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All the talk about cold weather. What is the coldest you

G

gmccool

Well-known Member
For me it was -56C which converts to -69F Here is my story. When I lived in Faro Yukon Canada I built houses for the native band in Rose River Yukon. That is where the Rose river empties into the Pelly river and it is a area shaped like a horse shoe bowl. When cold air from north of the jet stream gets in this bowl it can stay for weeks. When we got to work that morning it was -44 We worked outside all morning until noon and then went inside and started a small kerosene heater to set in front of while we ate our lunch. I don't know what the temps were when we came back after lunch but it seemed way colder so we decided to work 15 minutes outside and the go warm up inside every 15 minutes for the rest of the day. Late in the afternoon I went to start the pickup to warm it up before heading back to Faro and realized the temp of -56C.
 
Since 1946 when I arrived on the scene, this morning's snow shoveling outside felt as cold as I remember, even though it really wasn't. I guess there are more factors involved than just what the thermometer is telling us ..... like a person's age. When Momma and I married in December of '68 (the longest night of the year on the 21st), we were in the middle of a record-setting cold snap at the time. We didn't own a car so we didn't have to worry about that anyways.
 
-40 at Gunnison,Colorado.My in-laws live up there.I have been watching a Utube series about Yakutia,Siberia,Russia. It is -70 to -90F there for weeks/months at a stretch.Supposed to be the coldest (habitated)place in the world.Brrr...Glad I dont live there.
 
Coldest I've experienced was -20F. Had a bit of trouble with frozen water pipes in the barn that morning, but it wasn't too bad.
 
Coldest I've ever seen was -26 in Topeka, KS. It was an all-time record low for them and a temp I never want to see again.
Andy
 
-20F with plenty of wind. That was cold enough for me. Still could get the chores done but it definitely isn't it of fun. Those temps sure increase cattle feed too when you have range cattle.
 
-40 in eastern Nebraska in the mid 1970's.

We'd gone to a New Years Eve dance, and when we got home at 3am it was -30. On a Saturday morning ten days later it was -40.
 
-43 here once about 10 years back or so. No vehicles on the place would start besides the ones plugged in. As the years roll by AZ in the winter looks better and better.
 
Coldest I've experienced was back in the '70s about -30F. I had an off-farm job and had to get a vehicle running.. The only engine on the farm that would start was a 1942 Farmall H. It started and from that we got everything else going!
 
-28F is the coldest actual temp I can remember. We seem to have a lot of 10 to 20 degree temps here, that feel like 0 or below once wind chill is factored in. Someone once visited here from a dryer lower humidity place further to the north that -10 actual temps were more
common. After visiting here, they said they'd take thier -10 degree actual temps at home any day, compared to the warmer temps here with wind chill factored in to come up with same temp.
 
The coldest I ever saw was -72F in Potsdam, NY in 1968. Too cold to go out for any time at all. That same year, I drove a 1963 Chrysler Newport across the St. Lawrence river and back.
 
-23*F, second winter we were here in Flagstaff 1990. But it was a dry cold, Ha! Been other spells of below zero, not this year.
 
Minus 34 degrees in Saranac Lake, NY. Played college basketball game in Watertown, NY, then onto a chartered bus to Saranac Lake for the next nights game. Bus never got warm at all during the extended drive there. Finally exited the bus about 2:30am only to be greeted by a bank sign saying -34*. Turned the heat way up in the hotel room that night.
 
