What's the coldest weather you've experienced?

[Monttexan]

The cold weather is a big topic everywhere right now, and lots of folks are staying indoors because of the cold right now. I thought it might be fun/interesting to share stories of when we've been really cold.

Last night it got down to 31 briefly here outside of Corpus Christi. That was darn cold for here! We feel cold, but then laugh about what wusses we've become. Need to toughen back up. Here's my two "coldest" stories.

First was about when I was a senior in high school. Hunting elk with my dad in the South Fork of the Flathead. Thermometer read -40 F when we left the house at O dark-thirty. About mid morning dad gets the bright idea we should get out of the truck and go poke around in the brush and see if we find any critters hiding out. I'm spitting blood chewing threw my tongue thinking this is stupid. Not only cold, but it had snowed just before the bottom fell out of the thermometer so we had to strap on snowshoes. Yeah, 40 below, snowshoes, in the thick alder brush and Devil's club. I must have needed more "character." Took him about 45 minutes to realize it wasn't worth it and we headed back to the truck. Took over an hour for the truck heater to make us feel warm again.

Second. About 2005, I was a FedEx courier working out of Kalispell, MT. My route took me down the East shore of Flathead lake every day to Polson. I'd been complaining about the heater in my van for weeks, but the genius outside vendor mechanics kept telling me I didn't know what I was talking about. Night time temps were between 30 and 40 below. Daytime highs were "up" to -20. You guessed it, the heater in the van went out completely. 60 miles from the station, 20 below zero and no heat. I had to put on every scrap of clothing I had with me and drive back....and those big delivery vans you see driving around; those sliding side doors don't seal well at all. Gets a bit drafty. I almost got that vendor's contract with FedEx cancelled. I probably should have pushed a little harder to make it happen.

That's how cold I've been. What has anyone else got?

[9w1911]

I did my first avalanche school in Silverton Co at minus 35-38 in the daytime

[felix]

Pleasure driving looking at ice around Torrington CT highways at minus 15; drinking mint coolers at plus 115 here (2-3 PM) in Fort Smith AR for about 15 days in a row. ... felix

[DougGuy]

-37 in Minnesota, took the dog out and even he did a U turn and looked at me like ***? Glad I don't live there anymore!!

[Geppetto]

-24 ice fishing on Vieux Desert (Phelps, WI) a couple years ago. That was a chilly one. Caught about 19 northern between the whole crew that afternoon/evening.

[montana_charlie]

During our very first winter in Montana I found myself underneath our house on New Year's Day ... trying to thaw out frozen pipes with a propane torch. The actual temperature (not that phony 'wind chill factor') was minus 40, and I wasn't having much luck.

But, whenever I see a discussion of cold temperatures pop up, I am reminded of a couple of incidents that occurred during my growin' up years in the Texas Panhandle.



I remember that this happened in late December of 1950 because Daddy had said a few days earlier that his old '41 Pontiac Silver Streak would be ten years old in less than a month.

Now the Panhandle does see some chilly weather from time to time and people still remembered how the Potter County Hospital had froze up back in '46 right around George Washington's birthday (I was getting’ born at the time…). But even when one of those real frigid fronts dropped down out of Colorado, our west wind blowing in from Baja California most always kept the temperature up to zero or better.

Well, December had been a pretty tolerable month up to now and deer season was just about done. We had a man from Kansas staying with us who was an acquaintance of Daddy's. He had a seed and feed store in Topeka and had come down to hunt deer and talk a little business.

On this particular weekend, Daddy, my little brother Patrick, and I were camped out with Mr. Hinderager about twelve miles southeast of Muleshoe…and it was downright cold.
We were trying to find a real big whitetail for Mr. Hinderager so he could do some 'Texas-style braggin' back in Topeka. It had been dark about three hours and there was a light snow falling so we thought our luck would be good come daylight. We had a big ol’ fire going and had put up enough firewood to last a sane man a month. Since we only had two more nights to go, we weren't being stingy with the wood.
Then, just as Mr. Hinderager was saying how toasty things were...the wind stopped like somebody closed a door!

I guess Daddy had seen something like this when he was real young...back before he wore out the boots he was born in. He told Patrick and me to build two more fires so we could sit in the middle of a triangle of heat with Mr. Hinderager, and to keep them stoked up high. Then Daddy jumped in that old Pontiac and barreled off in the direction of Muleshoe.

Now, without that 'Baja Breeze' it started gettin' real cold...real fast. Nobody knows how cold it got in the Panhandle that night because the temperature dropped so quick it broke the bottom out of every outdoor thermometer north of Lubbock! And we were takin' turns feedin' our fires. What with the big fires and the exercise, we could convince ourselves that we didn't feel too miserable...but we did wonder what had become of Daddy. And so it went until about four in the morning. That’s when you get into the coldest time of the night.

We knew we were about to reach the end of our string when the campfires froze.
Yessir, the flames just started to flicker slower and slower until they just stopped...frozen fire!

Well, that was that...without heat from those fires we knew we were done. We were saying our goodbyes when that old Pontiac slid to a stop and broke one of the fires into a hundred pieces. That sight was one of the most amazing things that this Texan has ever seen. A hundred shattered pieces of frozen flame shining on a bed of new snow...Mr. Hinderager was so taken with it that he picked up a big chunk and put it in his pocket 'cause he knew that folks in Topeka would never believe it without proof.

After that, we sat in the Pontiac with the engine running and the windows rolled up until everybody was comfortable. Then we piled out to grab the important things in camp and throw them in the trunk...we figured to come back later for the tent and so forth.

