What's the coldest weather you've experienced?

[winchester85]

i for one think the hype over this recent cold is just ridiculous. the news is telling people that they should stay inside, that if they go out they have to put on extra clothes. what a joke, are people in this country really that stupid that they have to be told to put on more clothes? there are plenty of people in this country that live in areas where these sub-zero temperatures are a daily occurence. i live at higher elevation and see temps below zero probably about 30 days a year. while i decided years ago that i don't work if it is below -10, that is just because i have the ability to do that. i have worked and hunted well into the double digits below zero. yeah, its cold, and body parts get cold, but so what.

the fact that people are unable to "survive" when it is below zero shows me that personal responsibility is all but gone in metropolitan areas. just like the woman i read about in the aspen paper today, she has filed suit against a restaurant because she drank too much!

[winchester85]

but then, my thermostats are all set below 60. if i want it warmer i build a fire in the woodstove.

[w5pv]

Read all the post again and I am still shivering from the cold

[jonp]

Winter warfare training at what I believe was ft. wainwright (it was a long time ago) in Alaska was really cold. I also spent more that a few cold days and nights at my cabin in the high sierras of California before it was knocked down by a huge tree. It was a very tough environment. Jay

That would explain SoCal and Hawaii

[jonp]

Fishing at -24...thats not fishing, that's self abuse.

When I was in Junior High School they called off school one day because it was too cold for the buses to run. It was in the -30's if I remember right and in Northern VT it has to be that cold to call off school at least when I was going. So what did my buddy and I decide to do when school was off due to cold? Go ice fishing of course.

We packed up the stuff and headed off on the ski doo with the sled in tow. Got up the lake and dug some holes and ran into problems almost at the gitgo.

Problem one was keeping the holes open as they froze over as fast as we could get to them and break the ice.

The perch were biting like crazy but we ran into the second problem which was that the minnow buckets froze solid. No worries as we popped the eyes out of the perch and used those for bait keeping the eyes in our lower lips like Skoal to keep them from freezing.

We then ran into the third problem when we started hauling the perch out of the holes our monofiliment line froze and shattered on the ice. That sucked.

4th problem: went to get some hot coffee and the thermos had froze and split open.

5th problem: my friend wore glasses and started to get frostbite in his cheeks from the frames.
We then called it a day and went home.

[captaint]

You guys are making me feel like a girl. We were out in -23 up in Potter county bout 12 years ago. I made it 30 mins and went back to the cabin. I didn't even WANT to shoot a deer, warm guts or not. Mike

[KCSO]

I don't pay much attention when it drops below 15-20 below but IIRR the coldest I ever recorded here was -28. The worst temp drop we ever had was on Dec. 20 somthing about 20 years ago when it went from mid 60's to 20 below in 32 hours.

[shooter2]

You know it's cold when the Finns in northern MN complain that the holes in the ice freeze up and they have to keep chopping them open so they can jump in the lake after their Sauna.

[wallenba]

Coldest was in Michigan's U.P. about 1964 where we lived when I was a kid. But what affected me the most happened in S.E. Michigan in the early nineties. It was the last day of work before Christmas vacation. I was working afternoon shift. We got out at about 1AM. I was last to leave, as usual. My Bronco II would not start. I went back inside, the lone security guard and I got a battery cart from maintenance to jump start it. Got it to the truck. The hood's weatherstrip was frozen to the hood, would not open. It's 22 below, winds gusting to thirty mph. Guard says the front gate is on a timer and will close soon. He could override it, but would have to go to the front guard shack. I ended up jumping on the hood until it unlatched. It took a while to get started, but I got home to find no heat in my home.
Dog was glad to see me. Put him on electric blanket and covered him with towels. I had one of those fancy battery powered programmable thermostats. Figuring the battery was dead, I opened it up. The battery had leaked and was a real mess. I pulled it and all the terminals came out with it. This thing was not going to get fixed. Luckily I'm a sort of pack rat when it comes to things that still work, even if I replace them. The old one was in the garage somewhere.
Yep, the garage door was frozen to the driveway. I have a side door, but lots of junk blocking it. I finally got inside and found the old thermostat, a trusty infallible mercury switch type. Got it wired up, heat comes on, water not flowing in the kitchen. Work on that, got to bed as the sun came up.

[MUSTANG]

Coldest on the thermometer :
-78 degrees at the USMC Mountain Warfare Base in the sierras, a few miles from Sonora Pass. Only vehicle that would start on the entire base (private or govt) was a road grader.


