Rejoice, Toledo, for today is a day for breaking — and nearly breaking — records.

The 7:40 a.m. temperature at Toledo Express Airport, -19, is the coldest ever recorded for Toledo in February.

The latest blast of Arctic air to shroud northwest Ohio and southeast Michigan easily smashed the daily record of -5, set back in 1978. Although the temperature rebounded to -18, Toledo was this close to breaking 1984’s coldest-ever temperature of -20. That record was set on Jan. 21, 1984.

Clear, calm air helped the mercury plunge. The -16 February record, set on Feb. 11, 1885, was tied at 6 a.m. and fell at 7.

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The local cold temperature record for Feb. 20 was shattered at Toledo Express Airport less than an hour into Friday.

The National Weather Service’s official 1 a.m. temperature for Toledo was -8 degrees.

By 2 a.m., the Toledo Express reading was down to -9. And at 3 a.m., the temperature had hit -11.

The National Weather Service issued a windchill advisory, noting that the cold air, combined with even light winds, could create a wind chill between -10 and-25. Today, the expected high temperature could reach a balmy 11 degrees.

On the other end of the misery spectrum, the hottest point ever officially recorded at Toledo Express was 105 degrees on July 14, 1936.

Elsewhere in the region today, Findlay and Defiance recorded temperatures of -7 and -13 below zero, respectively, just after 7 a.m., according to the weather service.

On Thursday, the lowest temperature at Toledo Express was 4 below 0, which was not a record-breaker. The record of -6 was set in 1936.

First Published February 20, 2015, 7:17 a.m.