The Coldest Ever in the U.S.
February 9th, 2012 at 12:02 am by Bill Steffen under Bill's Blog, Weather
<–snowball fight on the steps of the Florida State Capitol in Feb. 1899 (picture from Wikipedia – click to enlarge). The coldest temperatures ever officially recorded in Grand Rapids came during the cold wave of Feb. 1899. That Arctic blast remains the coldest ever for the U.S. The low temperature in G.R. was -23 on 2/12, and -24 on 2/13 and 2/14. Here’s the high/low temperatures in G.R. during that frigid half/month: Jan. 30 (10/M), Jan. 31 (4/-20), Feb. 1 (9/-20), Feb. 6 (18/-3), Feb. 7 (12/-15), Feb. 8 (12/-8), Feb. 9 (-3/-10), Feb. 10 (-6/-21 – coldest maximum ever in G.R.), Feb. 11 (0/-21), Feb. 12 (0/-23), Feb. 13 (2/-24), Feb. 14 (15/-24), Feb. 15 (25/0). Here’s a list of all-time record lows set in Feb. 1899 in Michigan: -30 Muskegon, -35 Allegan, -24 Battle Creek, -36 Big Rapids, -25 Grand Haven, -41 Grayling, -35 Hart, -31 Hastings, -25 Ionia (this may have been beaten in Jan. 1994), -32 Ishpeming, -41 Lake City, -28 Manistique, -40 Newberry, -22 St. Johns, -22 S. Haven, -47 Stambaugh, -20 Three Rivers, -33 Traverse City. Four all-time state records still stand today after 113 years: -2 Tallahassee FL, -16 Minden LA, -39 Milligan OH, -47 Camp Clarke NE. Logan, MT dipped to -61. It’s was -10 in Dallas, TX. Here’s more and weather maps of the event. Snow fell across central Florida and the temperatures hit the 20s all the way down to Miami. New Orleans fell to 7 above and ice floes moved down the Mississippi River into the Gulf of Mexico! The center of the monster high pressure reached 31.42″. There’s a couple of old maps here. Here’s a picture from Washington, D.C. and Galveston, TX. Here’s more maps from NCDC.
I used to put snowballs in the freezer and take them out around June to throw them. Of course by then they were ice balls. Snow balls, SHmoe Balls…Better then NO Balls.
SECOND !!!!
Hard to take these numbers too seriously when I doubt that thermometers back then were all that accurate.
Guess we’ll just have to live with those facts until the 2nd Ice Age finally comes and knocks those records to History.
I’d take the numbers pretty seriously. Individual thermometers with anomalous readings are one thing, but thermometers consistently demonstrating frigid temperatures across the eastern US do not scream out “problem.”
The Florida Capitol building was already 50 years old when that photo was taken. It was saved and restored 30 years ago when a new “high rise” capitol was built, and is a great place to visit if you’re in Tallahassee (as I did about 10 years ago).
Bill, is this weather going to affect sap gathering for Maple syrup?