# What's the coldest outdoor temperature you've ever experienced? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [January 2, 2018, 8:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-coldest-outdoor-temperature-youve-ever-experienced/805743 "2018-01-02T08:10:47Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![mcgato](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ac8455/32.png) [@mcgato](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mcgato)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2018, 2:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-coldest-outdoor-temperature-youve-ever-experienced/805743/23 "2018-01-02T14:56:54Z")
I grew up in Minnesota, so I saw -30 F or slightly colder numerous times. My first job after college was in the Ft. Lauderdale, FL, area. First Christmas, I fly home. Temp in Ft. Lauderdale going to the airport was 85 F. Walking out of the airport in Minneapolis was -25 F. Nice shift of 110 F over the course of the flight. It took me a few tries to get air into my lungs in Minneapolis. ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2018, 3:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-coldest-outdoor-temperature-youve-ever-experienced/805743/24 "2018-01-02T15:14:04Z")
I was unlucky enough to have been in Boot camp in Great Lakes (near Chicago) on Jan 20, 1985 for > [@](#): > > [The coldest day ever in Chicago](http://chicago.cbslocal.com/2011/02/10/coldest-days-ever-in-chicago/)was Jan. 20, 1985 at 27 below zero, **with wind chills around 70 below**. Being from New Jersey this was brutal enough for me but over half our company was from the south and most of them could not even deal with this at all. We had marched over for breakfast but after that we did not leave the barracks and had box lunches & dinners IIRC. ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2018, 3:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-coldest-outdoor-temperature-youve-ever-experienced/805743/25 "2018-01-02T15:17:17Z")
> [@Broomstick](#): > > -27 F / -33 C - January 20, 1985 in Chicago. Official temp of the coldest day ever recorded there. > [@Jophiel](#): > > Pretty sure that I was out and about for the coldest recorded day in Chicago and it was supposedly even colder (though not recorded) in the suburbs. Wiki suggests -30F in Aurora. I remember getting in my head to walk somewhere (I would have been 11 or 12) and bundling up in layers upon layers until only my eyes were exposed. Went outside and immediately thought “Wow, my eyes are cold” and went back inside to grab a pair of swimming goggles. Funny I had talked about that day for a long time and then I looked it up within the last 10 years and saw I was lucky enough to have been there for the coldest day. The wind was unreal, biting is the right word. ---
**Author:** ![DesertDog](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/desertdog/32/11503_2.png) [@DesertDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DesertDog)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2018, 3:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-coldest-outdoor-temperature-youve-ever-experienced/805743/26 "2018-01-02T15:23:37Z")
One fine morning in [Milbridge, Maine](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milbridge,_Maine) the radio was reporting it was -10F in Ellsworth, about 40 miles away. It had to be colder than that where I was because I’ve never been so cold, not even in Iceland. When I left for work my first inhalation made my sinuses hurt. The second, they stopped hurting which was actually more worrisome. I had to pull hard to open the door on my VW not because it was frozen in place but because the grease on the hinges was solidified. It barely started and, being a VW, never really what you could call warm on the way into work, some fifteen miles away. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2018, 3:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-coldest-outdoor-temperature-youve-ever-experienced/805743/27 "2018-01-02T15:23:44Z")
-23 F back in 1971 in Schenectady. I was in college and had to walk to classes. My beard froze. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2018, 3:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-coldest-outdoor-temperature-youve-ever-experienced/805743/28 "2018-01-02T15:33:49Z")
-37F at the North Slope of Alaska in Feb. I was there for 2 weeks and the warmest it ever got was -17. You do not turn off the engines of your vehicle unless you can plug in the heaters they have. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2018, 3:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-coldest-outdoor-temperature-youve-ever-experienced/805743/29 "2018-01-02T15:42:58Z")
