COLUMBUS (WCMH)-On the morning of Jan. 19, 1994, the Midwest was locked in the grip of some of the coldest weather ever experienced in the wake of a heavy snowfall of 8 to 12 inches.

The official thermometer reading at Port Columbus International Airport dipped to -22 degrees, setting an all-time city cold record by two degrees that had stood since the late nineteenth century, based on earlier records.

Readings were even lower in other parts of Franklin County, ranging from -24 at Hilliard and Westerville to -28 at Valley Crossing.  In the sheltered areas of eastern Ohio, the thermometer dipped to spectacularly low levels: -37 at Logan; -35 at Danville; and -30 at Waverly.

The temperature remained well below zero all day on Jan. 19, 1994, ranging from -6 degrees at Westerville to -12 at Delaware-extraordinary low for daylight maximums. By the time the mercury edged above zero in Columbus on Jan. 20, the city had endured the longest subzero cold spell–56 hours–in history. Cleveland also recorded 56 consecutive hours of below-zero weather.

A January thaw arrived four days later on Jan. 28, when the mercury briefly rebounded to 50 degrees, but not warm enough to erase all of the layers of ice and snow that had caked central Ohio during the historic deep freeze.