March since 1948!