Subzero temperatures will make the Iowa caucuses the coldest in history
When Iowa voters brave the frigid weather for a caucus on Monday, they will participate in one of the coldest caucuses in decades — perhaps ever.
A brutal combination of prolonged subzero temperatures and high winds have created conditions for a biting cold on Monday that looks worse than any previous caucus night in the Hawkeye State.
Temperatures are not expected to rise above minus 2 degrees all day, and by the time the caucuses begin Monday evening, wind chill could bring temperatures down to 35 degrees below zero – an extremely cold level for even the heartiest of people from the Midwest.
“If someone is extremely lucky, they can get to zero,” Allan Curtis, meteorologist for the National Weather Service in Des Moines, said Monday, referring to the best-case scenario for warmth in some parts of the state. He added: “No matter how you look at it, it will be a bitter period.”
The coldest caucus before this year was in 2004, when temperatures didn't rise above 60 degrees, according to National Weather Service data. But this isn't the first time caucusgoers in Iowa have had to brave subzero temperatures. During the 1972 caucus, temperatures in Des Moines fell to a low of minus 4 degrees, although they later rose into the 20s. In Waterloo, about two hours north, the thermometers were even minus 11 degrees that year.
This year's weather has turned a usually frenzied and well-financed caucus weekend into a much more subdued affair. Snowstorms and icy roads scrambled candidates' schedules late into the latter part of the campaign, leaving reporters stranded in hotels and candidates with little time to talk to voters with less than 72 hours before the caucus begins.
It has also caused some unrest within the campaigns, as strategists speculate about how the deep freeze could affect turnout. Former President Donald J. Trump, who canceled most of his rallies over the weekend because of the weather, said during a radio interview Friday that he expects a “great turnout” of his supporters despite Monday's Arctic temperatures.
Nikki Haley, who canceled in-person events Friday in response to snowstorms across the state, asked her supporters during a virtual town hall for Council Bluffs voters to come out in cold weather and dress warmly in case there are lines outside the caucus locations. .
“I know it's asking a lot of you to go out and hold a caucus, but I also know we have a country to save,” she said. “And I'll be standing there in the cold.”
And on Saturday, when she campaigned in person in Cedar Falls, she was.