Coldest feeling weather I have experienced:
Any of several winters in Korea when temps drop into the -10 to +20 degree range.

I was in Norway (above the Arctic Circle) on several week-to-2 week excursions where the temps were in the -30 range. Norway felt warmer than Korean winters despite what the Temp Guages said.


Coldest in the pit of my stomach:

On a return trip from Norway to CONUS via KC-130 with 3,600 gallon fuel tank carried inside the cargo compartment for aerial refueling. While in Norway the Air Crew had touched down to drop some items off, take on fuel, and to pick myself and a couple of others up to return to CONUS. It was about -40 degrees outside according to the Crew Chief I spoke with at the time (Heaters from the engines were going and nice and toasty inside) Over the North Sea we lost an engine so the crew turned toward Great Britain and began jettisoning fuel to lighten the aircraft. A we approached English Coast, we lost another engine. The temp inside the aircraft started dropping as the Air Crew continued to work the problem/s, keep as much altitude as possible and stretch the powered glide slope, obviously declaring a flight emergency to the Air Controllers. We lined up on the runway and just before reaching the runway lost a third engine, but the Pilot and Co-Pilot had everything well in hand and we touched down with one of the smoothest landings I can remember. The Air Crew Chief (Young Sergeant) had kept me informed on each and every action throughout the event. Reason for the Engine Failures, contaminated fuel.

As I said, coldest pit in the stomach I ever had because all along the way I knew exactly what was happening, what the risks were, and not a D*** thing I could do to affect the outcome. This along with many other memories serves to remind me that we walk amongst hero's that are seldom recognized.

[montana_charlie]

i decided years ago that i don't work if it is below -10, that is just because i have the ability to do that. i have worked and hunted well into the double digits below zero. yeah, its cold, and body parts get cold, but so what.

In most respects, I'm with you. I may be able to tell about a particularly cold temperature reading, but that doesn't mean I went out in it ... or stayed longer than I felt was useful.
So, my 'coldest day' wasn't the coldest I've ever seen, but it holds it's place in 'my record book' because I wasn't at liberty to avoid it.
This was in November of '86 or '87, and it was a remarkably cold November.

I was out at the Evers Ranch on Shonkin Creek to visit for a few days and shoot a deer. While there I would, naturally, 'help out' with any chores I was qualified for. The main project for that week was to gather the bulls and put them in their winter pasture. The ranch runs about 500 head, so there were about 25 bulls to be found, and brought in.
I kept my own horse at the ranch, so I was 'qualified' for this job.

Four of us left the house when it was full daylight, spent the day in the saddle in wind running about 10 mph, and got back to the ranch house thirty minutes before dark.

I can't remember a time I was happier to step down from a horse, and Patch couldn't wait to be fed and stabled for the night.
The thermometer by the door said thirty below ... and none of us had any signs of life below the waist.

[smokeywolf]

Compared to most of ya'll, I haven't experienced cold weather yet.

Back in '78, my buddy and I loaded up the horses and headed for the Tehachapi Mountains to do a little hunting. We parked the truck and horse trailer up Lone Tree Canyon and unloaded the horses and gear. By 3:00 PM we were mounted and on our way to the deserted ranch house on the 13,000 acre property. My buddy had been there several times and was acquainted with the owner. It was supposed to be about a 3 hour ride to the ranch house. As we climbed out of the canyon and about 40 minutes into the ride, we began seeing snow on the ground. Never having seen the terrain under snow, my partner started having trouble recognizing landmarks. In another hour we were in blizzard conditions and lost. Darkness drove the temps down and we found ourselves in a white-out. My pack came apart and I had to dismount, retrieve some articles that had fallen in the snow and place them in one of my saddlebags. When I tried to undo the strap on my saddlebag I had to take a glove off. When I had gotten my gear re-secured and was back in the saddle I realized I had no feeling whatsoever in the fingers of the hand I had bared in order to undo and redo the saddlebag straps.
It wasn't much longer before my partner began showing signs of hypothermia. Not only was he unsure of which way to go, but he was having trouble forming thoughts. I told him it was time to abandon our efforts to find the trail to the ranch house and just focus on losing altitude. I told him to stay close and I began leading us downhill. In a matter of 20 or 30 minutes we found ourselves in a stream bed that had been partially fenced off with 14 foot tall chain-link fencing. My partner said that he knew this place. Just a few years earlier, efforts had been made to make a large part of the ranch a game preserve. An enclosure had been built to house a small number of elk; we were in it. My partner thought that the ranch house was upstream of the elk pens. I decided to risk a 25 minute ride upstream. If we didn't find the ranch house by then, we would turn around and follow the stream downhill and continue losing altitude. In just under 25 minutes we rode into the front yard of the ranch house.
My best guess would put the temp somewhere between 0 and 10* F with winds at 20 to 40 mph. Not at all severe compared to what many of you have seen, but it was c-c-c-cold enough to make an impression on me and cold and ugly enough to p!$$ off our 2 horses who couldn't understand how or why the 2 humans on their backs had put them in such a miserable situation.

