What is the coldest it can get in the US?
The official contiguous U.S. minimum temperature of -70° (actually -69.7°) was measured at Rogers Pass on January 20, 1954.
1. Fairbanks, Alaska. With a minimum average temperature of about minus 17 degrees Fahrenheit, Fairbanks takes the cake as the coldest city in the U.S. The northernmost major city in Alaska, Fairbanks has seen record cold temperatures reaching minus 66 degrees in the past.
Physicists acknowledge they can never reach the coldest conceivable temperature, known as absolute zero and long ago calculated to be minus 459.67°F.
The coldest states in the US are Alaska, North Dakota, Minnesota, Wyoming, Montana, Maine, Wisconsin, Idaho, Vermont, and Michigan. Alaska is the coldest state in the US, with an average annual temperature of 30.7 F°.
According to Climate Central, in the last half-century, winters in the U.S. have warmed an average of 3 degrees, with some northern states warming as much as 5 degrees. But at the same time, global warming can cause winters to be colder and more severe.
Answer and Explanation: The lowest temperature that the human body can survive is 96 degrees Fahrenheit. This is the temperature where the body continues to function normally. Any temperature below 96 degrees Fahrenheit interferes with normal organ functions and can lead to hypothermia, shivering, and pale skin.
Butte, Montana, holds the honor of being the coldest city in the contiguous 48 states. The temperature in Butte falls below the freezing point 223 days each year, on average.
Rogers Pass, Montana, which holds the record for coldest temperature in the Lower 48, 70 degrees below zero, rises to an elevation of 5,610 feet above sea level and is located on the Continental Divide.
At the physically impossible-to-reach temperature of zero kelvin, or minus 459.67 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 273.15 degrees Celsius), atoms would stop moving. As such, nothing can be colder than absolute zero on the Kelvin scale.
The third law of thermodynamics states, that the absolute zero-temperature 0 K cannot be reached by a finite number of steps. Therefore any technical reference to absolute zero is always referred to as an approximated value.
Which state has the longest winter?
Alaska has the coldest winters, the coldest summers, the longest winter, the most freezing degree days, etc.
Consistently cold throughout the year are Maine, Vermont, Montana and Wyoming. Other states make the list of ten coldest in every season but summer. Wisconsin, Minnesota and North Dakota are states that get a break in summer from ranking in the ten coldest.

If greenhouse gas emissions don't decrease, snowless winters could become more common as early as 2040, and "low-to-now snow" will become persistent in 35 to 60 years. This change in snowfall is a result of climate change and global warming.
The location and strength of the Northern Hemisphere stratospheric polar vortex on January 4, 11, 18, and 25, and February 1, 8, and 15, 2023. A disruption caused the vortex to shift southward from the pole toward Europe.
According to NOAA's 2021 Annual Climate Report the combined land and ocean temperature has increased at an average rate of 0.14 degrees Fahrenheit ( 0.08 degrees Celsius) per decade since 1880; however, the average rate of increase since 1981 has been more than twice as fast: 0.32 °F (0.18 °C) per decade.
Warning signs include uncontrollable shivering, memory loss, disorientation, incoherence, slurred speech, drowsiness and apparent exhaustion. Take the person's temperature. If below 95°F, seek medical care immediately!
- 1) Eastern Antarctic Plateau, Antarctica (-94°C) ...
- 2) Vostok Station Antarctica (-89.2°C) ...
- 3) Amundsen-Scott Station, Antarctica (-82.8°C) ...
- 4) Denali, Alaska, United States of America (-73°C) ...
- 5) Klinck station, Greenland (-69.6°C) ...
- 6) Oymyakon, Siberia, Russia (-67.7°C)
People often point to a study published in 2010 that estimated that a wet-bulb temperature of 35 C – equal to 95 F at 100 percent humidity, or 115 F at 50 percent humidity – would be the upper limit of safety, beyond which the human body can no longer cool itself by evaporating sweat from the surface of the body to ...
Coldest Place in India: Dras Valley, Jammu and Kashmir
Dras is situated in Kargil town in Ladakh and is both the coldest and second-coldest inhabited area in all of India. The “Gateway to Ladakh” refers to its elevation of 3280 metres above sea level.
Where is it 70 degrees year-round in the U.S.? While temperatures fluctuate throughout the year in most U.S. states, there are some that see averages around 70-degree weather year-round. These states include Arizona, California, Hawaii, Nevada, and New Mexico.
What's the hottest city in the US?
...
Rank | City | Mean Temperature |
---|---|---|
1 | Key West, FL | 78.1°F |
2 | Miami, FL | 76.7°F |
3 | Yuma, AZ | 75.3°F |
4 | West Palm Beach, FL | 75.3°F |
Hottest States in America
During every season, Florida, Louisiana and Texas are consistently among the top four of the nation's hottest states, based on state-wide average temperatures. Florida ranks overall as the warmest state year round. The other state in the top four is Hawaii.
