For the first few days of 2014, arctic air was pooling over the Yukon and Northwest Territories provinces of Canada. Then on January 3, 2014 a 500 millibar (mb) short wave developed over Northwest Territories province and began moving south. In response to this, the arctic air that had been pooling began moving southward. By January 5 this short wave had strengthened and developed into a long wave 500 mb trough that extended from Ontario province in Canada to Texas. As this trough continued to strengthen and move south and east, a strong arctic front swept across the midwest and moved into the southeastern United States.
500 mb January 3, 2014 |
500 mb January 5, 2014 |
During the evening and nighttime hours of Sunday, January 5, a strong arctic front blew across north and central Georgia bringing strong gusty winds and plummetting temperatures. Northwest winds of 15 to 30 mph with higher gusts were common across the region Sunday night and Monday. As temperatures fell into the 20s during the day on Monday, January 6, the strong winds pushed wind chill indices below zero over north and parts of central Georgia. Some wind chill index values were as cold as 25 to 30 below zero across the northeast Georgia Mountains.
Winds had diminished considerably late Monday night, however temperatures plummetted to some of the coldest readings this area has seen since February 5, 1996. By Tuesday morning, January 7, temperatures ranged from the teens across central Georgia to 5 to 10 below zero across the northeast Georgia mountains. Low temperature records that had stood for over 40 years were broken Tuesday morning. In fact, the low temperature Tuesday morning in Macon broke a record that had stood for 90 years!
Not only were records broke Tuesday morning, with temperatures on Tuesday not making it out of the 20s in most areas, records were set in Athens, Columbus and Macon for the coldest high temperature for that date.
Here are the records that were set....
Atlanta | Athens | Macon | Columbus | |
Observed Low Temperatures | 6* | 7* | 11* | 11* |
Previous Record and Year | 10 in 1970 | 12 in 1970 | 14 in 1924 | 17 in 1970 |
Atlanta | Athens | Macon | Columbus | |
Observed High Temperatures | 26 | 29* | 29* | 29* |
Previous Coldest High Temp Record and Year | 25 in 1884 | 30 in1905 | 35 in 1988 | 34 in 1970 |