Temperature Extremes You Have Seen

What are the coldest and hottest temperatures you have seen?

The coldest I have ever seen that I can remember was -13F. The hottest might have been 117F. They were calling for it to get that hot, though I don't know if it acually did. The hottest I know for sure is 111F.

Coldest was 22 degrees and the hottest was 121 degrees. And for those or you in the extreme climates ..... you have my sympathy but I'll stay here where 30-75 is the norm and over or under that is rare!

Heard on the news this a.m. that the record low for Nebraska was 30 years ago with -33 (and that's not counting wind chill which would make it even colder). I do remember that year - it was my first year away from home and I had lots of car problems that year. We don't seem to get that cold anymore - our winters are much milder than they used to be. I really can't remember the hottest. I do remember several years ago during our State Fair when dd was showing cattle, it got up to 104. We kept having to put wet towels around the necks of the steers to keep them cool. I hate heat and humidity.

Here in Southern Finland it has been around -28°F many Winters during the daytime - surprisingly not yet this year, it has been a pretty mild Winter.

The coldest temperatures we've had in Finland are from some 1000 km North of us, in the Finnish Lapland, last January they had temperatures around -41°F there! Sometimes the cold down here almost feels like that with the windchill.. it's pretty horrible. Luckily there aren't many days like that.

The hottest temperatures I've "experienced" in Finland have been around 95°F in shade.

The hottest climate I have been to has probably been in Goa, India, can't say how much it was daily but could've been easily over 100°F in shade.

Minus 35 one winter when I was a kid living in north central Washington, and 113 one day in July year before last when I was traveling through John Day, Oregon.

Originally from North Dakota, I've seen many cold temps, the coldest I remember was -45, now in Texas, many days over 100, but cant remember the hottest, think it was 113.

Somewhere around 45-50 below in New Hampshire. I remember bringing the car battery in at night so the car would start in the morning.

One winter in the 80's we had 29 below zero one night. In the early eighties we had several days in a row over 100. The Midwest lost a lot of people that summer due to heat. I think about 106 was the hottest here. It did get to 118 back in 1936 here in SE Iowa, but that was before my time.

I've seen the thermometer go to -40 something many times. Add in the perpetual North Dakota wind and the wind chill is a killer.

I've seen summer temperatures of 110 or so. Usually we don't get more than a day or two at a time of these, but it can get to over 100 for many days at a time. Luckily, we do cool down a bit in the evenings here. We also don't get a lot of rain, so when it gets really warm, with the winds, we have extreme fire danger most of the summer.

I was employed in Northern Montana several years ago and feeding over 200 adult dogs plus puppies in -44F weather with a fierce wind. That was TOO COLD. In the summer here we have had 118 degrees F several times. That is TOO HOT. I think I would love to live in a climate like Zanymuse has.

Believe it or not, we here in Southcentral Alaska live in a relatively mild climate. Our winter seldom go down below zero F, and the summers seldom go to 80 degrees F. We sleep with flannel sheets on our bed year 'round, and never suffer from stifling heat. A ripe tomato requires a greenhouse and a bit of forthought, but lettuce heads live all summer long, suffering a bit of thievery to the outer leaves. It's too chilly for most of the bothersom garden pests, save slugs who could no doubt live at the south pole. Our legs may remain lily white, but our summers are like perpetual Indian Summer elsewhere.

Weezingreens, we have actually thought about moving to Alaska but not while my folks are still with us. I can handle the cold but not heat and the long days and nights would take some getting used but I think we could handle it.

So look out and a few years from now we may be neighbors :~)

Yesterday I re-did my window boxes in French Marigolds and Mexican Heather and it was 71, just right for working outside. This morning I opened my door to look out and saw my breath! It was about 41 last night. When it warms up I have to put out the sprinklers, no rain and the grass looks grundgy.
Pati

The year I lived in Wichita, it was never below 114ºF the entire last week in August 1955. It was 117ºF the day we left.

I don't remember the lowest cold temps, perhaps because once I'm cold, it doesn't matter how low it gets, I'm just miserable. I tend to remember more what we did because of extreme cold temps.

Living in Todd, NC, just outside Boone, we had 14 burst copper pipes one time from extreme cold. We packed up and lived in our office in town for 6 weeks, showering at the gym down the block. Still had to go daily out to the farm to feed the horses and bring fresh water for them. Couldn't get the dummies to go to the creek to drink, LOL.

About 6 years ago, it was -40, air temp (NOT wind chill). My car wouldn't start...IN THE GARAGE.
Heat...about 105...I can not stand the heat! I could never live in the south in the summer...but I wouldn't mind winters there!

-100F (with wind chill) -68F without...we were told not
to leave our homes that day!!

+115F is the warmest I have seen here.

...we tend to have a "dry" cold and "dry" heat.

This message was edited Jan 14, 2004 11:58 AM

I saw -40 in Massachusetts in the winter of 75. I had to walk to work....uphill...I might add and had so many layers of clothing on, I wasn't sure I was going to make it. I think we've gotten to 108 here in KY.

Lilypon, -68°F?!?! That's about -90°C. How can it be so cold? Weird :/ Better not go outside when it's that cold for sure ;)

Gee,it was -21 last night and I don't remember what warm is........calling for colder tonite and tomorrow........

Evert it was only that cold for one day...must have been
blown straight down from the North Pole...it was about
30 some years ago.

