# What is the coldest weather you've ever been in? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [January 28, 2008, 7:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-coldest-weather-youve-ever-been-in/435348 "2008-01-28T19:11:07Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Meyer6](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/cc9497/32.png) [@Meyer6](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Meyer6)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2008, 2:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-coldest-weather-youve-ever-been-in/435348/61 "2008-01-29T02:47:53Z")
[QUOTE=GingerOfTheNorth] I am of the opinion that after -20c it doesn’t really matter anymore. Cold is cold. [/QUOTE] You know, I often say this when people ask me about the weather in Saskatchewan (for some reason this is an endlessly interesting subject for non-prairie dwellers). They laugh, but I swear it’s true - after -20C it gets kind of hard to tell how much colder it is. They also really enjoy when I say “Sure, it was 30 degrees below zero, but\* it’s a dry cold!”\* ---
**Author:** ![Morbo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/morbo/32/389_2.png) [@Morbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morbo)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2008, 3:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-coldest-weather-youve-ever-been-in/435348/62 "2008-01-29T03:03:04Z")
I grew up in St. Louis so I’m sure I’ve experienced plenty of below-freezing days in my life. But it’s nothing like similar temperatures in Chicago. Trying to walk around in the Loop when it’s 5 degrees - you may as well be wearing a swimsuit b/c the wind is tearing through whatever you thought was warm enough in about two seconds. ---
**Author:** ![MadPansy64](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/dc4da7/32.png) [@MadPansy64](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MadPansy64)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2008, 3:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-coldest-weather-youve-ever-been-in/435348/63 "2008-01-29T03:34:23Z")
[QUOTE=Lamar Mundane] I don’t mean to pick on you - this is my own pet peeve, I admit. The second claim isn’t even close to true, not in Vermont, not in Minnesota or North Dakota, not even in Fairbanks. That kind of consistent cold doesn’t happen outside of the Arctic/Antarctic circles. [/QUOTE] -20 or so, not counting windchill, used to be fairly typical for the Denver area for a week or 10 days at a stretch in Denver CO in early winter, back when the readings were at Stapleton Field. Not every year, but often enough it wasn’t record breaking. Below zero for an entire damn month wouldn’t be that much of a stretch. Or are you getting twitchy about below zero for exactly 524,169 minutes in row without a break? That 4 1/2 minute Daily High reading of plus zero point-five at 1503 on day 30 ruin it for you? Gunnison, Alamosa and Frazier Park, CO, as well as Havre, West Yellowstone and Cut Bank, MT have a bunch of oldtimers (most of whom aren’t that damn old) who’ll tell you you’re full of it, too. Teeny little towns that regularly experience extreme temps and aren’t big enough to have an authorized NOAA station, but every swinging dick in the county has a couple or three thermometers hanging on the side of every building on the property count as liars? Or are they simply delusional? Oh, yeah, they have other things to do, and don’t write it down every hour on the hour. Liars, every one, of course. Cupcake, if the entire coffee shop, on the day after Christmas, is arguing about whether it’s been -32 or -35 since Thanksgiving or the day before, ya might oughta hush your mouth and listen to 'em. You might learn something. Don’t be calling people liars unless you actually have access to certified records of the temperature of every spot on earth for a significant time frame. Yes, people are often inaccuate, tend to exaggerate and the older the memory, the even less reliable. That doesn’t mean everyone is lying because it doesn’t happen to match your point of view. ---
**Author:** ![Fetchund](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/b2d939/32.png) [@Fetchund](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fetchund)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2008, 3:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-coldest-weather-youve-ever-been-in/435348/64 "2008-01-29T03:41:46Z")
-40 F north of Brainerd, MN about ten years ago. No wind, so it felt pleasant - we went calling for owls, but I think they were frozen. Looks like the record here for consecutive cold is about 5 days without reaching zero. ---
**Author:** ![Cunctator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/43a26b/32.png) [@Cunctator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cunctator)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2008, 3:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-coldest-weather-youve-ever-been-in/435348/65 "2008-01-29T03:45:21Z")
Moscow in winter, at -20 ---
