A winter snowstorm is bringing snow, ice, and potentially record-breaking temperatures across multiple states this weekend.
Despite record-breaking temperature drops across the US over the last century, the world continues to get hotter. In fact, only three states have recorded their lowest-ever temperatures in the 21st century.
It doesn’t mean, however, that the US hasn’t experienced some excruciatingly low temperatures in recent years. This weekend, a winter storm is expected to barrel across the South, the Plains, Mid-Atlantic, and Northeast, dumping snow, sleet, and ice, and potentially setting record low temperatures into next week.
The coldest temperature ever recorded in the US was -80 degrees in Alaska in 1971. And since records began, all but one of the 50 states has reported a temperature below zero. What’s the holdout? Hawaii, which recorded its lowest temperature of 12 degrees Fahrenheit at the Mauna Kea Observatory on May 17, 1979.
According to data compiled by NOAA’s State Climate Extremes Committee, the coldest temperatures ever recorded in each state are listed below.
Melissa Wells contributed to a prior version of this story.Alabama’s lowest recorded temperature was -27 degrees Fahrenheit at New Market on January 30, 1966.
On this snowy January day, it was Lucille Hereford, the postmaster and town volunteer weather observer, who recorded the -27-degree temperature, calling it a “terribly cold” morning in a 1988 interview with an Alabama State climatologist.
Per a 2021 news report by WHNT, a local news outlet, the official story comes with a caveat: The temperature was initially erroneously recorded as warmer than the -24 degrees Fahrenheit reported at Russellville the same day. It wasn’t until years later that a Birmingham reporter uncovered the truth, and the National Climatic Data Center finally issued a correction in its records.Alaska’s lowest recorded temperature was -80 degrees Fahrenheit at Prospect Creek Camp on January 23, 1971.
The Anchorage Daily News reported in 2013 that there have been unofficial measurements of even lower temperatures. On the National Weather Service Alaska website, Phil Schaefer said it hit -84 degrees Fahrenheit in Coldfoot in 1989, and Joe Cochran said the temperature in Hughes dropped to -85 degrees Fahrenheit in the ’90s, The Daily News reported.
However, the Prospect Creek Camp temperature is the only one that’s been verified.
This is the lowest temperature ever recorded in the US.Arizona’s lowest recorded temperature was -40 degrees Fahrenheit at Hawley Lake on January 7, 1971.
Hawley Lake isn’t a town so much as a remote weather station, but it’s important in Arizona’s meteorological history. In addition to setting a state record for 91 inches of snow in 1968, the overseer of Hawley Lake, Stan Bryte, recorded the state’s lowest temperature of -40 degrees Fahrenheit in 1971, per AZCentral.
In fact, on the morning of January 7, 1971, Bryte’s chief meteorologist told him, “You need to get up to Hawley Lake. I have a suspicion this is going to be a real record.”Arkansas’ lowest recorded temperature was -29 degrees Fahrenheit in Brook Farm Pond near Gravette on February 13, 1905.
Brook Farm Pond is near the town of Gravette, which has just over 3,500 residents, according to census data.
It is located in Benton County, which has the motto “The Heart of Hometown America.” At one time, it also bore the name of “Gate Community” for serving as a gateway to northwest Arkansas from Kansas, Missouri, and Oklahoma. California’s lowest recorded temperature was -45 degrees Fahrenheit in Boca on January 20, 1937.
The Los Angeles Times reported in 1937 that the low temperatures had brought “influenza, frozen toes, broken water pipes and automobile radiators, icy streets and traffic disruption.”Colorado’s lowest recorded temperature was -61 degrees Fahrenheit in Maybell on February 1, 1985.
CBS News reported in January 2023 that Maybell, located 25 miles west of Craig, is home to just 76 people.
Maybell resident of 56 years Georgia McIntyre told 9News in 2015, “You don’t think about how cold it is. You just put all the clothes you’ve got on, and we even put newspapers in our shoes because we didn’t have all these fancy things you have now.”Connecticut has recorded temperatures of -32 degrees Fahrenheit twice: First in Falls Village on February 16, 1943, and then again in Coventry on January 22, 1961.
In 1943, a National Weather Service observer noted February was a “relatively mild month” in Connecticut, only for the state to record its coldest temperature in the state’s history 16 days into the month, per a 2023 CT Insider article.
A freezing day in January just 18 years later would hit that same low temperature.Delaware’s lowest recorded temperature was -17 degrees Fahrenheit in Millsboro on January 17, 1893.
Thirty-seven years later, a Millsboro weather station recorded a temperature of 110 degrees Fahrenheit on a scorching July day, according to the National Weather Service.Florida’s lowest recorded temperature was -2 degrees Fahrenheit in Tallahassee on February 13, 1899.
WTXL Tallahassee reported in 2020 that in Tallahassee 124 years ago, an inch of snow coated the city (its third biggest snowfall ever), and a record low of -2 degrees Fahrenheit was recorded.
Headlines at the time read “All Previous Records Broken”, and editors were calling the storm, “The Snow King”, “The Ice King”, and “the Great Blizzard of 1899”, Tallahassee Democrat reported in 2018.Georgia’s lowest recorded temperature was -17 degrees Fahrenheit in CCC Fire Camp F-16 near Beatum on January 27, 1940.
Not even 12 years later, on July 24, 1952, Georgia recorded its highest temperature at 112 degrees Fahrenheit in Louisville and again on August 20, 1983, in Greenville, according to NOAA’s State Climate Extremes Committee.Hawaii’s lowest recorded temperature was 12 degrees Fahrenheit at the Mauna Kea Observatory on May 17, 1979.
Forecasters think this record may have changed because, on February 11, 2019, several sensors at the Mauna Kea Observatory reported temperatures between 8 and 11 degrees Fahrenheit, Khon2 reported in 2022, but it has yet to be confirmed.Idaho’s lowest recorded temperature was -60 degrees Fahrenheit in Island Park Dam on January 18, 1943.
Island Park Dam is located in the Targhee National Forest in the northeast corner of the state. It’s tied for the eighth coldest temperature ever recorded in the US.Illinois’ lowest recorded temperature was -38 degrees Fahrenheit in Mount Carroll on January 31, 2019.
