With an Arctic explosion set to bring bitterly cold temperatures across much of the United States by Christmas weekend, you may be wondering just how low your state’s temperature has ever dropped.
All but one of the 50 states have documented a sub-zero temperature, with Hawaii being the sole outlier, which only dropped to 12 degrees. Nearly a dozen states have fallen to minus 50 degrees or colder.
The map below shows the all-time record high in each state, according to data from NOAA’s National Centers for Environmental Information.
The all-time record low in each state is indicated on the map. (Data: NOAA/NCEI)
January and February are the coldest time of year for most of the US, so it shouldn’t come as a surprise that this is when most records of all time were set. However, there are a few exceptions to the rule.
WHEN IS THE COLDEST TIME OF THE YEAR?
Five states set their low-temperature records in late December, including Nebraska, Tennessee, Vermont, Washington and West Virginia.
Meanwhile, Hawaii’s all-time record low was not even reached in the winter. The Mauna Kea Observatory at an elevation of 13,796 feet on the Big Island of Hawaii dropped to 12 degrees on May 17, 1979.
The lowest temperature ever recorded in the United States was minus 80 degrees on January 23, 1971 in Prospect Creek, Alaska, just north of Fairbanks.
In the Lower 48, Montana holds the record for the coldest temperature ever at minus 70 degrees, set at Rogers Pass — on the continental divide at 5,610 feet above sea level — on January 20, 1954.
HOW COLD CAN THE TEMPERATURE GET DURING THE COLDEST TIME OF THE YEAR?
Illinois is the youngest state to reach its lowest temperature on record. Mount Carroll in the northwest corner of the state plummeted to minus 38 degrees on January 31, 2019.
The longest-standing record in the US is held by Mount Washington, New Hampshire – the highest mountain in the Northeast – where the temperature bottomed out at minus 50 degrees nearly 140 years ago on January 22, 1885.
A weather observatory is covered in heavy snow on Mount Washington in the White Mountains of New Hampshire.
(Christopher J Morris / CORBIS / Getty Images)
In the Northeast, New York boasts the coldest temperature ever recorded in the region, with a record low of minus 52 degrees recorded on February 18, 1979 at Old Forge. Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine all share the same record of minus 50 degrees.
NOAA FIND ‘SMALL BUT NOTICEABLE SHIFT’ IN COLDEST TIME OF YEAR FOR EASTERN US
All-time records in the South may be lower than you think. Georgia, Mississippi, Louisiana and South Carolina all fell into the teenage sub-zero range, while Alabama was as cold as -27 degrees and Tennessee as cold as -32 degrees.
The Midwest has a wide range of low-temperature records, with North Dakota and Minnesota reporting minus 60 degrees as their all-time record lows, but states south of the Great Lakes such as Illinois, Indiana and Ohio have only dropped to minus 30 degrees due to winds off the lakes, which keep the temperatures relatively higher.
Most of the all-time record lows in western states have been documented at the higher elevations. California’s record of minus 45 degrees was set on January 20, 1937 in the heart of the Sierra Nevada in Boca at an elevation of 5,528 feet above sea level. The record low in Arizona was reached at Hawley Lake, where the temperature dropped to minus 40 degrees at 8,200 feet on January 7, 1971.
New research from the University of Melbourne has found that the ice ages of the last million years ended as the tilt of the Earth’s axis approached higher values.
What states have the worst climate?
Worst States for Climate Change: Natural Hazards See the article : Beyond Books: How Suburban Libraries Are Serving Latino Customers.
- California.
- Colorado.
- New Mexico.
- Oklahoma.
- Texas.
Which US state has the worst winter weather? North Dakota tops list of coldest states during winter and fall based on statewide average temperatures. Maine is coldest in the spring, while Wyoming is in the summer. Some states are among the top ten coldest states year-round. Maine, Vermont, Montana, and Wyoming are consistently cold year-round.
What state has the best year round weather?
Which state has the best weather? Many cities in southern and central California, such as San Diego and Santa Barbara, have year-round temperatures ranging from 60 to 85 degrees and see little rainfall, making California the best-weather state!
Where in the U.S. has the worst weather?
Mount Washington receives very high levels of rainfall — about 97 inches of rainfall per year on average. Much of this precipitation falls as snow. Read also : Stormzy ‘contacted Netflix and Amazon for film projects’. In February 1969, just over 4 feet of snow fell in 24 hours—a record. Hurricane-force winds occur an average of 110 days a year.
What era was Earth coldest?
During a period of Earth’s history known as the Cryogenic Period, brutal cold struck again. On the same subject : Real Estate Complies With SEC Climate Disclosure Proposal With Strong Criticism. At least twice between 750 and 600 million years the earth went into a deep freezing point.
When was the entire earth frozen? The Snowball Earth hypothesis posits that the surface of the planet was completely or nearly completely frozen during one or more of Earth’s ice house climates. This is believed to have been sometime before 650 M.Y.A. (millions of years ago) during the cryogenic period.
What was the warmest era on Earth?
One of the warmest times was during the geologic period known as the Neoproterozoic, 600 to 800 million years ago. Conditions were also frequently muggy between 500 million and 250 million years ago.
Was Early Earth hot or cold?
When Earth’s first organisms formed, it may have been in a freezing ocean. New research published in Science Advances shows both land and ocean were much colder than previously thought. A COLD OCEAN: Most researchers believe that climatic conditions on Earth were hot at 3.5 Ga.
What U.S. city has the nicest weather?
The #1 best weather city in the US? Honolulu, Hawaii. Honolulu took the top spot with an average annual temperature of 77.7 degrees. While the city endures an average of 93 rainy days per year, it also averages 90 sunny days and zero days when the temperature falls below freezing.
Which state is not too hot and not too cold? 1. California California’s southern and central coasts have unbeatable year-round pleasant temperatures. Long Beach, Los Angeles, San Diego, Santa Barbara, and Santa Maria all have average daily highs no lower than the mid-60s for any month of the year. It doesn’t get really hot either.
Has it snowed in all 50 states?
The last time snow cover was reported in all 50 states was in February 2010, when hikers documented patches of snow near the summit of Mauna Kea.
Is there a place where it has never snowed? Tuvalu. Tuvalu is a snowless third country in the South Pacific. This tropical place is hot and humid with an average annual temperature of around 30 degrees Celsius and little weather variation from month to month apart from more or less rain.
What state has never had snow?
Where in the US has it never snowed? Extreme South Florida: Within the Sunshine State, no city south of Homestead has ever seen snow. Florida’s low latitude and low elevation mean temperatures rarely get cold enough for snow to fall, let alone accumulate on the ground.
Is there anywhere in US It doesn’t snow?
It is official. According to the National Weather Service, no snow has fallen in Key West or the Florida Keys since records began in 1872. Thanks to Florida’s subtropical climate and low elevation, snow is rare across the state and almost unheard of in the southern regions.
