Get your chill on

Bloomington, Indiana reached -27F one very early morning last winter. I was not outside or even awake. Coldest wind chill I've ever felt was prolly around -30F in Tomah, Wisconsin, where I spent a few years growing up, and later in the Twin Cities in January of 1997, where my new job (based in S Florida!) sent me on an assignment. Nice of them, eh?
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That reminds of the time back in 1997 (I think, or 96) when the governor (NOT Jesse Ventura at the time lol) closed school statewide for cold weather. Windchills were colder than -60 (using the old scale) across the entire state, well they were forecast to be anyways. Highs ranged from -10 in the far south to -30 in the north I think, though temps near the Twin Cities stayed in the -10-20 range most of the daylight hours. Whatever it was, it was dang cold, that's all I know.
 
Bloomington, Indiana reached -27F one very early morning last winter. I was not outside or even awake. Coldest wind chill I've ever felt was prolly around -30F in Tomah, Wisconsin, where I spent a few years growing up, and later in the Twin Cities in January of 1997, where my new job (based in S Florida!) sent me on an assignment. Nice of them, eh?
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That reminds of the time back in 1997 (I think, or 96) when the governor (NOT Jesse Ventura at the time lol) closed school statewide for cold weather. Windchills were colder than -60 (using the old scale) across the entire state, well they were forecast to be anyways. Highs ranged from -10 in the far south to -30 in the north I think, though temps near the Twin Cities stayed in the -10-20 range most of the daylight hours. Whatever it was, it was dang cold, that's all I know.
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Dude, that's when I was there! Now I remember the news talking about the coldest winter in X number of years, and all my friends thought it was hilarious that I got sent up there just then. Especially since the company HQ (where my office was) was in Fort Lauderdale. I stayed in a motel in the Twin Cities and remember the wind howling underneath the door at night. What a nightmare.
 
-5F in Montgomery, WV back in either 1994 or 1995, don't remember the date. We put small glasses of water on the outside windowsill and watched the water quickly freeze. Didn't go outside ;)
 
I have seen some COLD winters, but the winter of '88-'89 was a memorable one. I was living in Sandpoint, Idaho and the house we lived in had hot water piping for heat. Well, I do remember seeing -20F on my thermometer with out windchill, but know it got colder. Anyways, in a nutshell- major snowstorm with sub freezing temps, pipes froze and broke in 17 places in the house (we are talking inside closets, bathroom, living room, etc) and thankfully had installed a rudementary woodstove that fall and had chopped 3 cords of wood. The 4 of us (the ex, me, 3 yr old son and daughter, 6mo) lived in one corner of the livingroom (next to wood stove) with all exits/doorways/windows blocked by blankets and plastic sheeting. Lived like that for 4 days, until the weather broke and we could attempt to get somewhere safer until we fixed the pipes. No water, no cooking except on top of the wood stove. Was a trip to say the least! :shock:
At that time I drove a '47 Willys Jeep and parked on the snow berms since the roads were always one narrow lane each way and over 6' berms on each side every winter. No typo, it was a '47, I miss that Willys.... :D
 
I remember one of the Christmas's in the mid-1990s when the temperature at my house (near St. Paul, MN), read with an accurate thermometer, got to -30F.
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Not sure if it was the same arctic outbreak, but I was visiting family in Marquette, MI for Christmas in the mid '90s, and the temp hit -32F one morning. It may have been '96, when Marquette, MI set a record for snowfall (lake effect snow, strongly related to arctic outbreaks)... They got something like 16-20FT of snow for the winter (actually from fall through spring). When I was there, they had 4-5FT on the ground... When they get snow up there, you usually have to wait until mid spring for it to ALL melt off...
 
Coldest temperature I've experienced was around -24°F on January 19, 1994 in the Cincinnati area. A severe winter storm has hit the area the day before, with widespread 1/2" ice accumulation and around 6-7 inches of snow in the metro area (nearly 2 feet in isolated areas south of the Ohio River). I don't really recall there being a wind chill. The high temperature on the 19th barely made it to zero.
 
Hah, I have you all beat!

