What is the coldest temp you have been in?

[Coach McGuirk]

YEAH COACH DO YOU REMEMBER THE GREAT BLAST OF JAN. 1985 WHEN NORFOLK INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT HIT 3 BELOW ,AN ALL TIME RECORD, BREAKING THE OLD RECORD OF 2 ABOVE IN 1895. IT WAS READING 7 BELOW ON MY OUTSIDE THERMOMETER AT MY HOUSE IN CHESAPEAKE! GOD THAT WAS A COLD DAY

Before my time.

[kdskidoo]

the coldest 3 day stretch I'll probably ever experience at my home in central PA was in the incredible winter of 93/94. -18 on Jan 19, -14 Jan 20 and the coldest I've ever seen was the -34 on the morning of Jan 21st 1994

[Harry]

This is the time of my coldest. -26 F, Jan 21, 1985. The closest NWS office (Wise, VA) measured -21 F, but it was an elevated station that is rarely the coldest on clear mornings. The thing I remember is 1) how it was a cloudless day, but the air was so filled with ice crystals that very little sunlight made it through, and 2) how difficult it was trying to get a car started, we had to boost it several times and when it finally started, the throttle was frozen stuck, full throttle. We finally were able to use a hair dryer to get it operating properly.

That was brutal. I had just moved to Ocean City ( MD ) just days before this hit. The temp basically stayed between -4 and +2 for 48hrs + with snow falling alot of the time. Thought maybe i had moved to the north pole and not OC. lol Not sure what the snow was from but is snowed for much of those 2 days ( was amazing for me to see as i had never seen snow on the beach before this..Always went to the beach in summer ) and had a very sharp cut off just inland from the coast. OES perhaps?

As for coldest it would be -21 in Mt. Vernon Ohio in 02-03 i think it was. Thankfully no wind ( which allowed the temp to fall like a rock ) and did not feel as bad as i had expected it to.

[dendrite]

I want to see some 2/15-16/1943 maps for New England.

[crossthread]

This is the time of my coldest. -26 F, Jan 21, 1985. The closest NWS office (Wise, VA) measured -21 F, but it was an elevated station that is rarely the coldest on clear mornings. The thing I remember is 1) how it was a cloudless day, but the air was so filled with ice crystals that very little sunlight made it through, and 2) how difficult it was trying to get a car started, we had to boost it several times and when it finally started, the throttle was frozen stuck, full throttle. We finally were able to use a hair dryer to get it operating properly.

I was in Ft. Knox, Ky in those days during that "outbreak", No Snow, just Ice crystals falling from the Sky...

Heat was out in the Barricks, Brought a tank heater & diesel fuel from the Shop, rigged it up, too keep our floor warm... Had a Keg inside, and still froze with-in a hour or so...

So cold, that 27/50 ton tanks froze solid, in thier tracks... Had Orders to go every hour to start'em up to stay "combat ready",Even though you couldn't move'em one inch, the APC's that were there..Hydraclic fluid would "freeze".... 24volt batteries, 6 per tank, wired in "series", wouldn't even crank,or cold Bradley w/out a boost. Even if you could get a tank moving, it was useless, as several inches of ICE was on the tarmac, you would just spin tracks, and if you got "moving" you couldn't stop 20/30 tons of Armor, you just slid until you hit something, which some fool did, hitting a storage metal Ammo building, and a wire guided rocket fell out somehow, went off screaming across the motor pool, hitting the fence a few hundred yards at the other end, with Ka-boom results....... Disiel fuel wasn't liquid, it was JELLY!

Our Company was on the 'field" also for "cold weather meanuvers", I was on call MANY times, our guys would break something trying to get a vechile "redlined", so they could come back/get towed to base... Nothing like sliding down a mountain with a APC, or bradly in tow, scary as ****........ Or fixing tank tracks frozen solid in the ground after setting over night, the tank tracks would "snap" in half, as the driver was trying to "back and forth" to break it out of frozen ground...

Well below -0, (-10/20's?) for several days before warming into the Balmy 20's and 30's, with heavy sn.

My WORST experience was in the Early-mid 90's when I first started commerical fishing..

WE had to "WADE" across a creek, with quickly falling temps, (water temp in the low 40's) which wasn't bad... As it was 50F or so when We started in Mid-afternoon.

Coming back, across the "creek", as the front moved through, it quickly dropped to -10 around sunset, with 30 MPH winds and our ride "forgot" to pick-us-up....

Wet to the waist, lightly clothed,Lighters wet and NOT working, sal****er froze in no time flat on our clothing, as we were stuck waaay up-river with about 1K in clams bagged up... Lucky; a Division of Marine fishery Truck pulled up and gave us a ride back to town, (about 20+ miles), before We froze to death...

Hypothermiea set-in on My buddy, he was taken too the hospital, loosing several toes... to frost-bite.

[tacoman25]

-17 here in the Denver area in December 2008.

[Southland Wx]

I think it was about -20 in Syracuse, NY in early 2005...forget the date..it was somewhere between -18 and -21 though.

[Chicago WX]

-26º on December 24, 1983. And in stark contrast, the year before, it hit 60º on Christmas Eve.

[Roger Smith]

At midnight Jan 23-24 1976 I was outside in -41 (F and C) reading my weather station thermometer in its screen. No wind, cold enough that you could hear trees cracking in the cold. I felt that I might last five minutes fully dressed for the outdoors but got back inside within two. I've also been outside in -40 in Jan 1994.

These were experienced in central Ontario. The -41 was about 20 miles south of YQA.

