What is the coldest temp you have been in?

[superjames1992]

-2F back when I lived in Hurricane, WV.

It got down to -8F at GSO in 1985, but I wasn't alive then.

[dendrite]

It's amazing to see that so far south. It was actually -40C in Minnesota the day before.

This was a good one too. I like the blip of -45C 850s.

Coldest airmass I remember was the Feb 1-2, 96 one that hit the Northern Plains. That's the one that broke the MN all-time record low at Tower with -60F. They had quite a few lows in the -50s in the weeks before that too.

[Coach McGuirk]

This was a good one too. I like the blip of -45C 850s.

Coldest airmass I remember was the Feb 1-2, 96 one that hit the Northern Plains. That's the one that broke the MN all-time record low at Tower with -60F. They had quite a few lows in the -50s in the weeks before that too.

I remember that outbreak too. There was a layer snow and ice on the ground already which really helped out Newport News, VA get down to 3 degrees for a low: http://www.wunderground.com/history/airport/KPHF/1996/2/5/DailyHistory.html

[marsman]

-15F in Monument, CO. Close to that was -13F in Denver. These were on Jan 7-8, 2010.

[Mencken_Fan]

The summer of '72 brought so much heat and humidity to the Mississippi Coast even the locals were distraught. You can imagine how insufferable I, a young man from Bethesda, Md. attending USAF tech school at Keesler AFB found it. (If it weren't for societal norms, I can't imagine why anyone would bother with clothing down there.)

And then my climate changed.

Our class of 12 airmen graduated in September and 8 of us were sent to serve in NORAD in Alaska. By the end of the year, we were down to 7; one classmate (who got married during the break after school) froze to death in a whiteout.

The winter of '72 in Alaska was brutal; turning out to be the 2nd coldest in state history. But I was lucky; my duty station turned out to be the King Salmon NORAD Control Center, 12 miles up the Naknek River at the mouth of Bristol Bay (~275 miles SW of Anchorage.)

The Siberian High settled over us in December and the state went into a prolonged deep freeze. Although we did have long-range radars and F-4 Phantom all-weather interceptors, our main job was to "control" the southern half of Alaska. This included monitoring (hourly) the weather at every USAF base that had fighter or bomber aircraft. (We grounded our fighters given certain wx conditions (including extreme cold.))

The worst weather I ever experienced there (and in my 59 years of life) was being outdoors at -27F with howling winds. Despite heavy clothing, that wind-chill cut like a knife. (I also experienced my coldest summer ever while there; usually in the 60s and never above the low 70s.)

But again, as for raw temperatures - I was lucky, because deep inland was a lot colder. For our bomber base near Fairbanks we posted -40s for highs and -60s for lows day after day, week after week. It was unrelenting cold that bottomed out in the -70s. The city of Fairbanks basically just shut down; schools closed etc.

Back here in the Lower 48, the coldest I remember as an adult is -8F in Montgomery County, Maryland (~1981)

[uncle W]

only -2 for me...Feb. 8th or 9th 1963 when I walked a mile to school...Feb. 2nd 1961 also but school was closer and there was 10" of snow on the ground...

[EasternUSWX]

Jan 17 2009 I got down to -4

http://www.wunderground.com/weatherstation/WXDailyHistory.asp?ID=KPAGREEN7&day=17&year=2009&month=1&graphspan=day

[BxEngine]

-20 or so in Saranac Lake....

[DMADKAT]

I remember that outbreak too. There was a layer snow and ice on the ground already which really helped out Newport News, VA get down to 3 degrees for a low: http://www.wundergro...ilyHistory.html

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

[jonjon]

1/17/2009 -- Here in Davis we dropped to -26.

[meatwad]

-22 in Pittsburgh in January 1994

-10 most recent in 2009

[Redmorninglight]

Not sure of the date. but -40F at Mt. Ste Anne ski area January 1992. No wind. I recall it rained two days prior and the skiing was treacherous!

[Redmorninglight]

Mt Ste Anne is in Quebec, Canada. Sorry.

[eyes2theskies]

-26 North Chicago 1996

[Bob Chill]

We used to get down to -25 to - 30 a few times every year when I lived in Summit County CO. The things I remember most was the snot inside of my nose freezing when I breathed (sounds gross but true) and my hands sticking to the steering wheel without gloves.

[Skidude]

-38 degrees below zero in Edmonton Alberta - February 1984 I flew in from Seattle. I wasn't prepared for that kind of cold. They couldn't operate the jetway because it was frozen solid so they wheeled the steps over to the plane and when I stepped off the plane, my mustache immediately froze solid. It was like somebody tossed a porcupine onto my face. We sprinted the 50 yards into the terminal and safety. That kind of cold can kill! I never want to see that again.

[Edge Weather]

In 1994 in Bushkill, PA it was -17 at my house on top of the mountain in the Poconos, and in the Valley near my house at the bottom of the hill by the Delaware River, it was -31. That same morning there reports of -34 around northern NJ.

[Terpeast]

-15 in upstate NY, but the winds were calm. Hurt just to breathe. But the worst cold experience I remember was when the temperature was 5 but the winds were screaming at 35 mph... now THAT was painful.

[aslkahuna]

How come every time you talk about your weather experiences, it's so much more interesting than anyone else's weather experience?

Well with 71 years of life and 30 years of work as a Met, one racks up a lot of weather experiences worth talking about. Also helps that I became interested in Science (chiefly Astronomy, Meteorology, Vulcanology and Seismology) when I was young (about 10 years old). Also, I have that old time forecaster's memory that remembers the big weather situations (but I can't remember people's names worth crap). I am currently posting my AZ weather war stories on my homepage with part 7 due soon.

Steve

[Echo]

-14 Jan. 1984 and 1985 Delaware

[Kaner587]

-20 at the summit of Stratton mountain in VT and I can't remember if it was presidents wk 2003 (2 days before PDII) or 2004 but either way it was brutal. There was no wind but when your skiing down a mountain at 20 miles an hour you have an equivalent wind chill of about -40 or something crazy like that. Either way I skied for about an hr before we had to call it quits because it was just way too cold.

[Cheeznado]

Back in the late 70s in SW Iowa where I lived at the time there was a morning where the temperature was -28 with a wind of 25 mph.

[jrips27]

-8 in Wisconsin.

[Dr No]

-22 in PA, 1994.

[skierinvermont]

Around -22 I think a couple times in the morning while skiing in VT. Nothing too impressive. I was hoping to hit -30 on a road trip to the Hudson Bay in December a few years ago but they had a heat wave and it was only -8.

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.

[MN Transplant]

-32 in Minnesota in Feb 1996.

Yup.

[grhqofb5]

-14F at Catskill State Park in late January 2009. About 2am. Got some great video of it.

[justaterp]

Probably around 25 to 30 below in Siberia in December 2000. We were in the region to adopt our son, and to this day, I have never felt anything like the cold I experienced on that first day. When we stepped off the plane to catch a shuttle to the terminal, my nose hairs froze immediately. Thought for sure my nose was bleeding or had just been severed clean by the razor sharp cold. Fortunately, the cold subsided over the next day and the rest of the week was balmy by comparison, hovering around zero. Snowed lightly every day.

[DavisStraight]

Ive had -20 on back to back mornings at my house in the early 90's with a deep snow pack and radiational cooling, also -35 when I was up in Vermont, it was -20 after we ate dinner and I got up nice and early because I wanted to experience the cold morning. It was so cold it hurt.

[WinterWxLuvr]

this event blows me away and might be my coldest temp ever but I was too young to remember.

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.