40 Christmases Ago, Missouri Shattered Its All-Time Record Cold

I remember Christmas in 1983. I was a junior at Hannibal High School and Missouri was getting slammed by a winter system that has yet to be equaled when it comes to how cold it got 40 Christmases ago.

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The National Weather Service in St. Louis just remembered Christmas 1983 in Missouri. They shared the climate records for Christmas Day and you'll notice that every single cold weather record was that year.

They go onto say that Missouri in 1983 was the coldest Christmas ever and it wasn't just Missouri. All of the Midwest and especially northern areas like Chicago were frozen solid by record temperatures that lasted for days.

Lake effect snow created blizzard conditions for the Great Lakes region. The irony is that Christmas the previous year had set a record for warmth with 1982 being the hottest Christmas ever. Leave it to weather in the Midwest to experience extremes back-to-back years.

The National Weather Service added this stunning detail to what the Christmas of 1983 was like for most of America:

Snow covered 74 percent of North America in December resulting in the Great Freeze of '83.  All time December cold records were set in cities across 29 states from Washington to North Dakota and Florida.

When it comes to weather in Missouri, you learn to never say never. But, as of this writing Christmas in 1983 was as cold as the Show Me State has ever gotten. I'm afraid to think of what might happen in the future to top it.