BETHLEHEM, Pa. — About 40 million people in the United States were under some type of weather hazard Monday into Tuesday, including the Lehigh Valley, where a cold weather advisory remains in effect until noon Wednesday.
To our north, Carbon and Monroe counties remain under an extreme cold warning, with the National Weather Service warning of wind chills as low as 20 below zero.
That can cause frostbite on exposed skin in as little as 30 minutes.
With the brutal cold snap underway, temperatures plunged to just 1 degree in the Allentown area early Tuesday morning, with a wind chill of 11 below zero.
But how cold is it, really?
Climate Perspective: More Like Buffalo
Our average temperature so far this month is 27 degrees, or 3.4 degrees below average for January.
According to data from NOAA’s regional climate centers, our climate has matched these cities:
Monday: Had a climate more like Minneapolis, Minnesota.
The past two days: Have felt more like we live in Portland, Maine.
Our month to date: Has felt more like Buffalo, New York.
Our season to date: Has been a lot like Salt Lake City, Utah.
The comparisons are based on a Euclidean distance formula using maximum and minimum temperatures.
Temperatures for the selected areas are compared with climate normals for cities across the country (specifically, maximum and minimum temperature values are based on 1991-2020 data for a station, averaged over each period).
But has it really been that cold?
No one is comfortable going outside in this kind of cold, but it’s far from record-setting.
“While yesterday & today are pretty wintry, I think many are glad it's not 1/19/1994,” the weather service said on X Monday afternoon.
Philly stats with current forecast.
— NWS Mount Holly (@NWS_MountHolly) January 21, 2025
Last high <20°F: 12/24/2022
Last high <15°F: 1/7/2014
Last high <10°F: 1/19/1994
Last low <10°F: 12/24/2022
Last low <5°F: 1/7/2018
Last low <0°F: 1/19/1994*
*=longest stretch on record
Current (as of 9PM Monday) forecast is 19°F/8°F.
Here were the lows and wind chills that day:
Allentown: -11°F/-30°F
Reading: -13°F/-27°F
Trenton: -7°F/-28°F
Philadelphia: -5°F/-25°F
Wilmington: -5°F/-27°F
Atlantic City: -3°F/-23°F
Thus far, data shows our month-to-date is the 31st coldest by average temperature.
Like earlier this month, this latest round of bitterly cold air comes from a disruption in the polar vortex, the ring of cold air usually trapped near the North Pole.
Temperatures are expected to ease later this week, with highs around 30 by Friday.
Actually warmer in Siberia (we're not joking)
There are places around the world you surely would think are even colder right now. But surprise, they're warmer than the Lehigh Valley!
Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
The city is known for having cold winters. Its average daily temperatures in January are around −10.4 °C (13.3 °F).
But on Tuesday morning, it was a rather balmy 30 degrees in the capital city of the Canadian province of Alberta.
Barrow, Alaska
Checking in on the northernmost city in the United States (which is surrounded on three sides by the Arctic Ocean) data from the weather service shows temperatures pushed into the upper 20s there on Monday.
Tuesday morning, temperatures were comparable to the Lehigh Valley.
Bratsk / Irkutsk, Siberia (Russia)
Siberian winters are notoriously long and harsh, with The Siberian High, a large collection of cold air, deemed responsible for the region's severe winter cold.
But Tuesday morning in Bratsk, a city in Irkutsk Oblast, Russia, it was 19 degrees.
Other places it’s also been warmer than the Lehigh Valley the last few days? Cities such as Reykjavik, Iceland, also make the list, along with Pituffik, Greenland, on the former Thule Air Base.
How cold was it in Pituffik on Tuesday morning? Seven degrees — several degrees warmer than the Allentown area.
Update: The temperature dropped to 8 below zero, with a wind chill of 21 below zero on Wednesday morning. The record low air temperature for the date, 1/22, in Allentown (ABE airport) is 12 below zero in 1961.