February 1974......
Mile 132 Alcan / Alaska Highway...(132 miles Northwest of Dawson Creek British Columbia Canada)

I was the Power Engineer on shift at a Natural Gas Compressor Station. I had two General Electric J-79 (LM1500) Gas Turbines online.
I received an alarm that called me out to the Compressor station.
Gas Control on the US/Canada border were concerned that both of my Turbines has dropped 1,500 RPM ???? and they were loosing Gas Pressure at the Internation Border, as well the upstream Gas Processing plant at Ft. Nelson was now backed up!!!!!!
The CID sensor (Compressor Inlet Temperature) on the inlets of both Gas turbines were reading -55 F
The EGT (Exhaust Gas Temperatures) of the Gas Turbines were at 1100 Def F!!
Horsepower was now maxed out, as the inlet air was so dense both Gas Turbines had to reduce RPM so as not to destroy the aft section of the Gas Turbine (Combustor section as well as Rear Frames).
The closest Compressor station was 40 miles north of me and the young engineer on shift was struggling as the lube oils in his OIL Tanks were too cold to allow for a start.
The closest Compressor Sation South of me was 250 miles South of me or 45 miles as the crow flies.
Fortunately, both engineers were young and were willing to listen.
On a land line, I instructed how and where to install a Jumper / Shunt, and had them increase the STARTING GAS to the Turbines by 15%.
They were instructed, IF the Gas Turbines fire/ ignite and sustained the minimum speed of 5000 rpm, leave the controls in manual for 45 minutes, then and only then set the Gat turbines to 7000 RPM check for oil leaks.
If no leaks place both units into Auto!
The aft section behind the Combustors glowed cherry Red / bluish for the entire month of January.
Bloody COLD.....
Pictures are of the Gas Compressor station I was stationed at 1974 (summer) After I retired I was as contracted back to assist a new up and coming Gas Turbine Technician....:)
Bob..

cvphoto116743.jpg


cvphoto116745.jpg


cvphoto116747.jpg


cvphoto116748.jpg
 
It had to be 78-79. We had occupied our new house Thanksgiving 1978. I had parked my 77 company truck close to the front of the house, instead of down back and inside, for fear of not getting up the driveway. Mercury read -27 on the front of the house. The quite new truck barely grunted over, but it did start.
 
coldest i have seen around here was in the -50's back when i was in school in the 60's and 70's . in the -40's here is nothing new just deal with it. this is january 14 2020.
cvphoto116749.jpg
 
. The lowest recorded temperature in Potsdam is -35.0F (-37.2C), which was recorded in January.

Google came up with the above. You're sure about the -72?
 
Personally, it was last February, it went down to -2F!

All kinds of records fell during that cold spell.

And I was home sick through the whole ordeal. Never opened the door, never stepped out in it. Thank God the electricity stayed on, many were without.

I detest, despise, hate, cannot stand cold!!!! Want nothing to do with it!
 
Well, I can't compete with all the other stories.
In the late 80's, 87 I think, it got down to -10 F here in NW SC.
I had my 51 Chevy 6 volt PU parked on a hill and rolled it off to get it to crank.
Went and pulled my brother's Jeep truck off so he could go to work then I drove 15 miles to work at Clemson U.
When I cranked it to come home, it started knocking and I EASED it home.
The old splash and hope oil system had not squirted oil in the oil troughs enough that morning.
I pulled the engine and bought new babbitted rods and put in it with new rings and kept on trucking a long time.
Richard in NW SC
 
-36F I was a Freshman at Iowa State (Ames, Iowa). Had an English class 8:00 am on a Saturday morning. Another farm kid and I walked a mile from the Towers to campus only to find a note on the door that class had been cancelled. We couldn't understand why. It may have been uphill both ways, but that part is unclear.

Larry
 
John Deere D, thank you for posting great story and pictures. You have to love it when someone listens and understands the words.
 
It was reading-32 and I had just got my Carhart coat and bibs so I had to try them out. I walked quarter mile to the grocery store for diapers just because I could
 
I remember it like it was yesterday. It was in January of 1968. I was going to school at Clarkson College. I was on the radio station club. One of my jobs was preparing and reading the news over the air on both the college's internal radio station and the local AM station - WPDM. That was the big story of the day. There was an arctic blast that came across the frozen great lakes and hit us head on. Nobody was allowed to go out for more than a few minutes. Since my dorm was up on the hill, I was trapped in the studio for 2 days until I was allowed to return to my dorm.