This message was edited Jan 14, 2004 2:54 PM

1980 - the week of Christmas it was minus 25 below zero for the week in OH.

Don't remember a high temp though

I laid sod on a yard that was 112F... burned your feet through your boots... I ended up turning the irrigation system on (that I just built). Figured me and the boys deserved that much. During this day I coined a phrase which holds true in many situations:
"When the mexican pukes, it's time to go home."

I slept outside in -25F. That was cold, it was a wilderness survival week, me and a friend were out in the woods and built a shelter out of sticks leaned against a rock, pulled up dead leaves from under the ice and stuffed the shelter with it, dug/cut blocks of ice to go over the sticks and leaves. To be honest it was fairly nice in the shelter. That was a fun time... to walk into the woods with a small pack, folding shovel and a few road flares.
Of course I'm remembering the good times, not when I was not able to sleep and we'd sit and pray for the sun to come up so we could actually move and get warm.

Drew

Vic, I remember that Christmas. I was in Massachusetts living in a mobile home. It was so cold on Christmas Day, all of our pipes burst, we had soaken wet carpets. We were to go to the city to spend Christmas day with my father, we never made it as the roads were so slick and cars would not start. We never opened Christmas gifts until late that night....and I was almost 7 mths pregnant. :) Kathy

We spent a week here in Denver in 91 (I think) when warmest for the week was 10 below, and overnight was 35 below. My cars were the only ones to start for blocks, and we had no garage! (Being married to a mechanic won't make you rich, but I'm never stranded!) The auto club, where I worked at the time, was running 72 hours behind on jump starts!

My DH remembers working on a project one day in Cody Wyoming when it was -55 F with a wind chill of - 97 F. He said he would NEVER work in that cold again regardless of what the boss said.

Reading more of these posts reminds me of a funny story. I had a friend in Boone who lived in a cabin with spring-fed water. She and her boyfriend left for 2 months in the winter and just left the spring water trickle through the kitchen sink. Well, the sink drain froze, but the water kept flowing... all over the house.

When they returned, there was a clear layer of ice nearly 3 inches thick all over the floors. She said it was such a surrealist sight, seeing oriental carpets through the ice!

LOL but I am sure she wasn't laughing at the time.

I read a story this morning in the newspaper from Berkshire County, MA. An 84 yo woman burnt her house down yesterday at about 5:30 a.m. She was warming her shoes in her oven!, a practice she supposedly has done for many years. The shoes caught on fire and she threw them on her back porch.....which ignited the porch and the outside walls of the house. She tried to use a garden hose to put the fire out, but it was frozen. The fire dept came and had an awful time because their water kept freezing up and the conditions were very slick. Her home was a total loss. The temperature was 22 below without wind chill!!!

oh that poor lady. I wonder if she just forgot the shoes? To lose your house anytime is sad but to lose it at the tender age of 84 has got to be really traumatic.

Lani, That was my first thought....all the memories that woman had in that home. At 84, does one rebuild? Move in with a relative? Or will she be considered incompetent for putting them in the oven to begin with? I think she had done it for so long that she didn't see the problem with it. I have a hard time putting parchment paper on my food, let alone something else that is flammable. My heart goes out to her, no matter why she did what she did. What a scary, scary thought.

-17ºF in Dec. 1989 (my son was born that year and I had to bring him home from the hospital in that!!). The highest is 111ºF was 3 or 4 years ago in August.

The wind chill yesterday was supposed to be around -20. We lost power at work around 4 am Friday - of all days - it was freezing at work. We work in a renovated 100 year old barn. At 8:30 am it was 56 degrees downstairs and 53 upstairs. It didn't really warm up until around 3:00.

The coldest I have been in was -47º. This was near Pine River, MN in about 1961. I was working an agriculture job where I spent one day at each farm, and spending the night there. The woman of the house decided that night would be good to give birth. They had a bad 1947 Ford, and had to go the 17 miles to Pine River to meet their doctor, who drove them the 35 miles to Brainerd. God must have wanted a new life because all made it fine!
There was no wind, but you could hardly breath in the cold.
Like all other mid-westerners, there have been many days over 100º.
This morning here it is -10º.
Bundle up & enjoy, can't change it!
Bernie

I never went too far from here, so I guess the highest temperature was here in Rio, 47° Celsius last year. No idea baout the lowest temperatures, probably in the mountains west from here, something around 5°C. At least, lower than London yesterday, according to a friend.

fI think the coldest was minus 36 degrees F. I believe in 1967 with a wind, but I don't know what the windchill factor brought it to. That was while I was living at my other house. The hottest was about 105 to 108 but i don't remember which year.

Mary E where in North Central Wash. were you living when it got that cold. Donna

Evert - check your thermometer. -68 F would be somewhere around -50 C. My thermometer doesn't go that low so I'm not sure exactly and it's too many years since high school to remember the formula. :)

Last June we took a load out to Long Beach, CA and I had my first look at that part of the country. Part of the load was dropped in Las Vegas, NV and it was 112 F in the shade at 9 am. The high was 117 F and it was a record for that day. I had to think that the Lord was chuckling at me b/c I don't handle heat well so He decided to show me really HOT stuff!

Hm... wonder what I did with my converter earlier. Yeah, it's -55 C indeed :]

here in michigan I can remember a reading of -30 and a high of 101.

Lived thru the summer of 1980, over 100 days straight of 100+ temps with NO AC!! Kid with chickenpox too!! Now that was Hates for sure!

"eyes"