# What are the lowest and highest temperatures you have experienced? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [January 30, 2019, 5:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-lowest-and-highest-temperatures-you-have-experienced/828680 "2019-01-30T17:25:18Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![mikecurtis](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mikecurtis/32/3284_2.png) [@mikecurtis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mikecurtis)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2019, 10:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-lowest-and-highest-temperatures-you-have-experienced/828680/41 "2019-01-30T22:50:56Z")
> [@Johnny\_L.A](#): > > How can you tell the newcomers to Arizona? > > They’re the ones with the tans. I was working in Tempe. and on my first day of work there were maybe 10 cars already in the parking lot (that holds more than 100 cars) when I got there at 7a, and all of them were in the furthest reaches of the lot. I didn’t think too much about it and parked right next to the building. At 4p when i was leaving for the day and couldn’t get into my car beacuse it had been sitting in the sun and was easily over 200 degrees inside i realized that all the cars at the far side of the lot were sitting in the shade of some trees. Needless to say on day 2 I, too, parked over there. It was worth the walk! ---
**Author:** ![Wesley\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wesley_clark/32/20581_2.png) [@Wesley\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wesley_Clark)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2019, 11:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-lowest-and-highest-temperatures-you-have-experienced/828680/42 "2019-01-30T23:10:47Z")
Probably around -50 and +110 with wind chill and humidity. ---
**Author:** ![susan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/susan/32/17537_2.png) [@susan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/susan)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2019, 11:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-lowest-and-highest-temperatures-you-have-experienced/828680/43 "2019-01-30T23:15:01Z")
115+ in Giza, Egypt and Athens, Greece. Around 0 in New Hampshire. ---
**Author:** ![enipla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/54ee81/32.png) [@enipla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/enipla)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2019, 11:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-lowest-and-highest-temperatures-you-have-experienced/828680/44 "2019-01-30T23:22:02Z")
We always get -20f at our house at least once a year it seems. A couple of times -30f. It’s been around -8 to 10 for a low for about a month. High temps 15-30. For a high? Maybe 105. The absolute worse was a formal OUTDOOR wedding in Texas in July. High 90’s. That was nuts. Think Machine-elf has us beat for heat though - > [@](#): > > Hottest: > +115F on the Las Vegas Strip. > > On a motorcycle. > > In stop-and-go traffic. > > On a sunny day. > > In jeans, black boots, black gloves, dark-gray full-face helmet, and a black riding jacket. ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2019, 11:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-lowest-and-highest-temperatures-you-have-experienced/828680/45 "2019-01-30T23:25:52Z")
Coldest: -23F. The car wouldn’t start, so I had to walk a mile to school. Most kids didn’t show up and lots of teachers were out, so we had study hall and music practice all day. Hottest: 123F in Horseshoe Canyon in southern Utah. I drank six gallons of diluted Gatorade all day, and didn’t urinate once. Just drink and sweat. I sought out any small patch of shade. But the Great Gallery was worth it. This was near the area where [Aron Ralston](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aron_Ralston) had to amputate his own arm to free it from a boulder. ---
**Author:** ![SmartAleq](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smartaleq/32/163_2.png) [@SmartAleq](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SmartAleq)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2019, 11:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-lowest-and-highest-temperatures-you-have-experienced/828680/46 "2019-01-30T23:32:50Z")
I was raised in the Central Valley in CA so I’m very experienced with heat–I think hottest was a summer day in Redding in the mid '70s, bank thermometer was reading 124F. Of course THAT was the day we picked to come off of Lake Shasta to go grocery shopping during a camping trip! I’ve also done temps as high as 108F during SCA events while wearing full Elizabethans. Yeah, that’s fun. Coldest that I know of is about 7F, I’m a piker next to some of the people in this thread! Might have gotten colder during a winter or two in Japan but I don’t have confirmation on that. ---
**Author:** ![carrps](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carrps/32/2957_2.png) [@carrps](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carrps)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2019, 11:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-lowest-and-highest-temperatures-you-have-experienced/828680/47 "2019-01-30T23:44:52Z")
I think it was 118F in AZ well over 10 years ago. Coldest? Maybe high 20’sF? ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2019, 12:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-lowest-and-highest-temperatures-you-have-experienced/828680/48 "2019-01-31T00:05:47Z")
I’ve experienced the 20s below zero many times. Highest temperature: Most likely, 118 degrees per a bank clock when I stopped for gas in Gila Bend, AZ while headed out to San Diego about 20 years ago. My a/c was able to keep up, and it felt like I had stepped into a furnace. ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2019, 12:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-lowest-and-highest-temperatures-you-have-experienced/828680/49 "2019-01-31T00:05:56Z")
40 to 40 for me. Forty above and forty below, both here in Saskatchewan. Celsius. Not counting windchill. I think **Chefguy** wins the thread for greatest range, but he had to go from Alaska to Africa to do it. I just stayed home. 😛 ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2019, 12:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-lowest-and-highest-temperatures-you-have-experienced/828680/50 "2019-01-31T00:24:10Z")
> [@Marvin\_the\_Martian](#): > > Lowest temperature: -27F, Waukesha, WI in January 1994 > Highest temperature: 119F, Phoenix, AZ, July 2017 > > How about biggest swing in a single day? We moved from Wisconsin to Tucson in January 1994. -26F before dawn when I had to take the dog for a very short walk (we were in a hotel the night after our house was packed up). Flew to Tucson. High in Tucson that afternoon was 79F. I’d think you’d have experienced colder temperatures on Mars. ---