Whether or not it was recorded according to Google, take another look at your numbers. Temperatures like -35 were frequent occurrences in that part of New York state. All of the surrounding and nearby communities COMMONLY reached temperatures of -40 or lower. Places like Massena, Ogdensburg, Plattsburgh, and Gouverneur all got bitterly cold in the winter.

Yes, I'm sure about that temperature.
 
Grand Forks AFB ND -33 deg F Jan 18 1994.
The high that day was -22 deg F.

Controlled environment -65 deg F. at McKinley Climatic Laboratory,
Eglin AFB FL, July/August 1986. Doing cold weather testing on the B-1B.

mvphoto87675.jpg
 
Upstate NY - -35F a couple of times in the 1970's and then again the first year (1988) we were in our new 1916 farmhouse with no insulation. Was a volunteer fireman in the 70's and had a call one of those mornings for a chimney fire. Had pulled the Ford Pinto right up against the house to keep it out of the wind. It actually started, but the transmission (4 speed) was so cold I could not shift it into reverse. And I could not get in between the house and the car to push it away. So I never made the call - Probably just as well.

Tim
 
Also a Clarkson Alumni. I remember several nights around -40, one -41 or -42. One week it never got above-10. If you look up the records for Potsdam you can see it
 
Lost electric 1978 blizzard Louisville area ,,. After 2nd day of -20 nites and since it was sunny and warmed up to zero , and STILL No Electric ! we hand cranked a 1951 DC Case that Dad swore would start ..He Was Right !, I poured gas in the breather and on the 4 th pull , The OlGent came to Life !.. we tarped the radiator with bungie straps ,and made a poor mans heat houser that worked real good . Then Pulled Dads F250 , Who Then Jumped my Brothers 65 Chevy 283 ,. The DC then Pull started the 430 Case Diesel , Which was hooked to a grader blade , The 430 headed back to start all the Mayfield Clan motors . They had wood to be gathered and Water hauling customers in a bad way. 1977 was the 1st time i ever saw ice all the way across the OHIO .. before the pool was raised in 1966 it was common to freeze but i was too young to know ,.my Dad recalls ice skating on the River in front of Galt House around 1930 just down from Clark bridge . They Had bonfires out there , Chestnuts , peanuts, Sausage and beer with French Fries . Hundreds out on the ice,, with cars too ,That ALL ended when several kids sliding and sledding around fell through the ice in a model T. Dad knew one of the kids ,,. They Never found Him or the Model T
 
Ft Yukon AK 1964 ...-70, but I think the coldest I've ever felt was on a 60 ft tower changing an antenna at Eielson AFB (Fairbanks) in feb 1972 at -40
 
Being from S. California I have never experienced extreme cold. Below 40 f I'm cold. In 1964 Great Lakes Navy boot camp. It was about as cold as I ever was, have no idea of the temp. It probably way down. Blowing wind, and snow. Peacoat, and wool watch cap was the uniform of the day. Had some snow in Iwakuni Japan, but it wasn't as cold as boot camp. Stan
 
The thread below about feeding the cows reminded me of the time I was probably as close to hyperthermia as I've ever been in my 79 years. I was in HS about 1956 or '57. We had about two rack loads of alfalfa hay yet in part of the last stack in a hay field about 1 1/2 miles North of the farm. WNAX radio station, about 65 SE of us in Yankton, SD reported -30 that morning. We figured it was colder at the farm, but the red colored mercury in all of our thermometers was clearly at the bottom of the thermometers bulb so we couldn't tell. Hooked two hay racks behind the old H with the Farmhand on it. Road gear was out, so 4th was as fast as it would go. The wore out canvas comfort cover full of holes didn't offer much protection even with engine heat headed toward you in the wind. I am sure that I've never been so close to hyperthermia as I was on that trip! But I was young & foolish then. I guess I thought I was bulletproof at the time.
 
