Will Macomb County Come Close To Beating Coldest Day On Record?

MACOMB COUNTY, MI — The weather gurus warned the polar vortex, teaming with a wicked wind, would make it miserable across Macomb County. They weren’t wrong.

We’d ask “how cold is it in your town?” if a) it weren’t such a tired joke and b) if we thought it was possible for you to manage the answer through your chattering teeth.

Fortunately, we don’t have to.

The National Weather Service has invoked frightful words and phrases such as “polar vortex” and “life-threatening cold” to describe the arctic air that settled over the Upper Midwest, including Michigan, last weekend.

The blast of cold air will send temperatures in the southeast part of Michigan to as cold as 6 degrees over the next week.

Much of Macomb County can expect to see a mixture of snowy and cloudy weather over the next seven days, according to the National Weather Service forecast. The area's warmest day (24 degrees) is expected to be Friday. Its coldest? Sunday night, when things are expected to get as low as 6 degrees.

Macomb County Warming Shelters

But is this the coldest it’s ever been in Michigan?

No.

Michigan's record cold temperature was recorded on Feb. 9, 1934, when the temperature in southeast Michigan was 51 degrees below zero, according to data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s National Center for Environmental Education.

See Also: The Polar Vortex Returns: Prevent Pipe-Freezing; Should You Warm Up Your Car?

That temperature record may not be broken in this blast of bitter arctic air, but the polar vortex is unusual because the frigid cold is expected to stick around at least through Valentine’s Day,
A meteorological phenomenon that hasn't hit the United States since 2019, a polar vortex is a large area of low pressure located near the poles; and at times during the winter months, the low pressure breaks down, sending south all that bottled-up cold air.

The result? Extremely frigid temperatures and huge plunges of cold air.

This one is living up to its billing.

It has been frightfully cold over much of the north-central United States. On Tuesday, double-digit subzero temperatures were common as far south as Iowa, and the National Weather Service in Grand Forks, North Dakota, warned the frigid temperatures are made worse by a wind that may make it feel like minus 50 degrees through Sunday.

Temperatures may struggle to make it above zero in many areas over the next week. The stretch of bitterly cold weather was expected to plunge every U.S. state, including Hawaii, below freezing.

Don’t lose hope. Spring is coming, and summer after that — though now might not be the time to tell you summer can bring extreme heat to many areas of the United States. The record high temperature in Michigan was 112 degrees, recorded on July 13, 1936.

But even if it does get that hot again in these parts, we won’t be missing the polar vortex, will we?