**Author:** ![artemis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/91b2a8/32.png) [@artemis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/artemis)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2008, 3:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-coldest-weather-youve-ever-been-in/435348/66 "2008-01-29T03:49:16Z")
-30 F (with windchill of about -80 F), in Iowa, back in the early 1980s. Just thinking about those temps makes me feel a bit better about global warming. I’m becoming a weather-wimp in my middle age! ---
**Author:** ![Lamar\_Mundane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/85f322/32.png) [@Lamar\_Mundane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamar_Mundane)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2008, 3:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-coldest-weather-youve-ever-been-in/435348/67 "2008-01-29T03:51:23Z")
[QUOTE=MadPansy64] -20 or so, not counting windchill, used to be fairly typical for the Denver area for a week or 10 days at a stretch in Denver CO in early winter, back when the readings were at Stapleton Field. Not every year, but often enough it wasn’t record breaking. Below zero for an entire damn month wouldn’t be that much of a stretch. Or are you getting twitchy about below zero for exactly 524,169 minutes in row without a break? That 4 1/2 minute Daily High reading of plus zero point-five at 1503 on day 30 ruin it for you? Gunnison, Alamosa and Frazier Park, CO, as well as Havre, West Yellowstone and Cut Bank, MT have a bunch of oldtimers (most of whom aren’t that damn old) who’ll tell you you’re full of it, too. Teeny little towns that regularly experience extreme temps and aren’t big enough to have an authorized NOAA station, but every swinging dick in the county has a couple or three thermometers hanging on the side of every building on the property count as liars? Or are they simply delusional? Oh, yeah, they have other things to do, and don’t write it down every hour on the hour. Liars, every one, of course. Cupcake, if the entire coffee shop, on the day after Christmas, is arguing about whether it’s been -32 or -35 since Thanksgiving or the day before, ya might oughta hush your mouth and listen to 'em. You might learn something. Don’t be calling people liars unless you actually have access to certified records of the temperature of every spot on earth for a significant time frame. Yes, people are often inaccuate, tend to exaggerate and the older the memory, the even less reliable. That doesn’t mean everyone is lying because it doesn’t happen to match your point of view. [/QUOTE] Sorry, you’re completely wrong. I live in the Denver area and I am a meteorologist. I am willing to bet that the temps at Stapleton have _never_ been below -20 F for even 48 hours let alone a week. The records are freely available with a little searching. Being below zero for a month would not only be a stretch, it would be about 40 degrees from the truth. I don’t give “Oldtimers” any more credit than anyone else, especially when records are available. ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2008, 4:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-coldest-weather-youve-ever-been-in/435348/68 "2008-01-29T04:10:20Z")
The very coldest I can remember is a clipper in North Dakota that dropped ambient temps to -60 F, with windchills of over 100 below. That kind of cold is rare in ND but they get days like that every few years. Ambient temps in January and February stay at sub-zero for weeks on end (usually single digits or teens) with occasional dips to 20, 30, 40 below. I can remember more than one instance of 60-80 below windchills and twice when the windhills broke 100. Let me tell you, a day like that makes you appreciate 20 below. Those Alberta Clippers are a bitch. ---
**Author:** ![Lamar\_Mundane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/85f322/32.png) [@Lamar\_Mundane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamar_Mundane)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2008, 4:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-coldest-weather-youve-ever-been-in/435348/69 "2008-01-29T04:16:07Z")
[QUOTE=Diogenes the Cynic] The very coldest I can remember is a clipper in North Dakota that dropped ambient temps to -60 F, with windchills of over 100 below. That kind of cold is rare in ND but they get days like that every few years. [/quote] Yes, this is true. > [@](#): > > Ambient temps in January and February stay at sub-zero for weeks on end (usually single digits or teens) with occasional dips to 20, 30, 40 below. This is not. It is amazing how much BS is being presented in this thread. It must be close to the record. P.S. There is B.S. already in the “Hottest Weather” thread also. I don’t understand it when the data is so readily available. P.S.S. The all-time record coldest temperature recorded in ND was -60F. So I am guilty as well of posting bogus information. ---