We struck out on our hunt.

smokeywolf

[AK Caster]

-63F in North Pole Alaska in 1979 IIRC. Truck was plugged in and battery blanket was on. Went to start the truck and the belt shattered.
Went back inside the house and waited till it warmed up to -40F then put a new belt on.

[M-Tecs]

Compared to most of ya'll, I haven't experienced cold weather yet.

Smokeywolf you have experienced cold. Cold is relative to how you stay warm. I play a lot outdoors in minus 20 temps but I have very good clothes and I never feel cold. As a teenager I was caught outside in a wind and rain storm. The temp was in the mid-30's above but after three or four hours being wet and exposed to the wind hypothermia was making the idea of just curling up and taking a nap seem like a good idea. If I had done that I don't believe I would have ever woke up. That is been by far the "coldest" I have ever been. Just a mild mid-30's above with some wind and rain but I was totally unprepared and underdressed. Today I have the proper clothes to stay outside at minus 30 in a 30 mph wind and be comfortable.

[winchester85]

when i was in my 20's i decided that i needed to be tougher. so i practiced sleeping in cold. i got so i could actually sleep with a t-shirt and shorts down to 30 degrees. not so say i wasnt cold, but i could get good rest and be productive. i also got to where i dont shiver anymore, even when i fell through the ice a couple of weeks ago in single digit temps.

problem was, that after a year or two of toughening up, i had trouble feeling warm. i could work all day in the cold but i could run the heater in the truck full blast with the seat heater on high all the way home (over an hour) and i still didnt feel warmed up. after nearly 20 years, i can still sit in front of the woodstove for a long time before i get too warm.

[JWFilips]

Well for me it was in the 1970's when I was younger and primary interest was in large format "Art" photography. I remember venturing out into the northern parts of PA carry an 8x10 wooden field camera on my shoulders into the wilds @ -12 temps ( Stupid lad!) Did get some nice stuff along the Southern branch of the Tunkhannock creek....beard froze to the point of breaking off! ( talk about a close shave)
Sure did love those times

[redneckdan]

Last week I was up on a rig tower trying to figure out why two consecutive bearings failed prematurely. Was -45f and the wind was ripping out of the north. I was warm enough in my cold weather gear but one hook on my safety lanyard frozen and I couldn't reach the hook on my back. Ended up having to cut the lanyard to get down. That was a nervous 40' climb down an icy ladder in pac boots.

[CLAYPOOL]

I've seen a -38 CHILL factor on Rend Lake while goose hunting. Not very smart.

[Bret4207]

i for one think the hype over this recent cold is just ridiculous. the news is telling people that they should stay inside, that if they go out they have to put on extra clothes. what a joke, are people in this country really that stupid that they have to be told to put on more clothes? there are plenty of people in this country that live in areas where these sub-zero temperatures are a daily occurence. i live at higher elevation and see temps below zero probably about 30 days a year. while i decided years ago that i don't work if it is below -10, that is just because i have the ability to do that. i have worked and hunted well into the double digits below zero. yeah, its cold, and body parts get cold, but so what.

the fact that people are unable to "survive" when it is below zero shows me that personal responsibility is all but gone in metropolitan areas. just like the woman i read about in the aspen paper today, she has filed suit against a restaurant because she drank too much!

We have a population that stays cool in summer and warm in winter because they don't go outside. They live inside, they work inside, they get their recreation inside- often on a computer screen. What should we expect? I hate the cold, but I work in it, I have no choice.

[km101]

Jan. of 2009, Bismarck, ND the low was -44 F with about a 30mph wind. Really made me wish I was back in Texas. It gets cold in TX, but not like that! I don't envy the folks who have to do that every year!