Coldest temp I ever experienced was -60F (and below) with -100F windchills. I worked in a freeze dry company and the food had to be chilled to these temps (using huge fans to supercool them, hence the high windchills), before they could go into the vacuum chambers. Needless to say, we wore US military issue arctic survival gear and when you were moving around multi-ton carts laden with frozen food, you really worked up a sweat.

Coldest temps I have experienced outdoors were in 1978, when it hit -10F at my home in Mt. Angel, OR. This was in NW Oregon. Oregon's coldest temp, -56F, was recorded back in the 1930's in Seneca, in a high valley in eastern Oregon; for a long time it was the official low temp of the lower 48 states.
 
-30F while shooting photos of ice fishing activities on Seymour Lake in Morgan, Vermont a couple winters ago.

There was a decent breeze too... had on about 3 pairs of socks but still my toes went numb in the matter of minutes!

Do I miss it? Absolutely! Cold weather is good for you, it builds character, and it gives you bragging rights when you move to the desert :)
 
-18 sometime in late 90s. It was actually in March too. Sort of odd how it works cause every few years we get a couple week stretch here where it's -5 to -10 at night and up to 0 to 5 during the day. Not untypical to have highs below zero for a few days. It's so enjoyable having a job outside in that crap. At least being in a cold region means summers aren't bad......errrrrr, not. Liking this 'summer' so far however.
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I'm not sure of the year but I remember a year in the early to mid 90's where it was -21 with -60 windchills.

I hate Nebraska winters but agree this summer ROCKS. Its not often I get to wear a sweatshirt and sweats at the end of June.
 
I lived in the MSP area as a kid from '63 to '68, and I don't know about actual temps, but I know on weekends we were out on the pond playing hockey all day in sub-zero temps.

I moved to Denver just in time for Christmas-time 1983, when Denver's record stretch of sub-zero (F) temps was set. I think it was about 5 days when the temp stayed below zero.

Bob
 
The coldest I recall is about -20 ºC, or -4 ºF, during a couple of winters here in southern Ontario... last winter was one of them, and I could not stand it at all. I hate the cold period!!! Pretty ironic coming from a winter born Canadian, EH?
 
The winter of 1989 has the lowest ever recorded temperature for Kansas City. It was -23 degrees on Dec. 22nd and 23rd. I had a BMW that was stranded for a week at school that wouldn't even start with a jump start because temperatures were so cold.
 
-43 C
-63 C Windchill

I biked to the University that day and made a note of the temperature so I would not forget it. I know it was February about 8 years ago but the notepad that I wrote on that day is stuffed somewhere around here. My gears on my bike were like mixing molasses all the way. I will never do that again.

Jared
 
Somewhere around -25F (as reported by local TV) in Mitchell (home of the World Famous Corn Palace!). S.D.

I'd been driving cross-country along I-90 on a fair winter day; clear sky and temps in the high 20's. Around 3 pm, the wind picked up a bit and the sky took on an 'odd' character. I turned on the radio (DOH!) and heard...blizzard warning! :oops: I figured I'd better get the hell off the road and, fortunately, Mitchell was just around the corner. About 15 minutes after arriving, the strorm hit like a brick wall. Wow! Within < 5 minutes, the weather went absolutely berzerk: Sunny with a light breeze became 40+MPH winds, plummeting temps, horizontal snow, and 20 ft visibility. Having lived in central Ca. for most of my life, this was an incredible experience. The storm blew out around 2am, leaving deep drifts and intense cold.

-Greg
 
I experienced -22 at night according to local ski reports while skiing in CO back in the early 90's. Being from Florida, I thought I was doing good by surviving the cold during the day. My buddies and I thought it would be cool to try night skiing one time. When we got to the lifts, nobody was there and we thought this was going to be perfect because we'd have the ski runs to ourselves. Well that thought was short lived because once I got on the lifts, it started to get colder the further up we went. I was so cold and that I felt as though I'd never make it off the lift alive. I still do not know how millions of people can live in such cold weather, but I do know I did very much enjoy the snow storm we had when I was in CO and also experiencing my first thunder snow as well. I guess if I had that to look forward to, then it may not be so bad.
 
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