**Author:** ![thirdwarning](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ecccb3/32.png) [@thirdwarning](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thirdwarning)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2008, 4:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-coldest-weather-youve-ever-been-in/435348/70 "2008-01-29T04:29:16Z")
I remember three separate times when the temperature was -25/26: second weekend of January, 1982; Christmas Eve, 1983; and I know there was one other, but I can’t pin it down. I’m pretty sure I hear about windchills of -80, and we did our very best to stay inside the whole time. Of course, we spent the Christmas Eve at my in-laws and they didn’t have heat, but we managed with the stove. That first one, my husband came back from a bowling tournament and set his bowling bag in the back of the car on top of the laundry basket, you know, the basket with the nice soft bendy plastic? It snapped right off. We got stranded at my parents’ house for an extra day (the Monday after the weekend) because our car wouldn’t start. ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2008, 4:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-coldest-weather-youve-ever-been-in/435348/71 "2008-01-29T04:38:01Z")
[QUOTE=Lamar Mundane] Yes, this is true. This is not. [/quote] Yes it is, buddy. I lived through it for years, and I don’t appreciate being called a liar. ---
**Author:** ![Lamar\_Mundane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/85f322/32.png) [@Lamar\_Mundane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamar_Mundane)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2008, 4:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-coldest-weather-youve-ever-been-in/435348/72 "2008-01-29T04:40:23Z")
[QUOTE=Diogenes the Cynic] Yes it is, buddy. I lived through it for years, and I don’t appreciate being called a liar. [/QUOTE] No it isn’t, buddy. The records are available for anyone to see. You didn’t live through it for years, and neither did anybody else in North Dakota. ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2008, 4:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-coldest-weather-youve-ever-been-in/435348/73 "2008-01-29T04:42:15Z")
Minus 20 degrees Fahrenheit, Columbine, Colorado. There was a thread early last year about hottest and coldest temps experienced. ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2008, 4:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-coldest-weather-youve-ever-been-in/435348/74 "2008-01-29T04:47:08Z")
[QUOTE=Lamar Mundane] No it isn’t, buddy. The records are available for anyone to see. You didn’t live through it for years, and neither did anybody else in North Dakota. [/QUOTE] [Cite](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Climate_of_Grand_Forks,_North_Dakota#Temperature) The average daily low in January for Grand Forks, North Dakota (where I lived for years) is -4F. There are _many_ times where the temperature stays below zero (ok, maybe it creeps up into the single digits above for a few hours a day) for weeks at a time. You are talking without knowledge. ---
**Author:** ![Kythereia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/e8c25b/32.png) [@Kythereia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kythereia)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2008, 4:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-coldest-weather-youve-ever-been-in/435348/75 "2008-01-29T04:53:57Z")
-35 C (which translates to -31 F), one howling, blustery, snowy, fierce winter evening in Toronto. I think I was still poking at my face to get some feeling in it twenty minutes after I got inside. ---
**Author:** ![Lamar\_Mundane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/85f322/32.png) [@Lamar\_Mundane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamar_Mundane)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2008, 4:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-coldest-weather-youve-ever-been-in/435348/76 "2008-01-29T04:54:29Z")
[QUOTE=Diogenes the Cynic] [Cite](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Climate_of_Grand_Forks,_North_Dakota#Temperature) The average daily low in January for Grand Forks, North Dakota (where I lived for years) is -4F. There are _many_ times where the temperature stays below zero (ok, maybe it creeps up into the single digits above for a few hours a day) for weeks at a time. You are talking without knowledge. [/QUOTE] You’re smarter than this, DtC. If you believe that the temps go to -60F on a regular basis as you have posted, you must know that the temps must go a lot higher than single digits to average -4F. This isn’t a game of whether Jesus fulfilled all the Old Testament prophesies or whether he was born in Galilee or Bethlehem - we have records for this. You simply are wrong, as are many in this thread. I am open to proof showing that my impressions are wrong. Feel free to humiliate me, just use actual records, not your remembrances of when you were a kid - the records are freely available. ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2008, 5:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-coldest-weather-youve-ever-been-in/435348/77 "2008-01-29T05:04:54Z")