[kraut]

-31 F in northern adirondacks in January 2007. Snowmobile trip up to hunting camp. 5 days up there, avaeraged about -20 and the warmest day was the last day when it was only -5 F, actually was out in just a sweatshirt at that point. Everything froze during the 7 mile run into camp, all the beer, food, etc.

[Midlo Snow Maker]

-15

[DMADKAT]

Before my time.

YES, I'M A PLUMBER, AND THE ENTIRE AREA IT SEEMED, FROZE UP. BUSTED PIPES EVERYWHERE. I WAS FIXING FREEZE UPS FOR WEEKS AFTER THAT EVENT. OVER ALL THAT WAS A REALLY MILD WINTER OTHER THAN THAT OUTBREAK .

[BrooklynSnow]

-26F Milwaukee, WI Feb '96. I remember walking outside and my cords felt like they were frozen!

[wederwarrior]

-31 F in northern adirondacks in January 2007. Snowmobile trip up to hunting camp. 5 days up there, avaeraged about -20 and the warmest day was the last day when it was only -5 F, actually was out in just a sweatshirt at that point. Everything froze during the 7 mile run into camp, all the beer, food, etc.

Nice pics!

Sorry about the beer...

[kraut]

Nice pics!

Sorry about the beer...

we adapted

[PennMan]

-22° in NY State sometime in the early 2000's. Here in PA, -12° at my apartment near State College in January 2009, and -12° in January 1994 at my house 30mi ENE of Harrisburg, PA...that thermometer was right up against the house however, so it was likely colder.

[Organizing Low]

-36C

[aslkahuna]

I remember the period before Christmas in 1983. Left Dugway just before everyone else got snowed in. Drove through a blizzard from Tooele to Wendover a bit over 100 miles which took 6 hours. The drove across Nevada with ground blizzard conditions and temperatures below zero before hitting an ice storm in the Sparks-Reno area. The next day drove across Donner in a classic high Sierra Blizzard with 6"/hr snowfall and 80mph gusts in the last convoy before I-80 was closed.

Steve

[yoda]

Running 1200's during winter track practice (outside on our track). Temps were in the negative single digits and wind chills near 15 to 20 below zero in late December. I remember my hands were frozen and coach had to give us 5 mins in between each 1200 to make sure we could move our limbs

[michsnowfreak]

Coldest would be probably the low -20s in 1985 or 1994. But the coldest I can vividly remember would be Jan 16, 2009. DTW hit a record low of -15F, bout the same imby, but some outlying areas were -20 to -24F.

[wishforsnow]

-45 f in International Falls, MN. That was the actual temperature at 1 am.

[Msalgado]

Jan of 2008, flying from 50 degrees in Texas to nearly 70 in Denver but then flying to Detroit and landing in -10 degree weather. -10 to my lungs was pretty much the worst thing they had experienced. I know its not even that cold compared to what others here have undergone but I'm tropical!

I ran from the airport terminal to my waiting ride only to find the passenger door frozen tight. My heart nearly stopped at that point.

[will]

Depending on the thermometer, -46 or -48, same night in 2009 that just a few miles away set a new record low of -50 for the state of Maine. I was out driving around looking for the coldest air I could find. lol.

[PhineasC]

-18 in Canada.

[joe1946]

I was in Alaska with the US Army from April 1966 to April 1968 and in one of our Winter War Games with Canada in Delta Junction Alaska up around Fairbanks it hit 64 below zero and we slept in tents for over a week. On Feb 18 1979 I was camping at Whiteface Mountain KOA in upstate NY when it set a NY state all-time record low of 52 below zero.

[MacChump]

-11 in burlington in January 2004...

[beavis1729]

Depending on the thermometer, -46 or -48, same night in 2009 that just a few miles away set a new record low of -50 for the state of Maine. I was out driving around looking for the coldest air I could find. lol.

Nice...

For me, the coldest was -24F in DeKalb, IL (Northern Illinois University) on 1/18/1994. A beautiful sunny morning. Walked about a mile across campus to class, when all others were taking the buses (at least the ones still in operation). Good stuff!

[tamarack]

Coldest windchill is probably either skiing at around -10 with some gusts to 35 or 40. Or hiking MWN at around -3 with sustained 40-45 gusts to 50-55. It's not bad if you cover your skin, wear layers, and keep moving.

Skiers routinely wear goggles, but when it's windy and bitter such eyewear could also be useful for folks on foot. I never wore them when working in the woods in the Allagash/St.John country of N.Maine, and every few years we'd get a "walk backwards" day. That was when the wind and cold, when faced directly, would be sufficient to make one's eyes immediately begin to water, then first blink froze the lids shut, requiring a 180 spin and hands to eyes until thawing allowed vision to return. Usually it took winds gusting past 30 and temps -10F or colder to make that happen. Good days to find office work that needed doing.

Tex Antoine used to quote a "30-30 rule" he attributed to the Army: "At -30 with 30 mph winds, exposed flesh freezes in 30 seconds." Never tried it out. The one morning (1/18/82, -34 with winds 30+) when I might have, I made sure to walk quickly between vehicle and building, and when I had to go out for an extended time that afternoon, it had warmed a bit - high for the day was -14.

[Don Cherry's Jacket]

December 1989, Indiana. -20. Had just finished college finals and went out for a drunken snowball fight with some friends. Tip: snow doesn't pack well that dry/cold. My god, that was so incredibly cold.

[joe1946]

BTW here is a photo I took in Alaska during winter war games when it hit 64 below zero back in the 60's.