I remember back in college (University of Pittsburgh at Johnstown, 82-86) there were 3 days in a row my Junior year with a temperature of 30 below zero, but nobody ever believes me. Is there some archive of weather data that I can access to verify this?
Poke around http://www.wunderground.com
However, historical weather data is tough to come by online. NOAA controls most of it and they will usually want to sell it to you. However, you might get lucky and find some weather geek’s site.
You want “Local Climatological Data” for that, which is not online. Contact the library there – Owen Library (814) 269-7300.
weather.com has daily avg.and record temps for every day of the year.I poked around searching Johnstown,and the coldest Dec.day was -20,this in '88 or '89.Incidentally those 2 years set abt.a dozen Dec.record lows for the date.
With enough time on your hands to search the coldest months (usually Jan-Feb.) you might come up with it
I see Lure beat me to the punch, but here’s my website for Chas: http://www.weather.com/weather/climatology/29412
It appears all you have to do is substitute your zipcode for mine.
It looks like the record low for Johnstown, PA is -28F in 1994, so you probably remember incorrectly. More than likely the weather reports were mentioning wind chill, as at -30, you are in danger of frostbite on any exposed skin.
Try this. Click on “data summary” then put in Johnstown FAA for location.
It looks like around Christmas in '83 is what you remember. Nasty cold, but not -30. At -15, a wind of 7 or 8 mph would put the wind chill at -30.
Thanks, all for the replies. It looks like I have some crow to eat. I ran the dates that I was in college through the database Lamar suggested, and the three coldest dates are:
Month Day Year High Low
JAN 20 1985 12 -12
JAN 21 1985 -3 -16
JAN 22 1985 19 -2
These are at the time that I remember the three day stretch of 30-below temps, but it must have been wind chill.