Despite the very cold winter Northeast Ohio has seen so far, people on social media are still commenting that it is "just another winter," or that this weather is "typical winter weather" in our area. Not only will there be multiple record lows tied or broken this week, but the length of this frigid spell could be record-breaking.
To quantify this cold, let's use the number 17. Whether you are an ABBA or Stevie Nicks fan, or both, the number 17 holds a lot of value. In this case, it does as well. The warmest temperature Cleveland has seen so far this week is 17 degrees, on Tuesday, Jan. 27. For the last six days, including today, 17 degrees is the highest the thermometer reached. 17 is well below the freezing mark, which is 32 degrees, and even colder than 20 degrees, so 17 degrees is entering extreme cold territory.
When was the last time there was a stretch of six-straight days of 17-degree cold or below? 1996. If that rings a bell, that is the winter of 1995-96, the second snowiest winter ever recorded in Cleveland, including the blizzard of '96. Cleveland is in some rare company. Only *seven* winters in record-keeping (154 years) have had a streak as long as our current one, which puts this streak in the top five percent of cold streaks at or below 17 degrees.
Our forecast keeps temperatures at or below 17 degrees safely through Saturday, and potentially through Sunday. If this streak ends on Saturday, it would tie the current longest such streak, set back in 1899. If we fail to go above 17 degrees on Sunday, it will set a new record for the longest cold streak, beating out 1899's record.
So the next time someone says this is just another typical winter, it is actually a record-breaking winter— in terms of cold.
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