It’s something we might well want to forget, but we’re celebrating the two-year anniversary of an arctic chill that made history right here in Kane County, IL.

The National Weather Service-Chicago was kind enough to remind us that for a three-day period in 2014, we very well might have been the coldest place on Earth. That’s right — colder than Bratsk, Russia (-9), colder than Tulita, Canada (-9), colder than Nord, Greenland (-6).

We were A LOT colder in fact, coming in at minus-14 on the same day, according the NWS-C graphic, a screenshot of which serves as the feature image to this article.

The coldest it got, apparently, was minus-17, and that was at Aurora Airport in Sugar Grove. Although some unofficial totals were colder, we also tied for the coldest OFFICIAL wind chills: -47 degrees at Aurora and Rochelle, also both on the morning of Jan. 6.

Here’s the graphic, courtesy of the NWS-C:

LOCATION                        TEMPERATURES

AURORA/SUGAR GROVE AIRPORT..........-17.
DUPAGE AIRPORT......................-17.
CHICAGO-MIDWAY AIRPORT..............-15.
CHICAGO-0'HARE AIRPORT..............-16.
ROCKFORD AIRPORT....................-18.
WHEELING/CHICAGO EXECUTIVE AIRPORT..-15.
WAUKEGAN AIRPORT....................-16.
VALPARAISO INDIANA AIRPORT..........-16.
NWS ROMEOVILLE......................-17.
CHICAGO-NORTHERLY ISLAND............-13.

Fast Facts

These fast facts are for Chicago, rather than Kane County specifically, but you get the idea:

• The coldest temperature was -16° on the morning of Jan. 6.  That breaks the old daily record on Jan 6 of -14° set in 1884 and 1988.
• The last time Chicago dropped to -16° or colder, one has to go back to Jan 16, 2009 (-18°)
• Temperatures on Jan 6 were 30-40° below normal … in January!
• The high temperature for Jan 6th was -2° at 12:03 a.m.  That was a record for the day, breaking the old record low maximum of -1° in 1912. The last time a high below zero occurred was Jan 15, 2009.
• There were 37 consecutive hours below 0°.
• The noon temperature on Jan 6 was -14°, which was the coldest noon temperature since Jan 18, 1994.   This ties for the seventh coldest noon temperature since 1930. See here for more.
• The lowest wind chill of -42° was observed on the morning of Jan. 6.