The MIGHTY J79, powered the F-4 Phantom II with afterburners for eons. When you lit the burners that brick FLEW ...and your fuel gauge needles dropped quickly.
 
Ill bet that was December 1989. Manhattan was -28 with wind one morning during finals week. Almost everyone on campus,if walking north, was walking backwards. Kind of comical to see, but no one was laughing
 
-40 one time in high school...that's without the wind chills. We get a few reading a year in the -30's. If there is no wind, I don't notice a difference between -10 and -30 to be honest. (north central wi)
 
1983 in Denver -20. Wife to be and I went to put gas in her 1970 Ford wagon. Got that done and the car stalled. Would not crank. Next thing we know an idiot runs into the side of the car while its parked and does$700 worth of damage on the $300 car. We never fixed it but the $700 check came in handy for us. We had to hike back to her apartment in that -20. It was so cold she huddled in a store front while I finished the hike and got my Datsun pickup. Jumped that Ford and we finally got back to her place. Then a few months latter a drunk woman ran into the same dent while the car was parked and we got another $700 check. Pretty good profit for a car that cost $300. Got her a newer car. And married that girl a few months later. Still together 38 years latter.
 
This reminds me of the Jack London story to start a fire .End of story he freezes to death. He even called the dog over to kill it and stick his hands inside the dogs body for warmth. the dog sensed a strange tone in the mans voice and did not respond. In the story it is 75 below.
 
Yeah, he was advised not to make the trip. He fell thru snow thru ice into water. He got a fire built, but it was under snow covered tree branches. The heat from the fire melted the snow enough to cause it to fall and smother his fire. There was only one chance to survive, and once the fire was out, he was done for. Mark.
 
I live to close to large bodies of water to compete with you guys on either record highs or lows.
Our record all time low is +1F and our record high in 114F.
For us to get below +28F or above 98F for more than a few hours is rare.
But on the other hand I've seen people come here from Mn and N.D. and complain about how cold it is here because of our high humidity.
 
January 17, 1977, Cincinnati, Ohio, minus 25*. I worked 3rd shift, pumping diesel fuel. This was before our company was smart enough to order blended fuel. The fuel just poured out of the nozzle like liquid jello-no bubbles, no foam. The seasoned drivers would have me add 10 gallons of gasoline to each tank. The ones that didn't, froze up. This was my first extreme cold spell, so I had no experience at all with the problems of those kind of temperatures. One of the guys went on a road call to start a truck, and took the lid off the tank, and the fuel was frozen. We had so many calls that night it was ridiculous. It stayed below zero for the whole week, but that night was the coldest-it's the coldest in the records for Cicinnati. Mark.
 
Good day MF#1 .....
My most enjoyable Gas Generator was the USA built J-79 (Lm1500)
Models GB 101 & G 102
After retirement I was asked to assist in the Overhaul facilities.....a young future gas Turbine Tech.:)

Bob...
cvphoto116760.jpg
 
After January 24 and before February 2 or 3rd, 1968. 7 miles south of the DMZ in the Republic of Korea, -51 degrees F. and I didn't know anything about wind chill, waiting for the north to return the USS Pueblo.
 
I don't remember the year or temp. We got a load of farm machinery after we got truck unloaded shop foreman was stomping around trying to get his foot warm he had foot made of wood he said day like this I wish they were both wood.
He looked over at me and Virg what to hell are you doing? I had taken my boots and shoes off sitting on a bar stool we had drinking coffee. I replied trying to get my feet warm. If I remember that's when he decided it was time to quit for the day
 
The one I remember was the blizzard of 83. -30ish with a nice breeze out of the north at 30ish mph. Never been so cold before or since. Two foot of snow to go with it and then it stayed in single digits for the next two weeks. Routine stuff for our northern friends but not for a central Illinois boy with 0% body fat and gets cold easy to start with. All on a Christmas holiday weekend to boot.
 
