These are the all-time coldest temperatures ever recorded in each US state
As a strong cold front surges into the northern tier of the U.S. from Canada this weekend and into next week, the first arctic blast since December will leave millions of Americans shivering in frigid temperatures.
If you are wondering how low the temperature has ever gotten in your state, all but one of the 50 states have documented a temperature below zero. Hawaii is the sole outlier, having only dipped as low as 12 degrees. Nearly a dozen states have plunged to negative 50 degrees or colder.
The map below shows the all-time record low in each state, according to data from NOAA's National Centers for Environmental Information.
January and February comprise the coldest time of the year for the majority of the U.S., so it should come as no surprise that's when most of the all-time records were achieved. However, there are a few exceptions to the rule.
WHEN IS THE COLDEST TIME OF YEAR?
Five states set their low-temperature records in late December, including Nebraska, Tennessee, Vermont, Washington and West Virginia.
A penguin is used to hold a parking spot in Chicago's Humboldt Park neighborhood on Monday, Jan. 6, 2014. (Credit: Nancy Stone/Chicago Tribune/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)
Meanwhile, Hawaii's all-time record low wasn't even achieved during the winter. The Mauna Kea Observatory, at an elevation of 13,796 feet on the Big Island of Hawaii, dipped to 12 degrees on May 17, 1979.
The lowest temperature ever recorded in the U.S. was negative 80 degrees in Prospect Creek, Alaska, north of Fairbanks, on Jan. 23, 1971.
The all-time record low in each state is denoted on the map. (Data: NOAA/NCEI) (Credit: FOX Weather)
In the Lower 48, Montana holds the record for the all-time coldest temperature at negative 70 degrees, set at Rogers Pass – on the Continental Divide at 5,610 feet above sea level – on Jan. 20, 1954.
HOW COLD CAN TEMPERATURES GET DURING THE COLDEST TIME OF YEAR?
Illinois is the most recent state to reach its lowest temperature on record. Mount Carroll, in the northwestern corner of the state, plunged to negative 38 degrees on Jan. 31, 2019.
The longest-standing record in the U.S. is held by Mount Washington, New Hampshire – the highest mountain in the Northeast – where the temperature bottomed out at negative 50 degrees nearly 140 years ago, on Jan. 22, 1885.
In the Northeast, New York can claim the coldest temperature ever recorded in the region, with an all-time record low of negative 52 degrees set in Old Forge on Feb. 18, 1979. Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine all share the same record of negative 50 degrees.
NOAA FINDS ‘SMALL BUT NOTICEABLE SHIFT’ IN COLDEST TIME OF YEAR FOR EASTERN U.S.
All-time records in the South might be colder than you think. Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi and South Carolina have all dipped into the teens below zero, while Alabama has been as cold as negative 27 degrees and Tennessee as low as negative 32 degrees.
The Midwest has a large range of low-temperature records, with North Dakota and Minnesota claiming negative 60 degrees as their all-time record lows, but states south of the Great Lakes such as Illinois, Indiana and Ohio have only dropped into the negative 30s due to winds off the lakes keeping temperatures relatively higher.
Most of the all-time record lows in the Western states were documented in the higher elevations. California's record of negative 45 degrees was set in the heart of the Sierra Nevada in Boca, at an elevation of 5,528 feet above sea level, on Jan. 20, 1937. The record low in Arizona was achieved at Hawley Lake, where the temperature plunged to negative 40 degrees at 8,200 feet on Jan. 7, 1971.