Coldest Weather I've been in

[wild_balls]

Sorry, now, not low!

 

[Joao Encarnado]

Never been in less than -5ºC

 

[dh66]

Brrrrr.....you guys are killing me. Where I live we rarely get more than a few nights a year that dip much below freezing. The coldest I've ever been was one winter I spent in Ukraine. -25c / -14f was about the coldest it got. I remember standing on the beach of the Black Sea and looking out at a frozen ocean. The noise of the movining ice was WEIRD.

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[IXL]

The coldest I've been is on one night with 05°F temps, with ice everywhere. We responded to a call of a farmer being burglarized. The subject(s) were reported to be inside one of his barns. Since it seemed a simple incident I left the parka ( if one might need to go hands-on it is best to not be wearing a heavy coat) in the unit: things are never simple. The subjects managed to, as we approached from a distance, kick out some old boards of one wall and exited the barn, running through fields and into some woods, with us in pursuit.
It became a search event and all I was wearing was a long sleeved shirt over long undies, gloves and very thin body armor. I did have a watch cap, though. We finally caught the subjects but I was just about frozen by that time.
Now, I have a B-3 coat that works very well. This past week we had similar temps and I was nice and toasty. It is by far the warmest garment I've ever owned.

 

[Stearmen]

Easy, -50 farenheit in Des Moines, Iowa. Even with a heavy sweater and a Goose feather down parka, it was like I was standing there in my underwear!

 

[Bunyip]

We get -6 and 7 Celsius in Canberra regularly...usually it's the wind chill that gets you if your not careful..between 2am and 7 am is the worst, and as a hospitality worker, the walk to the car is a horror, and have had car locks freeze over etc...pea coat and gloves...the frozen nose and arthritis from old rugby injuries are horrid!

 

[theundeadkennedy]

I spend half my life in the Arctic, 2 weeks up at work, two weeks at home. I've been doing this for 12 years and I can attest that below -25 F it doesn't all feel the same.

The coldest I've had to work in, before there was what we call "cold weather shutdown", was -113 F wind chill. I believe the ambient temp was in the low -70s F. I've regularly spent time in extreme cold my whole adult life, but there are certain times when it gets so cold that you can feel it down to your marrow for days after, no matter how warm your dressed or how well your covered up or how often you go warm up.

I really think -50 ambient is around where you hit that truly deep down cold that you tend to feel after.

 

[Sloan1874]

I hope you're paid properly for tholing those miserably cold temperatures. I'm guessing you'd need more than 1" of shearling to shut that out...

 

[Shangas]

Coldest I've ever had is -20'c, in Toronto, Canada, in midwinter.

 

[pipvh]

Ambient temp of about -35F in Vermont. It would regularly get down to -20 but below that you knew you were in a different world of cold.

 

[Highwaymanman]

I thought an NYC winter was bad! That's probably the coldest I've ever experienced by the way. I used to work in a video store in the east village and one night in January 2003 I was closing up and had to wrestle with the shutters and the frozen padlocks in what felt like nerve shredding cold. Doesn't compare to what's been detailed above though.... Wow. I recently read a novel about Arctic exploration - the ill fated Franklin expedition - where it was described in great detail just how ill equipped the Royal Navy was for serious cold weather operations. They wore layers of wool under leather jackets that would simply shatter and they couldn't move across country at all. The Inuit, on the other hand, had it down. They wore furs of course but they had all these other innovations like fur lined igloos and dogsled runners made from frozen fish wrapped in sealskin.

 

[Peacoat]

My woeful tale of cold doesn't match you guys above who have really fought the fight in the frozen northland. The coldest I have been in was here in Middle Tennessee (Nashville) in 1985. It was -17. On the same day, Knoxville, TN recorded -24. The coldest ever in Tennessee was recorded in Mountain City (East Tennessee) at -32. So much for the South being a warm place to live.

The good news is that although it does get cold here, the cold usually doesn't hang around very long. Maybe a week or so, then we are back to our standard pattern of lows in the upper teens to lower 20s, and highs in the upper 30s to lower 40s. Temps just right for good peacoat weather.

 

[VTporkpie]

Ambient temp of about -35F in Vermont. It would regularly get down to -20 but below that you knew you were in a different world of cold.

Yes! Someone else felt the cold chill that is the Green Mountain State

 

[tonypaj]

I grew up where it was routinely -15 to -30 C. It is cold, but it's also a question of attitude. You can adapt to it quite easily. I can't remember worse than -35 C. Anyway it was cold, after -15 C we had to stop our winter soccer matches..

 

[ButteMT61]

When my mom and dad lived in Butte, it was in gov't military housing which were essentially cardboard walls over studs. It's pretty rugged sh** and I owe my love of cold to my family not wanting to settle somewhere sane.
To me, the challenge and then joy of coming in to a roaring fire make the cold very enjoyable. Some like my wife hate it, but not me.
My son and I camped in late November in 17°f with our clothing and three WWII Soviet wool blankets. Dug a trench and filled with pine needles. Not comfortable, but not as bad as you'd think.

 

[Stanley Doble]

Here in southern Ontario near Toronto, temp has risen to -6C. Last night was -17C. It was about -20 last week. This is very cold for this time of year, usually it is a tossup whether we have snow for Christmas or not.

In the 90s we had a run of winters when it hardly went below freezing all winter but in the last 10 years we have been having "old fashioned" winters like we used to, 50 years ago. But this year is unusually cold, more like what they got in the 19th century.

I have to say, I am very disappointed in this much advertised Global Warming.

 

[Hal]

I have to say, I am very disappointed in this much advertised Global Warming.

Speak for yourself! I have read that much of North America is having a very cold spell, but temperatures in Britain - at any rate in England and Wales - have been higher than average for at least five months, and midday temperatures of 13C are still with us (7C would be the norm). Neighbouring Continental countries have had similar temperatures.
The coldest I have experienced was -25C in the Hallingdal, Norway. It was still and sunny and the air was dry, so it did not feel very cold. It would, however, have been foolish to touch something metallic with a bare finger.

 

[Smithy]

Coldest I've been in was in the mountains above Misvær in northern Norway. Thermometer was showing -43.7 Celsius and that was ambient temperature. There was a massive storm going on (you literally couldn't see your hand in front of your face) so I shudder to think what it was including windchill. Sadly two Italian tourists got in trouble not far away and one froze to death and the other received serious frostbite.

You can get in horrific trouble in those kinds of conditions if you don't have the right clothing and equipment.

 

[pauleway]

I can put up with the cold weather. You can dress for it, and just go on with your day. What I hate is the snow! You have to shovel it, drive in it, and if you have an outside job , you have to work in it. It's been snowing here in suburban Buffalo for two days none stop, and there is no relief in site. Give me a cold dry day anytime!:eusa_doh::eeek:

 

[Stanley Doble]

If you weren't shovelling snow you would be mowing grass. The grass takes longer but only has to be done once a week not every day so it's a tossup.