Arctic Outbreak of 1899

In Historical by Jeff Wilcox

To really tell the story of this arctic outbreak would be like taking the outbreak Iowa had back in Mid-January and extending it by 10 or so more days in a row. The cold outbreak began on January 25th with an Alberta Clipper racing SE across the Dakotas. By the 26th a strong low was located over northern Lake Michigan bringing strong northerly winds to Iowa. A bitter cold High Pressure followed and by the 27th was parked over SE Nebraska. The 28th brought cold front number 2 along with another bout of arctic cold. Not to be outdone, cold front #3 rolled in 2 days later on the 30th with another shot of arctic weather. The weather never had a chance to warm back up before cold front #4 raced southeast on the 1st of February. This front would be the last for awhile and gripped the entire country in a cold dry pattern. Only the deep south had any precipitation during the first week of February and most of that was in the form of snow. Temperatures were below zero most of the time. Many of the record lows from this outbreak still exist to this day. The big finale to this outbreak began on the 8th when another front brought the coldest weather to the country which included a 1060mb High over Montana and North Dakota. The high settled southward and by the 12th was situated on the Kansas Oklahoma border SW of Wichita. Temperatures that Sunday morning were well below zero as far south as Arkansas, Tennessee, Mississippi and Texas. The only warm weather was in southern Florida and the west coast where the front had not reached. The cold weather finally retreated with a warm front that moved in on Valentine’s Day ending the nearly 3 weeks of cold weather.
Places that still have records (More than 2 days) from 1899 include:

Dubuque Feb 8, 10-12th
Des Moines Feb 8,9 and 11th
Mason City Feb 7-12th
Sioux City Feb 8,9 and 11th
Omaha Feb 8,9 and 11th