Dubuque nears all-time record low temperature 30 BELOW
We haven’t been this cold since 1888
By ERIK HOGSTROM
It’s been colder in Dubuque, but you have to go back 122 years.
Friday’s temperature sank to minus 30 degrees Fahrenheit at 7 a.m.
“You tied a record (for Jan. 16) set in 1888,” said Dan Ferry, a meteorologist with the Quad Cities office of the National Weather Service.
Weather service records indicate just one colder day, Jan. 7, 1887, when the mercury plunged to minus 32.
Add Friday morning’s wind, and Dubuque recorded a wind-chill reading of minus 45 at 7 a.m.
The frigid temperatures caused a water main to break uphill from the Jo Daviess County Courthouse in Galena, Ill., resulting in icy conditions and a lack of water for the workers inside. The courthouse was closed.
“It was a health and safety concern,” said Jo Daviess County State’s Attorney Terry Kurt.
Convicted murderer David Damm and his prison guards were traveling to a post-trial hearing, where Damm’s attorneys were to ask for a new trial. A Jo Daviess County judge sentenced Damm to death for hiring a hit man to kill 13-year-old Donnisha Hill, of
Waterloo, Iowa.
Hill’s father, Adonnis Hill, was driving from Waterloo to Galena when Kurt reached him via cell phone to tell him of the postponement.
“Luckily, we have a policy in place so the department heads and the judge and the sheriff were able to make the decision early enough to minimize the inconvenience to the people traveling,” Kurt said. “They were on their way, but they had only just gotten started before they turned around.”
The pipe should be fixed shortly, courthouse officials said, and a new time for the hearing will be set on Tuesday.
Southwestern Wisconsin locations also shivered Friday morning, with Boscobel recording an air temperature of minus 32 and Mineral Point reaching minus 22.
The extreme cold prompted the closure of local schools for a third consecutive day.
“We’re ready for some warm-up,” said Dubuque Schools Superintendent John Burgart.
Dubuque students have missed five days of school because of winter weather. Last year, Dubuque’s record-setting snowfall forced numerous school cancellations and the school board voted to extend school days by a half-hour.
This year, students attend school until early June.
If winter weather causes additional school cancellations, district officials will have to look at the calendar again to determine if other measures can be taken.
“It’s not automatic that we would go to the same model of adding 30 minutes,” Burgart said.
Dubuque’s temperatures should return to normal beginning today.
“Normal for this time of year is mid-20s for highs,” Ferry said.
Illinois State Climatologist Jim Angel said lengthy cold stretches seldom occur in the tri-state area.
“We are so far south that the sunshine warms us up,” Angel said. “That is typical for these events.”
— TH staff writers Stacey Becker and Bekah Porter contributed to this story
Aftermath News 
