When a polar vortex reached its frigid fingers down from the arctic in 2013-14, it gripped the Upper Midwest and caused one of the coldest winters in Minnesota history, sinking the North Star State into several long stretches of sub-zero temperatures.

Minnesotans are accustomed to cold winters, but the winter of 2013-14 was one of the coldest on record.
Minnesota DNR - National Climate Data Center
It was the kind of cold that happens maybe once in a generation.
The state hadn't seen such long stretches of below-zero weather in more than four decades.
Stephen Maturen/Getty Images
Between December and March, the Twin Cities recorded 53 days on which the minimum temperature was at or below zero.
Stephen Maturen/Getty Images
This tied a 1978 record for the fifth-most days below zero. The top-four longest cold streaks all occurred between 1873 and 1888, or about 130 years earlier.

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Farther north, though, things got really serious. International Falls tied its record for the most-ever days at or below zero degrees, with 92.
shaunl/Getty Images
Places like Babbitt and Kabetogama recorded more than 100 days at zero degrees Fahrenheit, or colder, during the winter of 2013-14. Can you imagine - more than three months below zero?
In addition to the cold air temperatures, Minnesota saw plenty of snowfall - and the wind chills were brutal.
Trent Jonas/Google
Grand Marais recorded the state's lowest wind chill, -63° Fahrenheit, during the 2013-14 deep freeze.
Because of the cold and wind chills, several school districts set pre-pandemic records for the number of school days canceled. In some cases, buses wouldn't even start.
shaunl/Getty Images
Poor kids - it wasn't even fun, like a snow day. It was too cold to go outside, and to add insult to injury, make-up days ate into students' spring breaks and summer vacations.
During the winter of 2013-14, Lake Superior, the world's largest freshwater lake by surface area, reached 95 percent ice coverage.
Orchidpoet/Getty Images
It was the first time the lake had frozen over completely in nearly 20 years.

At least there’s plenty to do during the winter in Minnesota.

Were you around for that brutal 2013-14 winter? What do you remember about it?

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