Ditto here--of course well-known trolls believe anything they read having never had any direct experience and then make nasty comments to people who have--it's what makes them trolls, and wise people ignore them as they have no credibility regardless of the topic--they're just looking for attention. Can recall many nights of -40F in my 4 years there and one night when we walked the mile and a half back from downtown to the hill campus and the bank on the corner's thermometer read -55F. I will freely admit I don't know if their thermometer was accurate down to the degree, but it had always been close before and I see no reason why it would have been off substantially that night, especially as the 'official' forecast had warned it might get as low as -50F before windchill that night.
 
Normally a few weeks down to to 40 below zero . When I raked my last piece of hay in august its was 18 degrees
 
I had a crew working in Ely MN one winter. The foreman ask how cold was too cold to work? When I ask how cold it was, he said he didnt know. He said all the red stuff in the thermometer was hiding in the little ball at the bottom.
 
I know everyone is going to laugh but being from semi tropical Florida we don't see very low temperatures. But I do remember in the mid 80's it got down to 17 degrees here overnight. Did a lot of damage to the citrus crop and also the strawberry's. A week later there wasn't a leaf or an orange left on a tree. Very few of the trees bloomed that year so the next years crop was not very good.
 
(quoted from post at 14:49:44 02/04/22) Rodney..... Eglin AFB in FL??... Crazy
ain't it. Do cold tests in ND?? Lol
Click to expand...

The tests were in preparation for getting the B-1B at GFAFB ND in Sep of 1987. Yes the testing helped the aircraft but it did not come close to every day operations in the North Dakota winters.

This picture was taken in the spring, I do not have any winter pictures.

mvphoto87688.jpg
 
-30 one day in the mid 1980s. A milking cow had gotten out of the barn and gone to the lot where the dry cows were in the summer. I couldn't breathe by the time I got her back to the barn.

We had a couple nights close to -20 this past week.
 
I think you were looking at just this year.
The record low for New York state is -52 F (47 C), set at Stillwater Reservoir on February 9, 1934 and at Old Forge on February 18, 1979.
NY records
 
Twice in my lifetime I can recall -30 below zero here in Southern Minnesota. Sure slows down a lot of things for sure. Kow Farmer
 
Close to the lake here, it has not gone below minus 20F or about minus 30 C that I remember.At relatives place near Sudbury, minus 40 one day...too cold to go snowmobiling for me.

Ben
 
I remember minus 32f in 1966 but it seems to me like I saw a few degrees colder than that since then here in Iowa. The record for Iowa is minus 47 in Washta in west central Iowa over a hundred years ago. My gramddad remembered it being real cold on that day but he didnt have a thermometer to look at.
 
January 31 1951 Coldest day recorded for Madison WI ,-37, my brother and I walked to country school ,spent day huddled over the basement furnace and went home early. Doing chores ,feeding cows outside 4 weekends in January 1984 with -30to-45 chill factor seemed much colder.
 
late december 77 was at my dads checked thermometer before going out side. his thermometer went to-40f and all the red stuff was in the bulb below that mark. we got the young stock sheep and steers fed ok the silo unloaders and feeders worked ok. we didnt let the milk cows out to keep the pipes from freezing in the barn. i had to take a heavy hammer to break the barn cleaner paddles loose both in and outside the barn. i ran the manure on the ground fortunately the 504 with the loader started and i piled the manure in the lower lot. i think it was may before it thawed out.
 
40 below several times, -69 windchill also...not sure why we never hit -70...car in the garage, battery in the basement, Mobil 1 oil...
 
I think December '83 in River Falls, WI. Worked at a radio station doing the morning show. Got in the 77 Buick Century with v6 and it started... cranked mighty slow. When I got in the seat didn't give at all. Took off for the station and it took 4-5 blocks before the tires stopped going thump, thump, thump. Never had heat getting to the station which was 3-4 miles out of town. Got there and the owner was already up (lived in part of the building). Had to fire up the transmitters and let them warm before we went on air. She wanted to make sure they were warmed. In the studio we had a thermometer that registered the overnight low. I looked at it and it said -40. That week we had -34 to -40 for overnight lows and didn't get above zero for highs. When that broke, it got into the teens above zero and you really wanted to only wear a light jacket! Oh and that Buick was not plugged in!
 
