I remember when I lived in South Dakota, it got down to -72 one day. It was so cold the AFB nearby shutdown after the temp hit -55. The same day, There was another town that recorded a temp of -91. It so cold that they took a cup of warm water outside. Tossed the water in the air and it came down as ice crystals. During this time, there was a two week span where the high temp was -5.

"From a (who knows how reliable Google source)- the record for MN is -61 and the record for WI is -54. That record for WI is also a record for anywhere in the US to the east of the MS River.

SusanEva"

Susan, that is quite accurate. I remember it well (1996) as it was about -45 where I lived, and I was working on a farm. There's nothing like being outside at 1am when it's that cold - the sky is incredibly clear, and everything is dead quiet (except the squeaky snow). That week-long freeze inspired me to move to Mississippi.

C'mon...95 below in S.D.? Wind chills are for weinies and don't count. The S.D. low is -58.

Plus the claim that the Wisc. low is the lowest east of the Mississippi is also wrong, the Minn. low was recorded east of the river.

As for my personal low, 63 below in January in Fairbanks was quite brisk. Twice a year business trips -- both in the winter.

Fun fact quiz -- what two states share the lowest record high in the U.S.?

sorry if i wasn't clear- i'm sure it was -80 with windchill :) brrrr. it's just the -80 that sticks out in my mind, and i have a great mem. for numbers. god how cold!! and now i'm a big weenie and put on the wool coat, scarf, and mittens when it's 50 degrees in the morning here in LA. sometimes i see people in the big down puffy jackets out here and i smile, remembering when those were really necessary.

my friends back home would be ashamed of my wimpiness :)

dba31498, There is no way a town in SD "recorded" a temp of -91. We are not talking about wind chill temps. If we are talking about temps including wind chill you have little to compare to. I doubt you lived in SD very long considering your lack of knowledge about record temperatures.

I was in the Army. Year - 1951. Place - Big Delta, Alaska. Temperature - 48 dfegrees below Zero. That was the actual temperature. No such thing as Wind Chill in those days

This is a bit of a trick question. Although I've not experienced the deep freeze, a destination of a sort, in the western Yukon, out in the middle of nowhere on the Alaska highway, you get within miles of the place that had the coldest temp ever recorded in North America 50-some years ago at minus 83 at the Snag, Yukon airport.

When you drive through the area, you don't really sense why it can get much colder THERE than it does in other places farther north.

Here's a Web site that gives the lowest temp/date/site for each state:
http://www.usatoday.com/weather/wcstates.htm

The -42 I mentioned in a previous post occurred at the same time as the lowest for Minnesota and Iowa -- early February 1996.

It's -11 degrees this morning in western Nebraska but no wind. The coldest actual temp I can remember was Dec. 22, 1983--it was -25 degrees in Lincoln, Nebraska. I remember it very well since it's the date that my husband graduated from college AND asked me to marry him. Somehow the cold temps didn't matter much that day!!

Visiting Montreal a number of years ago for a long weekend in February. It was the last year that the Forum was open and I wanted to see a Canadien game there before it closed. May not have been the coldest temperature I've experienced but definitely the coldest I've felt. The temp was definitely below zero, but the wind made it brutal. Of course, the fact that my wife and I like to experience new cities by walking them didn't help. All exposed parts were like frostbite city. Even my legs underneath heavy pants were burning from the cold. I know everything is relative, but I couldn't understand the people out on the ice at the big skating rink - SOME EVEN WITHOUT HATS!

Minnesota the week after Christmas in 1998. It was - something. I am from Florida so I have never even seen a frozen lake and only a little bit of snow in Northern Ohio. So it was awesome to go ice fishing and see so much snow.

Just this morning on CNN they said the lowest recorded temp in the lower 48 was -70 in Montana. The lostest east of the Mississippi was in Wisconsin at -50something ( can't remember exactly). These are not wind chills. Wind chill is very inaccurate and the graphs have been changed several times.

Last Dec 26th, we arrived at Snowshoe WV to spend the week skiing with our kids. We were unloading the car at the condo we rented and the wind was howling, it was snowing and it was around 10 below with the wind. All I kept thinking is that I am too old for this cold (I am only 41!). The condo had the heat turned off and the fireplace had a hole in it. They provided us with some wet wood which smoked us out!
Anyway, the heat finally started to work, but it was a long and cold night. I also kept thinking..how much are we paying for this pleasure of freezing our butts off????? Top dollar Christmas week!!! We did have a fun trip.

It has to be Minnesota in Jan a few years back. It was something like 20 below zero.
Paris this March, it was so cold. it went down to 15 during the day.

I live in Minnesota and though it's been way, way, way below zero the coldest I have felt is my first trip to San Francisco in June, 1976. I was a young girl who thought "California!" I'd seen the Beach Blanket movies. I brought shots and t-shirts and sandals. Not much else. Oh, boy did I freeze. But no weather has made an impact like spending the 4th of July, 2002 in New York City. I grew up in New Orleans but honey, that was a breath of cool air compared to that July 4 in NYC. Ten minutes upon exiting the hotel we were literally soaked through. We have never been so hot. EVER. ANYWHERE. It still makes me shudder.

President's Day weekend about a decade ago in St.Petersburg, Russia. We had taken an overnight train from Moscow and the compartment was steamy hot. If there were directions on how to turn down the heat, we could't read them in our fragmented Russian. Striped naked and tried to sleep as we hurdled through the frozen tundra to St.P. When we got there, the thermometer on our parka read 98 degrees inside the compartment. Miserable. Well, we got off the train and it was 27 below (according to the parka thermometer) and that was not factoring in WINDCHILL. It was, quite literally, bone chilling and I am from MINNESOTA. Awful.

No wonder the fare was only $300 round trip from the states!!!!

TaiTai

Time's up on the quiz:

The two states that share the lowest record high: Hawaii and Alaska at 100.

Jorr -- CNN, which is factually challenged on so many levels, apparently counts all of Minny as west of the Mississippi, but the state low was in Tower, which by most accounts would be viewed as east of the river.

For me the coldest place was Reykyavik Iceland{spelling?}. My husband had heard the most beautiful women in the world lived there. i saw an ad for a 5 day get away in march a few years ago and surprised him. It is a great memory but sooooo cold. I should have taken him in the summer

This is too funny. I love Worktowander's Minnesota canoe trip in July. I remember visiting family in Minnesota on Labor Day and wearing our socks and sweaters to bed because it was so cold. What a place.

I'm originally from northern California but not all of California is sunny and warm. We had just crossed the Golden Gate Bridge driving home from a day trip to San Francisco and my parents stopped to show us kids the view. It was so windy and cold we wrapped ourselves in blankets kept in the station wagon just to stand outside a few minutes. circa 1960

I've been following this thread with interest for the past couple of days. Great topic OahuTransplant! Being that I was raised in the south and moved even farther south in my adult years there are very few really, really cold places I've been. Sure, Manhattan, London, Paris in the spring or fall, but that's nothing compared to what everyone else has endured.

For nostalgic reasons I will list my mother MAKING my sister and I stand in the Colorado River for a photo op when I was about 6 years old. I thought I was going to die before that photo was taken time and time again by a friend of hers. Never again will I actually stand in that river....I don't care WHAT time of year it is. :)