Photo Credit: Nancy Boulay
Our office calculated some of the wind chill temperatures below by applying the current formula to historical values, possibly leading to small errors.
The National Weather Service issues a Cold Weather Advisory when conditions are anticipated to be potentially hazardous. An Extreme Cold Warning is issued when wind chill temperatures are projected to be life threatening. To learn more about wind chill and its hazards.
The Twin Cities National Weather Service Forecast Office uses -25 degrees F as the threshold for issuing a Cold Weather Advisory and -35 degrees F for the Extreme Cold warning.
Historical Twin Cities hourly temperature and wind speed data were assessed to determine the frequency at which the Advisory and Warning thresholds are reached. The data were also utilized to ascertain winter-by-winter low wind chill values in order to provide each generation of Twin Citians with “bragging rights”. The lowest wind chill value found over the 1905-2025 period was -67 degrees F, occurring on January 22, 1936.
Cold Weather Watches and Advisories and Extreme Cold Watches and Warnings were implemented by the National Weather Service in 2024. These replace the old Wind Chill Advisories and Warnings.
Wind chill temperatures for all years were calculated using the formula implemented by the National Weather Service in 2001. The first graphic includes wind chill temperatures though January 2019.
Wind chill extremes for each winter
Number of cold weather advisory threshold days
Number of Extreme Cold threshold days
Also see Historic Wind Chill Temperatures in Minnesota.