Most extreme temps...your experiences?

[Susan Strom]

Late June...Phoenix, Arizona. Gets me thinking about temperature extremes I have experienced in my life. Nothing like today's 114 degree F wind and two power outages to crystallize my memories of intense desert heat. The plus side? It's late June and the sky is hinting at Monsoon.

So what are the most extreme temperatures you have felt?

Mine:

Hottest: 125 degrees F, Laughlin, Nevada...a blast furnace in the face.

Coldest: -30 degrees F below zero, at the top of a ski lift at Incline Lake Tahoe, California/Nevada border. My Neoprene face mask actually froze that day.

 

[John Diel]

124F White Sands Missile Range, Stallion Range Center
-34F New Ipswich, New Hampshire

Had some Germans come out to WSMR in the summer once. One of the Officers was heard to say "This may not be Hell, but you can certainly see the gates!"

 

[Chris Wilburn]

Hottest: 108 in Las Vegas

Coldest: -7 in Miami, OK (where I grew up)


We have also been up to 105 in Miami, OK several times. I think Oklahoma has to have one of the most extreme weather changes from Summer to Winter, meaning we can get up to 105 in the Summer and as low as around 0 to -5 in the Winter.

 

[Melissa Moon]

Hottest...don't know the exact temperature but it was probably about 110 or maybe more driving through the Mojave desert (no a/c).

Coldest was about -5 at the Grand canyon at sunrise in January. It may have been as low as -10; I don't remember exactly, but it was somewhere in that ballpark.

 

[nickgrillo]

I grew up in MI, therefore, I have plenty of expierence with extremely cold temperatures. The most extreme cold temperature that I had to deal with occured back in 1994, when it go around to -20F and even colder in some locations here around Detroit. I am not sure about the hottest, but probably around or just above 105F...

 

[Simone Lussardi]

Hottest: Wuhan, central China, July 17th 2002, 39C with 74% r.h., led to a heat index of over 60C. An hell...

Coldest: I was young but... I remember the bottles of spirit exploding. Brescia, Italy, January 1985, -22C. After that it snows for a week or so led to over a meter accumulation.

:wink:

 

[Ken Johnson]

Hottest: 107 for two straight days in Jackson, Miss (drought of 2000)
Coldest: -3 on top of a ski lift in Jackson Hole Wyoming. The wind chill was much lower than that... It was the coldest I ever felt. I thought my legs were going to break.

 

[David Wolfson]

Northfield, Vermont -- something like -45F, when the right rear wheel bearing froze solid on my friends Jeep and twisted right off the axle

Tucson, Arizona -- biked home at 118F

 

[Charles Kuster]

Hottest: 128F in Death Valley (Furnace Creek). We were actually chasing heat. :lol: It was a really bad year for storms for us.

Coldest: -31F in Leadville, Colorado. This actually came on March 2nd and it set a record low temp for March.

 

[Jeff Wear]

hottest was 113F in Turlock CA and coldest was 8F in Norman OK

 

[Kevin Myatt]

110 F, Aug 1980
-9 F, Jan 1985

Both were in my birthplace town, Jonesboro, Arkansas

 

[Joel Wright]

Hottest ambient temperature I've felt was in the Sacramento Valley in CA with temperatures nearing 110°.

The highest heat index was right here in the Quad Cities of 131° in June of 1995. (The official Moline ob at the time was an unbelievable 100°/80° I believe)

Coldest temp was -28° in Feb of '97 I believe here in the Quad Cities.

 

[John Massura]

Hottest: 106, Chicago, July 13, 1995 (day of the killer heat wave)
Coldest: around -20 or so, with wind chills around -60. Chicago, Mid/late January 1994.

On the cold day, I actually had a student driving test, and our car stalled on I-55. We had to walk a couple blocks to an exit ramp before a state tropper pulled us over to take us to a shelter. He then totally bitched out the instructor for taking us out that day.

 

[Jason McKittrick]

The day of the 1988 Council Bluffs, Ia tornado, July 15. While the temperature alone, 92, was not that impressive when you factor the dewpoint of, 84, the heat index officially at Eppley Airfield reached 128 at 3PM.

 

[Greg Campbell]

Hot.
Upper 120's (5 ft off the ground) at the Keane Mine in Death Valley. Swirling winds prevented a stable measurement, but the hottest gusts were around 130. Ground level was over 180 and certainly would have reached boiling if not for the wind. At least it was a dry heat! (Actually, it didn't feel all that bad. Those crazy heat index numbers others have survived sound utterly unbearable.)

Not.
Somewhere around -35F in Mitchell, South Dakota, after a typical(?) winter cold front blew by.

-Greg