Tuesday gave Chicago its coldest late season temperature in a decade

It was a brutally cold start to the day with widespread subzero lows and wind chills that dropped to nearly -30 degrees in far western sections.

The official low temperature of -5 degrees was not a record, but it marked the coldest temperature this late in the winter season in a decade, since 2015 when the mercury dipped to -10 degrees on February 28.

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Daytime highs warmed a few degrees over Monday thanks to the abundant sunshine but fell far short of what’s typical for late February.

As cold as it was across the Chicago area, it was even worse across the northern Plains where the intense chill was truly life threatening. Bismarck, North Dakota bottomed out a bone-chilling,  record breaking -39 degrees early Tuesday morning. 

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