**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2019, 12:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-lowest-and-highest-temperatures-you-have-experienced/828680/51 "2019-01-31T00:31:57Z")
New Hampshire holds the record for being the second coldest place ever recorded on Earth at the Mount Washington Observatory, which makes it a bit hard to research hold cold it has gotten in _other_ parts of the state…I know **I** have never experienced -50F, which is the state record there. It has gotten -20F plenty of times, and I think it’s been below -30F at least 2 or 3 times in my life. As for hot, not very. It got to be 105F once. ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Girlfriend](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr.girlfriend/32/193_2.png) [@Dr.Girlfriend](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Girlfriend)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2019, 12:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-lowest-and-highest-temperatures-you-have-experienced/828680/52 "2019-01-31T00:40:26Z")
The coldest I remember it getting here is -18F right before Christmas a couple of years ago. It got up to 106F twice that I remember, most recently in 2012. ---
**Author:** ![galen\_ubal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/galen_ubal/32/4440_2.png) [@galen\_ubal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/galen_ubal)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2019, 12:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-lowest-and-highest-temperatures-you-have-experienced/828680/53 "2019-01-31T00:45:42Z")
Highest I can confirm is 45.9° C - that was the 25th of January just gone, right here. That’s almost 115° F. Highest in my memory was 50° C, on top of Hoover Dam in August - that’s 122° F. Lowest is an _extremely_ unreliable memory of -100° F (including windchill) back in Illinois in the winter of '77-'78 or so. I’m reasonably sure that actual temps were well into the negatives, but I’m having a hell of a time confirming that. ---
**Author:** ![GESancMan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gesancman/32/2923_2.png) [@GESancMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GESancMan)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2019, 1:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-lowest-and-highest-temperatures-you-have-experienced/828680/54 "2019-01-31T01:10:24Z")
> [@enipla](#): > > The absolute worse was a formal OUTDOOR wedding in Texas in July. High 90’s. That was nuts. Yeah, same here, basically. The worst heat I’ve ever experienced was not the highest temperature. I went to Dallas for a wedding in late October 2004, and it was in the upper 90s with close to 100% humidity. I’d never been to Texas before that. I wasn’t thrilled about going there to begin with, not because of the weather, but because it’s Texas. And then I got off the plane, and that goddamn heat and humidity… ugh. I would be quite happy to never have to go there again. Except that my brother moved to Austin last year… ☹ ETA: the wedding was fucking outdoors, too. ---
**Author:** ![El\_Kabong](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/el_kabong/32/496_2.png) [@El\_Kabong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/El_Kabong)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2019, 3:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-lowest-and-highest-temperatures-you-have-experienced/828680/55 "2019-01-31T03:00:57Z")
Lowest: Alaskan North Slope, March 2012, -25 F (approx.) Highest: Las Vegas, NV, 115 F, July 2011 ---
**Author:** ![AK84](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/85e7bf/32.png) [@AK84](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AK84)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2019, 3:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-lowest-and-highest-temperatures-you-have-experienced/828680/56 "2019-01-31T03:07:54Z")
Lowest, a place in Pakistani Kashmir, -35C, late 1990’s. Highest, 50C, several places. ---
**Author:** ![pkbites](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pkbites/32/204_2.png) [@pkbites](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pkbites)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2019, 3:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-lowest-and-highest-temperatures-you-have-experienced/828680/57 "2019-01-31T03:12:58Z")
Coldest -23F in Madison, Wisconsin. Hottest was 119F outside of Las Vegas, Nevada. That beat my previous record of 116F in Nagpur, India. All things considered I’d rather be hot than cold. ---
**Author:** ![sjankis630](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/7ea924/32.png) [@sjankis630](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sjankis630)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2019, 3:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-lowest-and-highest-temperatures-you-have-experienced/828680/58 "2019-01-31T03:15:19Z")
My coldest was in Harrisonburg VA back in the mid 1980s. It got down to 5 degrees that night with wind chill right about 0. i had to walk to a night class (only about 10 minutes) but halfway to the class was our post office and I stopped there before continuing. I remember thinking “my God! I can’t keep going.” And then I remembered that i would have to walk back that night anyway and so I continued on. Hottest is here in Northern VA near DC when it got to 104 degrees right after the Duracho storm which knocked out electricity for a lot of people. They had to resort to going to the Malls and movie theaters enmasse in order to charge their electronic devices and to cool off. That is with our typical 80-90% humidity. ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2019, 3:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-lowest-and-highest-temperatures-you-have-experienced/828680/59 "2019-01-31T03:29:28Z")
I’ve felt -35C in northern Ontario. On the hot side, I’ve been in Arizona for a few days around 44. I would agree though that the hottest I’ve FELT was not that 44C, but a few years back when it hit 39-40C in my neck of the woods in southern Ontario, the difference being that it was preposterously humid, making it feel like about 50C. It was awful. ---
**Author:** ![Snowboarder\_Bo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowboarder_bo/32/229_2.png) [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2019, 3:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-lowest-and-highest-temperatures-you-have-experienced/828680/60 "2019-01-31T03:42:15Z")
I think the coldest temperature I’ve experienced is maybe -5ºF (-20.5ºC) I know that the hottest temperature I’ve experienced was a ground temp of 137ºF (58ºC). That was in June of 2001, I think, in a canyon off the Colorado River in Arizona. I know that the air at head height\* was not 137ºF, but my sandal-clad feet felt every bit of it on that hike so I checked to see how hot it was. \*The rangers told me it was “at least 115ºF” (46ºC) that day when I called to ask what the recorded temp. was. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-lowest-and-highest-temperatures-you-have-experienced/828680.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-lowest-and-highest-temperatures-you-have-experienced/828680.md?page=4)