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A series of arctic blasts impacted parts of the Midwest, South and East during early to mid-January 2016. The final shot of cold air Jan. 16-19, 2016 was the worst for many cities.

Below is a recap of the arctic blasts.

Cold Recap (Jan. 16-19)

On the morning of Jan. 19, wind chills plummeted below zero as far east as Washington, D.C., Cincinnati and Boston. Chicago O'Hare dipped to 0 degrees early Tuesday morning.

Wind chills in the 20s and 30s below zero were observed Jan. 18 in parts of northern Illinois, northern Indiana, eastern Iowa, Minnesota and Wisconsin. Wind chills that low can cause frostbite on exposed skin in as little as 30 minutes. Subzero wind chills also spread as far east as the Appalachians and the Ohio Valley Monday morning.

Meanwhile, the actual air temperature fell below zero as far south as northern Missouri, northern Illinois and northern Indiana, including Kansas City and Chicago.

Highs on Jan. 18 struggled to reach 0 degrees in Duluth, Minnesota, and La Crosse, Wisconsin, both only managed to rise to 0 degrees Monday afternoon. Teens for highs were common from the Great Lakes to the Ohio Valley and portions of the mid-Mississippi Valley. High temperatures from Boston to Washington, D.C. occurred early in the morning and afternoon temperatures stayed in the 20s.

During the weekend of Jan 16-17, a few isolated locations in North Dakota and northern Minnesota saw wind chills fall into the 50s below zero, while a wider area saw wind chills in the 30s and 40s below zero. Fargo and Grand Forks, North Dakota, both saw high temperatures stay below zero the entire weekend.

Cold Recap (Jan. 10-12)

Subzero temperatures were recorded Sunday morning as far south as northern Kansas and northern Missouri. Fosston, Minnesota, was the coldest location in the Lower 48, with a low of 35 degrees below zero. Many locations in the northern Plains and Upper Midwest experienced wind chills in the 20s and 30s below zero.

Prior to the arrival of this surge of cold air, above-average temperatures took hold of the Northeast Sunday. Several daily record highs were set on Sunday including:

Wilmington, Delaware (66 degrees); Philadelphia (65 degrees); Poughkeepsie, New York (65 degrees); Hartford, Connecticut (59 degrees); Providence, Rhode Island (59 degrees); Boston, Massachusetts (58 degrees); Worcester, Massachusetts (56 degrees); Albany, New York (55 degrees); Burlington, Vermont (53 degrees); Portland, Maine (52 degrees)

Monday morning, the coldest spot in the Lower 48 was near Cotton, Minnesota, where the low dipped to 36 degrees below zero. Several other locations in northwest Wisconsin and northeast Minnesota saw lows in the 20s below zero. Farther south, both the Chicago and Milwaukee metro areas woke up to subzero temperatures. Wind chills in the Windy City were in the teens below zero while Milwaukee saw a wind chill as low as minus 21 degrees. Single digits lows were recorded as far south as northern Kentucky, with teens into the mid-South.

High temperatures dropped more than 20 degrees from Sunday to Monday for much of the Northeast.

On Monday afternoon, temperatures were only in the 30s from Boston to Philadelphia with 20s in the interior Northeast. Highs in the Upper Midwest and Great Lakes were even colder with temperatures struggling to reach the single digits and teens. Conditions were chilly in the South as well where highs in the 40s were found from Raleigh to Atlanta and westward into New Orleans and Dallas.

Tuesday morning, wind chills were in the 20s and 30s below zero in parts of the eastern Dakotas, Minnesota, Iowa and Wisconsin.

Wednesday morning, lows in the single digits were reported as far south as northern Kentucky. Low temperatures in Chicago and Milwaukee dipped into the single digits above and below zero for the fourth consecutive morning Wednesday, with wind chills in the teens below zero.

Early January Cold Recap (January 4-5)

On Tuesday, temperatures ranged from to 10 to 15 degrees or more below average from Georgia to portions of New York and New England. While not record breaking, for locations like Atlanta, Georgia and Richmond, Virginia , it was the coldest day since Feb. 24-25, 2015. At New York City , Philadelphia and Washington D.C. , it was the coldest day since March 6, 2015.

Temperatures plunged as low as 27 degrees below zero Tuesday morning in Clayton Lake, Maine, and 22 degrees below zero at Saranac Lake in the Adirondacks of upstate New York. Subzero lows were also noted across much of New Hampshire and Vermont as well as the Catskills of New York and the nearby Poconos in northeast Pennsylvania. Several locations in southwestern New York and northwestern Pennsylvania also fell below zero.

<img class="styles__noscript__2rw2y" src="https://dsx.weather.com//util/image/w/0105_ne_lows_observed.png?v=at&w=485&h=273&api=7db9fe61-7414-47b5-9871-e17d87b8b6a0" srcset="https://dsx.weather.com//util/image/w/0105_ne_lows_observed.png?v=at&w=485&h=273&api=7db9fe61-7414-47b5-9871-e17d87b8b6a0 400w, https://dsx.weather.com//util/image/w/0105_ne_lows_observed.png?v=ap&w=980&h=551&api=7db9fe61-7414-47b5-9871-e17d87b8b6a0 800w" > Low Temperatures Jan. 5, 2016 Observed low temperatures at selected locations in the Northeast on Tuesday, Jan. 5, 2016. For both New York City and Boston, the readings were the lowest since Feb. 24, 2015, when New York hit 4 degrees and Boston bottomed out at 2.

Boston dipped into the single digits and wind chills as low as zero extended as far south as Washington, D.C., Tuesday morning.

Despite that, there were no reports of record lows at any of the major long-term weather observation sites in the Northeast Tuesday.

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