> [@Iggy](#): > > I remember packing my coat into my bag as I checked in at Chicago O’Hare. Of course that coat was going into my checked baggage. > > Only later did I find out there was no jetway for our plane I so I walked across the tarmac in -29°F weather with a wind chill of -64°F for boarding. This would be mine, except it was -27F (coldest officially recorded temp in Chicago, on Jan 29, 1985–but there have been colder temps in Chicago metro recorded). I remember waiting at the bus stop with my mom to go to a friend’s house to watch the Super Bowl. Wind chills got to 77 below that day. (The Chicago record for wind chill is -82 on Christmas Eve 1983, but I don’t remember that day. I should, because I know where I would have been, but it didn’t leave an impression on me the way the Super Bowl temps did.) ---
**Author:** ![Sunspace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunspace/32/1250_2.png) [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2018, 3:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-coldest-outdoor-temperature-youve-ever-experienced/805743/30 "2018-01-02T15:47:47Z")
Coldest? -35C(-25F)… The night before last near Bancroft, Ontario. I’ve felt that temperature before in Bancroft, but never colder. My aunt, of course, is from Saskatchewan and scoffs at us wimps and our ‘extreme cold warnings’. It was pretty much windless the night before last. Any wind at all would have made things much, much worse. ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2018, 3:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-coldest-outdoor-temperature-youve-ever-experienced/805743/31 "2018-01-02T15:50:56Z")
Having spent most of my life in Maryland, Virginia, and points south, my exposure to extreme cold is limited. One winter in the mid-1990s when I lived there, it hit -14°F in Bristol, VA. (That’s -25.55…° C., if I did the arithmetic right.) That’s all I’ve got. ---
**Author:** ![OldGuy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/3bc359/32.png) [@OldGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OldGuy)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2018, 3:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-coldest-outdoor-temperature-youve-ever-experienced/805743/32 "2018-01-02T15:54:10Z")
Not peak coldness, but I was living in Chicago in the winter of 1977-78 when it didn’t get above freezing from December 28 until Feb 8. The next winter was pretty bad too. Those two winters are two of the three worst Chicago winters in the past 100 years. The other being 1966-7. ---
**Author:** ![OldGuy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/3bc359/32.png) [@OldGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OldGuy)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2018, 3:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-coldest-outdoor-temperature-youve-ever-experienced/805743/33 "2018-01-02T15:57:10Z")
> [@Sunspace](#): > > Coldest? -35C(-25F). -35C is -31F -25F is -32C take your pick. ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2018, 3:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-coldest-outdoor-temperature-youve-ever-experienced/805743/34 "2018-01-02T15:57:35Z")
-62F (without wind chill) in Fairbanks, Alaska in either 1965 or '66 when I was at the University there. Frostbit both ears in short order, as related in another thread. Fairbanks routinely hits -30 or -40 in winter. Oil freezes, gasoline gels, tires get frozen flat on the bottoms. Lovely place. ---
**Author:** ![naita](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/naita/32/5862_2.png) [@naita](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/naita)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2018, 3:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-coldest-outdoor-temperature-youve-ever-experienced/805743/35 "2018-01-02T15:59:42Z")
The temperature dropping a degree or three below -20 C on the coldest days of winter wasn’t uncommon in my part of Norway when I grew up, and I don’t recall the temperature of any particular record colds beyond that. There likely weren’t any and we’d just go to school as usual, although probably putting on extra socks and our felt “extreme-cold” boots. ([https://www.protexshop.no/products/nesnalobben-original-voksen](https://www.protexshop.no/products/nesnalobben-original-voksen) ) ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2018, 4:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-coldest-outdoor-temperature-youve-ever-experienced/805743/36 "2018-01-02T16:01:52Z")
-5 in 1997. That was my first winter here in RI. Much earlier the temp was reported that low in PA and MD. These were brief overnight lows, rarely gets below 0 at all in the these regions. ---
