Temperature in Wyoming drops 40 degrees in a half hour as wind chills freeze US, break records

An Arctic chill gripping large swaths of the U.S. this week with dangerously cold weather brought record-breaking wind chills that slashed temperatures by as much as 40 degrees in just 30 minutes in the western part of the country.

The polar cold front shattered the previous one-hour temperature drop record in Cheyenne, Wyoming, on Wednesday, with temperatures plummeting from 43 degrees to 3 degrees between 1:05 p.m. and 1:35 p.m., the National Weather Service in Cheyenne said. The previous record was a 37-degree drop in one hour.

The agency warned at the time that temperatures were still dropping.

In a span of two hours, the winter chill dropped temperatures across southeast Wyoming by 51 degrees, from 42 degrees to -9 degrees, the NWS said. 

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“The bottom keeps falling out as wind chills crash into the -40s locally in Cheyenne! Stay safe out there!” the agency warned.

Denver also felt the frigid conditions as the Arctic cold front passed through Wednesday afternoon.

After reaching a high of 50 degrees earlier in the day, around 4 p.m., gusting winds plunged temperatures at Denver International Airport from 42 degrees to 5 degrees within an hour, FOX31 Denver reported.

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The 37-degree drop is likely the largest one-hour temperature drop at the airport, NWS Boulder said.

Within another hour, frigid temperatures continued marching toward subzero, reaching 1 degree below zero, the station reported. 

Wind chills around Denver cut temperatures even further below zero, hitting -22 degrees by 6 p.m., the report said. Subzero conditions were expected to last until late Friday morning.

In Portland, Oregon, the NWS warned that wind chills on Thursday could plunge to zero degrees with the possibility of plummeting to 25 degrees below zero in parts of the Cascades in northern Oregon and southern Washington state. 

Those mountainous areas could receive up to five inches of snow and nearly half an inch of ice, with wind gusts possibly topping 70 miles per hour above the tree line, the agency said.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.