(quoted from post at 09:58:37 02/04/22) . The lowest recorded temperature in Potsdam is -35.0F (-37.2C), which was recorded in January.

Google came up with the above. You're sure about the -72?
Click to expand...

It seems Potsdam is only a short distance from Old Forge, NY, so it wouldn't surprise me if the -73 was actually the wild chill. I've never been to New York, but my experience here (NW MN) is that when temps get that cold, there is very little wind. Of course, it doesn't take much wind at those temps to make a horrendously low wind chill!!

Coldest I've experienced was here about 15 or 16 years ago. There was a freak weather event that allowed super-cooled air to drop down over a small area. It lasted a couple hours total and got down to -50.6F. I remember getting bundled up to go outside and experience that kind of cold. My result? Never again! That was too cold even for me.

The normal temps that night were in the mid -20's in most areas. We were closer to -30, except for that short time when the mercury just kept falling.

I stayed up that night, as I was having to run every heater we had, including the lp-gas oven and burners, just to keep the house from freezing. The lp got so cold that after a while, could only run either the oven or 3 burners. The regulator just wouldn't allow more flow. Guess we're lucky it didn't freeze up altogether!

Was during those years that we had periods where we would go a month or more without temps ever getting above -20F, and would regularly fall below -40F. I'm glad those winters are behind us.
 
You seem obsessed with proving me wrong. You were not there, and you did not see what I saw. I am not going to continue to defend my statements. You are free to continue to express your opinions without my further participation. I hope that makes you feel good.

Have a nice day.
 
For me it was when it was colder than a witches ___ or colder then a well diggers ____ NOW THATS COLDDDDDDDDDDD

John T
 
We went snowmobiling once in Wawa Ontario. It was -40F when we started the machines. -20F was the high for the day. We rode for 8 hrs. that day.
 
(quoted from post at 16:52:05 02/04/22)
<img src=https://www.yesterdaystractors.com/cvphotos/cvphoto116759.jpg>
Potsdam,NY. Jan.24,2022
Click to expand...

Your car thermometer is broken. I live 40 miles from Potsdam. No way it was -38F 2 weeks ago.
 
(quoted from post at 13:02:54 02/04/22) The coldest I ever saw was -72F in Potsdam, NY in 1968. Too cold to go out for any time at all. That same year, I drove a 1963 Chrysler Newport across the St. Lawrence river and back.
Click to expand...

Another broken thermometer.
 
(quoted from post at 14:39:38 02/04/22) I remember it like it was yesterday. It was in January of 1968. I was going to school at Clarkson College. I was on the radio station club. One of my jobs was preparing and reading the news over the air on both the college's internal radio station and the local AM station - WPDM. That was the big story of the day. There was an arctic blast that came across the frozen great lakes and hit us head on. Nobody was allowed to go out for more than a few minutes. Since my dorm was up on the hill, I was trapped in the studio for 2 days until I was allowed to return to my dorm.

Whether or not it was recorded according to Google, take another look at your numbers. Temperatures like -35 were frequent occurrences in that part of New York state. All of the surrounding and nearby communities COMMONLY reached temperatures of -40 or lower. Places like Massena, Ogdensburg, Plattsburgh, and Gouverneur all got bitterly cold in the winter.

Yes, I'm sure about that temperature.
Click to expand...


I've lived 40 miles from Potsdam or in the Adirondacks all my life. Your memory is playing tricks on you. -34F is one thing, -72F with wind chill is another. An actual -72F in Potsdam- sorry, not buying it unless you have an actual weather record made with accurate, tested thermometers. The thermometer outside my back door right now reads 42F, the other 3 thermometers read about 8F. Which one do you believe?
 
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