What's the coldest weather you've experienced?

[quilbilly]

12 below in Ely Nevada when I was out coyote calling but I will say that 25 degrees above on the Olympic Peninsula feels colder than 5 below due to the dampness. That is why Roosevelt elk have bigger bodies to hold heat better in damp cold.

[firefly1957]

Here is a interesting website you can look at historical weather data http://www.wunderground.com/history i am not sure of it's limits . Last summer our local weather was saying how hot it was hotter than the 1930's i sent them a link to show the summer of 1988 was worse i never got a response.

[Ozarki]

-30 in the parking lot trying to get Chevy Luv started. This was in n Iowa on the Missippi with the wind ahowling about 1979

[AlaskanGuy]

I did one of them brimfrost exercises about a trillion years ago.. But coldest i ever been in was a meager -69 north of the Arctic circle on the haul road.... Freaking cold.. Very hard to breathe... No windchill factored in....

[nicholst55]

On the flightline at Ft. Wainwright, AK one fine morning; -45 ambient temp, working in the rotor wash of a CH-47 Chinook helo sling loading a trailer. I have no idea how cold it was factoring in the wind chill from them two big egg-beater rotors, but it was C-O-LD!

[jonp]

I got to thinking back and it seems to me that about 10yrs ago I was running from New England to California and went through Iowa during a cold snap where it was -46 without windchill. I parked the truck at a truckstop so it was not facing the wind, left it on high idle and went inside. The seat near the window was so cold I wore a jacket when I ate. That was kinda chilly.

[Dframe]

I had to work an accident on I-74 one midnight shift. Actual air temp was -25 and wind chill -75. Brutal wind coming out of the west that night. They actually closed I-74, mostly due to badly drifting snow.

[history@mts.net]

BTW, -40 C = -40F

We've had that temperature a lot this winter, thou not for some time in the past few years. It had been -50C (-60F) with the windchill for about 3 weeks around Christmas.

The coldest temperature I was ever in was at the Pelly Bay, NWT airport back in '85. -58 C (~-70F) & -93 C (-134 F) with the windchill. The 737's door ladder assembly had to be thawed with a tiger torch to get it to close after only being open for 10 minutes.

When I lived in Yellowknife, NWT back in the mid-80's, we used to hope the temperature would drop to below -40, as then at least the wind would calm down. The winter of '85-'86 it never got above -40 (either plain temperature or with the windchill) from Halloween until Easter. Dark 'til 9:30 in the morning, dark again by 3:00 in the afternoon. You don't know what cabin fever is!

Ah, those were the good old days. BS!!!

The OP, I think, though, is right on the money. It's getting a lot harder to put up with as I age. You can only do so much reloading, gun cleaning (for the umpteenth time), hunting book reading, online gun buying and movie watching. I don't cast inside anymore (a month of headaches the last time kind of finished that idea for me), so there's not a heck of a lot else to do. It's too darned cold to sled or ice-fish or sit out in a blind to nail a timber wolf, so what else is there to occupy the body, mind & spirit, til the crocuses start pokin' their heads up?

Going through the wood-pile pretty fast, too.

Stay warm!

Jim

[Ed Barrett]

I spent a winter in Minnesota in the 1960's when the high for two weeks was -20. When it got up to zero it was like spring. Spent the next four winters below the equator or in Florida so I could warm up.

[wlc]

About -36 actual air temp is the coldest I've seen. Not too bad if dressed for it, but did burn the lungs a bit. Sure wouldn't want to have to work out in it for any length of time.

[TheDoctor]

Being from outside of Houston, I grew up thinking freezing was cold. 20 was really cold. We spend the majority of the winter above 40. Then I did a winter in Korea. OMG. Unusually cold winter that year. Only snowed twice. Too cold the rest of the time. -20 was a daily norm. One night, it was -45. Not counting what was around a 40 mph wind. Would have to rotate starting all our vehicles, running them 20 minutes each hour, so the fluids wouldn't freeze. THAT was a long night. About a week later, took a bus down to Seoul to pick up and drive a "new" deuce back up. Someone had switched the canvas on the cab, and it was ripped across, right behind the windshield. And the flipping heater did not work. -30 that morning. By the time I got that sucker up to Camp Casey, I almost needed help getting out of the truck, so cold I couldn't move very well. And I still squall when it gets down to 30 here, now... I really hate the cold.