Mr. Hinderager had just picked up his rifle and binoculars when he discovered that it was a bad idea to pocket that frozen fire. While he was warming up...so was that big chunk of flame! He was wearin’ three pairs of gloves, and had his coat buttoned up so tight…well, he just couldn’t get it off fast enough when his pocket lit up. The man burned up so quick he never even hollered...leaving nothin’ but a greasy spot on the snow.

Well, Daddy mailed the rifle and binoculars back to Topeka, but we found out that Mrs. Hinderager had already run off with a veterinarian from Wichita. Their son was quite pleased to take over his pappy's store, and he had ideas about expanding the business...but that’s another story.

So those Kansas folks were relatively happy and Daddy made a nice profit. It seems he had got the owner of the Muleshoe general store out of bed and bought every thermometer in town. He took them in to Amarillo and sold every one at double the normal price. He used the profit to by some bird dogs to use in his new money makin' enterprise...and that's another story, too.

Charlie Maxwell

[square butte]

-39 below. Out to the east of Kalispell, Mt on Foothill Rd. in about 1982 or 83. Ice on the inside of the walls with the woodstove going full bore.

[whelenshooter]

For you more 'cold tough' northerners, Alaskans, Canadians, etc this is nothing but for a Bama boy living in Fort Wayne for 3 years it once got to -14f with a 30 mph wind and drifts up to my waist. That was cold and I don't miss it. However here in Tennessee last night it went below 0, but it doesn't last long.

David

[AKbushman49]

OK folks another AK story. Drove the alcan Feb 91. Not sure how damn cold it was, radiator almost completely blocked off, driving by the trucks temp gauge, Heater on high, to keep the windows from frosting (barely). Pulled into Tok. Said the(&*& )with this, pulled into a motel, mgr said yup it be cold out there, asked how cold, looked at his mercury thermometer well below -80 was as far as it could go. bushman
PS. Had a bottle of "medicinal purpose antifreeze" (WT) in the back, when we got to a warmer area, and pulled it out it was frozen solid!

[Crawdaddy]

-24 at my house in NM. -35 in PA as a teenager.

[Duckiller]

1964 , first time Lake Superior had frozen since invention of airplane. At noon for a month straight it was -20*F on the landing of an older school building at Michigan Tech, Houghton. That winter was why I took a job in So.Cal. That and the following year when we got over 300" of snow.

[M-Tecs]

Minus 53 is the coldest I've been in but I have been outside hunting all day starting at minus 27 with a high for the day at minus 16. This year was the coldest bow hunting I've done. Three day hunt with the high of minus 6. All of these are actual temperature (not that phony 'wind chill factor'). It's not a matter of being tough it's more a matter of being able to afford very good clothes. At these temps if you take a pop or a beer out of the "cooler" you have to drink it quick or it freezes solid. Eating a frozen Snicker at the normal freezer temp. of 0 is much less of a challenge than eating the same Snickers at minus 25.

[AkMike]

I was hauling up to Prudhoe Bay to the oil patch back in the late 90's and was outside during a cold snap that hit -74 with a breeze blowing on top of that. It hurt to breathe and if you didn't pay attention skin would freeze quickly.

I was fully suited up in all my Carharts and down gear in the truck just to stay cold. The engine would not get hot enough to warm the cab.

[Blacksmith]

A long time ago when I was in Tech School in Rantoul Ill. it never got above 20 below for a week straight. Scotch poured like maple syrup.

[sundog]

-42dF in Belgrade Lakes, Maine, circa 1961. We also had 217" of snow that year.

Believe it or not, Nowata, Oklahoma, hit -31dF last year (set a new record). IIRC we had about 14 below where I am between Tulsa and Muskogee.

[Monttexan]

-39 below. Out to the east of Kalispell, Mt on Foothill Rd. in about 1982 or 83. Ice on the inside of the walls with the woodstove going full bore.

VERY familiar! Moved from Evergreen out to Foothill Rd. in '79. Moving back there as soon as the place here in TX sells. I do remember having frost on the inside of windows a time or two!

In about '83 or '84 me and my dad were cross country skiing up Strawberry Lake Rd at about 20 - 25 degrees. About 5 miles from home when the temperature started to drop. We re-waxed our skis quick with Polar wax (good to -15) for the downhill trip home. When we got back home I chipped the wax off the bottom of my skis with my thumbnail. The coldest rated wax we had had frozen on the skis. Don't remember looking at how cold it actually was, but I remember the frozen wax and the mild frostbite on the toes of my right foot. Temperature drop of 40-ish degrees in about 30 minutes.

[Menner]

When I was in the Navy we got our Blue Nose which means you have been above the Artic Circle. It was in NOV. or DEC. and part of the Initiation was to run around above deck in shorts only and somebody happened to find a fire hose and use it I don't remember the temp but I can tell you it was flippin cold icebergs around us

Boiler Techs were standing watch with fowl weather jackets on and it was snowing in the boiler rooms

[waksupi]

-39 below. Out to the east of Kalispell, Mt on Foothill Rd. in about 1982 or 83. Ice on the inside of the walls with the woodstove going full bore.

I remember that winter. A few years ago I was working north of Kalispell, it was minus 32 that day, and at the boss' place up in Star Meadows it was minus 56. No wind, and sun though, and it wasn't uncomfortable working outside in just a sweater.

[shaper]

chill factor 72 below, Limestone Air Force base Maine 1968. It taught me a lesson. I got out and went back to Alabama.

[jonp]

-42 without windchill. That was cold but not as cold as sitting on 1/2 in of ice lining the toilet seat in the outhouse at -30. After that i kept it on the wall next to the woodstove and took it with me