Louisiana’s Lowest Temp Ever Recorded Was In Minden

Yes, it's cold this morning but it's nowhere near the lowest recorded temperature ever in Louisiana.

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Due to the cold temperatures and high winds, the National Weather Service in Shreveport issued both a Cold Weather Advisory and Wind Advisory for most of the 4-state region including southeast Oklahoma, south west Arkansas, northeast Texas and northwest Louisiana.

That Cold Weather Advisory will remain in effect until 9:00 am this morning and states that we could see very cold wind chills as low as 5 above. For the Wind Advisory, we could see northwest winds 15 to 20 mph with gusts up to 35 mph. Tree limbs could be blown down and a few power outages may result. Wind chill values can lead to hypothermia with prolonged exposure.

At this writing, at 3:50 am on Monday, January 6, 2025, the current temperature is 28 degrees and wind chill temperatures range from 7 degrees in De Queen to 17 degrees in Monroe, but it could be a whole lot worse.

The Weather Channel is expecting that local temperatures will fall slightly to 27 degrees before 8:00 this morning, but even with a possible wind chill factor of 13 degrees, that's over forty degrees warmer than the lowest recorded temperature ever in Louisiana.

Louisiana's Lowest Ever Recorded Temperature Was in Minden

That extremely cold temperature was -16 degrees and it was recorded on February 13, 1899 in Minden, Louisiana.

The day before that, on February 12, 1899, Shreveport recorded it's lowest ever temperature with the mercury dropping to -5 degrees.

Most Of America Experienced Record Low Temps During This Event

These Arctic like temperatures were all part of The Great Blizzard of 1899, also known as the Great Arctic Outbreak of 1899 and the St. Valentine's Day Blizzard.

Wikipedia writes of this weather phenomenon:

....was an exceptionally severe winter weather event that affected most of the United States, particularly east of the Rocky Mountains.

On February 19, ice floes were reported to be moving out of the Mississippi River into the Gulf of Mexico. On February 14, New Orleans dropped to 6 °F (−14.4 °C), an all-time record. The previous day, the city experienced its coldest-ever Mardi Gras with a minimum of 7 °F

So, yes, it's cold and the forecast for the remainder of this week is somewhat daunting, but for considering what we've seen in the area before, this one isn't all that bad.