[QUOTE=Lamar Mundane] You’re smarter than this, DtC. If you believe that the temps go to -60F on a regular basis as you have posted, you must know that the temps must go a lot higher than single digits to average -4F. This isn’t a game of whether Jesus fulfilled all the Old Testament prophesies or whether he was born in Galilee or Bethlehem - we have records for this. You simply are wrong, as are many in this thread. I am open to proof showing that my impressions are wrong. Feel free to humiliate me, just use actual records, not your remembrances of when you were a kid - the records are freely available. [/QUOTE] 1. I didn’t say the temps go to -60 “on a regular basis,” I said it happened once in my memory. I did say “days like that” happen on occasion, but they’re usually not quite that extreme. -20 is routine and -40 is not unusual. 2. I already posted the cite that the average daily _low_ in Grand Forks for January is -4 degrees. I’m here to tell you that I have seens cold snaps that lasted two or three weeks where the temps did not get above single digits and where the overnight lows were _always_ well below zero. Where’s **Duffer**? He lived in that wasteland too. He’ll back me up. ---
**Author:** ![Lamar\_Mundane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/85f322/32.png) [@Lamar\_Mundane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamar_Mundane)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2008, 5:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-coldest-weather-youve-ever-been-in/435348/78 "2008-01-29T05:11:24Z")
[QUOTE=Diogenes the Cynic] Ambient temps in January and February stay at sub-zero for weeks on end (usually single digits or teens) with occasional dips to 20, 30, 40 below. I can remember more than one instance of 60-80 below windchills and twice when the windhills broke 100. [/QUOTE] This is what you said. There are numerous sources for weather data. Another anecdote isn’t going to make a difference when the actual data proves your point as false. ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Whisperer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cat_whisperer/32/4839_2.png) [@Cat\_Whisperer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Whisperer)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2008, 5:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-coldest-weather-youve-ever-been-in/435348/79 "2008-01-29T05:26:32Z")
[QUOTE=Diogenes the Cynic] \Those Alberta Clippers are a bitch. [/QUOTE] Tell me about it. We don’t call them Alberta Clippers here, of course; we just call it a North Wind. Everyone knows what you’re talking about (the wind blowing from the north in winter is never a good thing). So you guys should be getting this tomorrow, then? 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2008, 5:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-coldest-weather-youve-ever-been-in/435348/80 "2008-01-29T05:28:03Z")
[QUOTE=Lamar Mundane] This is what you said. There are numerous sources for weather data. Another anecdote isn’t going to make a difference when the actual data proves your point as false. [/QUOTE] That’s _windchill_ I was talking about. Do you not know the difference between ambiemnt temperature and windchill? Yes, 40-60 below windchills happena all the time in ND. That’s a fact. The _ambient_ temps don’t usually get that low but it happens every once in a while. Just for the hell of it, I looked at the current forecast for Grand Forks. What do you know. It looks like things are pretty chilly as we speak and getting chillier by the hour. Overnight lows in the single digits below tonight with a windchill of -30, then it’s going to sink even more to -25 on wednesday with a windchill as low as -46. That’s just picking a couple of random January weekdays. That sounds completely ordinary for that town. > **[National and Local Weather Radar, Daily Forecast, Hurricane and information...](https://weather.com/?begHour=23&begDay=29)** > > The Weather Channel and weather.com provide a national and local weather forecast for cities, as well as weather radar, report and hurricane coverage [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-coldest-weather-youve-ever-been-in/435348.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-coldest-weather-youve-ever-been-in/435348.md?page=5)