December 21, 2022 Arctic Cold Front

On December 21, 2022, a powerful arctic cold front swept across the High Plains, bringing the coldest temperatures in about 30 years. The frontal boundary itself passed through southeast Wyoming and western Nebraska during the late morning to early afternoon hours of December 21, and lead to an extremely rapid drop in temperatures. The temperature plummetted so quickly that numerous records were broken for largest drop in temperature over a certain number of hours. The temperature dropped over 40F in less than one hour, and over 60F in less than 12 hours.

By the morning of December 22, most of the area was between -15F and -30F, some of the coldest air in over 30 years (since an event in 1990). This cold snap was also notable because it remained fairly windy which is unusual when we see temperatures this cold. As a result, wind chills between -40F and -60F were widespread across the area. Cheyenne saw a wind chill below -50F on the morning of December 22 for the first time in over 30 years. 

The arcitc cold front also brought several very dangerous snow squalls during the afternoon and evening of December 21. While overall snow amounts were light, the intensity of the snow combined with the dangerous cold presented extremely severe winter weather conditions.