**Author:** ![Cardigan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cardigan/32/187_2.png) [@Cardigan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cardigan)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2018, 4:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-coldest-outdoor-temperature-youve-ever-experienced/805743/37 "2018-01-02T16:06:38Z")
-20 something F here in MI. I distinctly remember my facial hair freezing while I was shoveling the driveway. ---
**Author:** ![Sunspace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunspace/32/1250_2.png) [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2018, 4:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-coldest-outdoor-temperature-youve-ever-experienced/805743/38 "2018-01-02T16:08:27Z")
> [@OldGuy](#): > > -35C is -31F -25F is -32C take your pick. Oh yes. I’d posted -32C (-25F) on Facebook when it hit that temperature, but it bottomed out at -35C. So -31F it is! ---
**Author:** ![P-man](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/p-man/32/3606_2.png) [@P-man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/P-man)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2018, 4:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-coldest-outdoor-temperature-youve-ever-experienced/805743/39 "2018-01-02T16:14:29Z")
> [@RTFirefly](#): > > Having spent most of my life in Maryland, Virginia, and points south, my exposure to extreme cold is limited. > > One winter in the mid-1990s when I lived there, it hit -14°F in Bristol, VA. (That’s -25.55…° C., if I did the arithmetic right.) That’s all I’ve got. Whoa, I moved away just in time. I’m pretty sure it got below zero when I was growing up there, but probably not that cold. I don’t think I’ve experienced subzero temps in NYC or my current digs near DC, although it could get close in the next few days. Number two son’s first choice of colleges? Ithaca. Any complaint about the cold now will likely elicit a reply of “are you sure you want to spend your next four winters in Ithaca?” from Ms. P and me. ---
**Author:** ![Ravenman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ravenman/32/2929_2.png) [@Ravenman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ravenman)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2018, 4:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-coldest-outdoor-temperature-youve-ever-experienced/805743/40 "2018-01-02T16:16:01Z")
I was in Deadhorse, Alaska in February where it was something like -40F with wind chill. Then I flew up north to the Arctic icepack, where it was more like -20F or something. I learned that the ocean under the ice moderates the temperature a little. Makes sense, but never would have thought of that before going up there. ---
**Author:** ![burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/burpo_the_wonder_mutt/32/365_2.png) [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/burpo_the_wonder_mutt)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2018, 4:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-coldest-outdoor-temperature-youve-ever-experienced/805743/41 "2018-01-02T16:23:38Z")
> [@RTFirefly](#): > > Having spent most of my life in Maryland, Virginia, and points south, my exposure to extreme cold is limited. > > One winter in the mid-1990s when I lived there, it hit -14°F in Bristol, VA. (That’s -25.55…° C., if I did the arithmetic right.) That’s all I’ve got. > [@P-man](#): > > Whoa, I moved away just in time. I’m pretty sure it got below zero when I was growing up there, but probably not that cold. I don’t think I’ve experienced subzero temps in NYC or my current digs near DC, although it could get close in the next few days. Number two son’s first choice of colleges? Ithaca. Any complaint about the cold now will likely elicit a reply of “are you sure you want to spend your next four winters in Ithaca?” from Ms. P and me. One Xmas day in the early 1980s, it got down to 0[sup]o[/sup]F in the Balto metro area with a wind chill (according to the TV) of -50[sup]o[/sup] :rolleyes:. Didn’t seem _that_ cold. But during the 25 mile trip to Grandma’s house, there were 102 cars broken down on the Beltway. I kid you not. Presumably all froze up. ---
**Author:** ![puzzlegal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puzzlegal/32/3827_2.png) [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2018, 4:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-coldest-outdoor-temperature-youve-ever-experienced/805743/42 "2018-01-02T16:30:15Z")
Im clearly a softie. I don’t think i’ve been outdoors colder than -10F, or maybe -15F. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-coldest-outdoor-temperature-youve-ever-experienced/805743.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-coldest-outdoor-temperature-youve-ever-experienced/805743.md?page=3)