The Superior Express -

Yes, it has been cold outside!  Temperatures well below zero at night with wind chill readings even colder. It doesn’t seem the days are much warmer. I am staying in as much as possible, I don’t need to go outside just to see how cold this cold feels. 

This stretch of cold weather is a “cold spell.”  A cold spell is defined as a series of days with temperatures below 20 degrees.  A cold spell is colder than a “cold wave.”  A cold wave means the weather is below freezing for several days.  Both are colder than a simple “cold snap” which is just a brief period of colder than normal temperatures. 

The coldest recorded temperature in Kansas occurred in February of 1905.  The winter of 1904-1905 saw some very cold temperatures.  Both Kansas and Missouri set their record low temperatures in early 1905.  In nearby Lebanon, Kansas, and in Warsaw, Missouri, on Feb. 13, 1905, it was 40 degrees below zero.  Not wind chill, actual temperature.   

That same day, farther south in Gravette, Arkansas, it was 29 below zero for the lowest ever recorded temperature in Arkansas.  Three of the 50 United States recorded their record lows on the same day. 

“Way up North” in Alaska, at Fort Yukon, the temperature has been recorded at a minus 80 degrees.  Even in the “lower 48,” Medicine Lake, Montana, residents have seen 70 degrees below zero. 

Of course, it has been much, much colder in Antarctica. The coldest temperature recorded there was a minus 126.4 degrees on July 21, 1983.  But an even colder temperature, a minus 128 degrees, was recorded in July of 1983 in Vostok Station, Russia. The lowest temperature ever recorded on earth.   

But, back to Kansas. According to ksn.com there was an “extreme cold snap” from Dec. 18, 1983, to Dec. 25, 1983. It was the coldest stretch of weather ever recorded in Kansas. Daytime highs were perhaps, 1 degree.  Sound familiar?  The wind chills were, of course, colder.  Christmas Day 1983 the wind chill was 33 below in Dodge City. 

But for the United States and the world, the coldest wind chill ever recorded was 108 below on Feb. 3, 2023, on Mount Washington, New Hampshire.  A bit of proof supporting the long-held belief that Mount Washington has the world’s worst winter weather. 

Perhaps just thinking about some these temperatures, will make our low temperatures seem a bit less frigid.