Warmest day in 11 days after the 2nd coldest temperature ever recorded

Yes, we hit rock bottom Tuesday morning.  The temperature dropped as low as -34° in Greeley and York, and it dropped to -31° in Lincoln.  Not only did it smash the previous record low (-18° from 1978) but the temperature in Lincoln was the second coldest temperature ever recorded in the capital city.

The good news is that we are only going up from Tuesday morning.

We’ll start to warm things up starting as early as Wednesday.  Partly cloudy skies with a few snow flurries, mainly in the morning.  The key will be the air temperature.

Highs will rebound to the teens for the first time since February 10 when it reached 13° in Lincoln.  This will be the warmest daytime high in the capital city since February 6 when it topped out at 17°.

From here we keep climbing.  It appears temperatures will go back above freezing around February 22/February 23.  This will likely end Lincoln’s streak of consecutive hours below freezing around 430 hours.  If it does, that will be the second longest streak of consecutive hours below freezing since 1942.  Only trailing 6 p.m. February 16, 1960 to 1 p.m. March, 9, 1960 (524 consecutive hours).

TONIGHT: Increasing clouds.  Temperatures dropping to -5° to -9°.  Wind chill values will be -25° to -15°.

WEDNESDAY:  Partly cloudy.  Snow flurries possible in the morning.  Highs from 12° to 16°.  Wind chill values will be 4° to 8° during the afternoon.

THURSDAY:  Mostly sunny and warmer.  Highs in the upper teens to near 20°.