Draft:January 2024 North American cold wave

The January 2024 North American cold wave was an extreme weather event that brought record low temperatures to a significant portion of Canada, the United States and parts of northern Mexico during the middle of January 2024. The cold was caused by a southern migration of the polar vortex, likely caused by a sudden stratospheric warming event that occurred a few weeks prior.

Background
A large arctic airmass over Canada began to spill over into the Pacific Northwest, as the storm system and arctic airmass advanced east.

United States
Wind chills following the arrival of the cold reached as low as -60 F in Montana, and wind chills were still -9 F as far south as Dallas on January 14. On January 13, Dillon, Montana reached an all time record low of -42 F, while Bozeman, Montana recorded their second coldest temperature at -45 F. That same day, Dickinson, North Dakota reached a -70 F wind chill, their coldest since the wind chill formula was updated in 2001, and a -33 F air temperature, a daily record and their coldest temperature since 1990. On January 16, Houston dropped to a daily record low of 19 F.

Midwestern United States
Freezing temperatures affected campaign events leading up to the Iowa Caucuses on January 15, and could affect turnout in the first contest in the 2024 presidential primaries and caucuses. In addition, the cold temperatures resulted in the 4th coldest NFL game on record between the Kansas City Chiefs and Miami Dolphins, with kickoff temperature being -4 F.

Northeastern United States
Numerous Northeast Corridor trains were cancelled due to the cold weather over the Northeastern United States on January 18.