Most prominently, the portion of the United States west of the continental divide (the West) typically reaches its climatological coldest day in December, whereas most of the East reaches its seasonal minimum in January.
The coldest temperature recorded in the contiguous U.S. is 70 degrees below zero, measured at Rogers Pass, Montana, on Jan. 20, 1954. The oldest record was set on Jan. 22, 1885, on Mount Washington, New Hampshire, the highest peak in the Northeast, when the thermometer dropped to 50 degrees below zero.
The coldest temperatures since 1989 were observed across most areas on January 10, which followed a day of rain with temperatures in the 30s and 40s (as well as a few unconfirmed reports of sleet and snow). February 12, 2010: Portions of northwestern Florida experience snowfall totals of around 1 in (25 mm).
So where does Minnesota stand in terms of the coldest places in the U.S.? Well, no surprise, Alaska beats everyone -- by a lot. The state's average annual temp is 26 degrees, while Minnesota's is 40.1.
...
Coldest Winter Days.
City | 32 °F 0 °C |
---|---|
Buffalo, New York | 40 |
Rochester, New York | 38 |
Detroit, Michigan | 37 |
Chicago, Illinois | 35 |
Do that, and the air would have a temperature of "absolute zero" degrees (as measured in units called Kelvins. In Fahrenheit, this would be -459.67 degrees). But, it turns out, nature doesn't work that way.
At one extreme is something called Planck temperature, and is equivalent to 1.417 x 1032 Kelvin (or something like 141 million million million million million degrees). This is what people will often refer to as the 'absolute hot'.
Can fire burn in absolute zero? Ambient temperature shouldn't matter at all. It could be pretty near absolute zero and flame should still work just fine as long as there's fuel and oxygen.
Is the earth still in an ice age?
Striking during the time period known as the Pleistocene Epoch, this ice age started about 2.6 million years ago and lasted until roughly 11,000 years ago. Like all the others, the most recent ice age brought a series of glacial advances and retreats. In fact, we are technically still in an ice age.
What is the hottest temperature ever recorded on Earth? The highest temperature on record belongs to California's Death Valley which, in 1913, reached a temperature of 134 degrees Fahrenheit, or 56.7 degrees Celsius, Al Jazeera reports.
Earth's global average surface temperature in 2020 statistically tied with 2016 as the hottest year on record, continuing a long-term warming trend due to human activities. This graph shows the change in global surface temperature compared to the long-term average from 1951 to 1980.
Nothing can be colder than absolute zero (0K)! Negative absolute temperatures (or negative Kelvin temperatures) are hotter than all positive temperatures - even hotter than infinite temperature.
The closest to absolute zero anyone has reached is around 150 nano Kelvin. The group ended up receiving the 1997 Nobel Prize in Physics for it. They got the prize because they ended up proving a theory called Bose-Einstein Condensation which had been made decades before it was proven.
After more than 100 years of debate featuring the likes of Einstein himself, physicists have finally offered up mathematical proof of the third law of thermodynamics, which states that a temperature of absolute zero cannot be physically achieved because it's impossible for the entropy (or disorder) of a system to hit ...
Michigan is the most dangerous state for winter driving, with an average of 49 deaths on the roads every winter. The next-most dangerous states for winter driving are Wyoming, Alaska and Ohio. Wyoming had the highest winter driving fatality rate of any state, followed by Alaska, Montana and Vermont.
# 1 of states with the least snow – Hawaii
Much like Florida, Hawaii's average yearly snowfall is non-existent. It also boasts highs in the 80s and lows in the upper 60s. Weather like this should certainly make you consider saying “Aloha” to Hawaii in the winter months.
South Carolina. The coast of South Carolina is a great place to live if you want less than an inch of measurable snow annually. The whole state averages less than 2 inches per year with its subtropical humid climate.
Alaska is the coldest state in the US, with an average annual temperature of 30.7 F°. The second coldest state in the US is North Dakota, with an average temperature of 42.4 F°. Minnesota is the third coldest state, with an average temperature of 42.5 Fº.
What US city is always cold?
Fairbanks, Alaska (27.6°F)
Surprised? Even with our “population of at least 10,000” stipulation, Alaska manages to take the win. The city experiences a mean annual temperature of 27.6°F—that's below the freezing point! For those interested in records, the lowest temperature on record for Fairbanks is -66°F.
- Mexico. Like any country, some parts of Mexico are nicer and safer than others. ...
- Panama. Just a bit further south is Panama. ...
- Ecuador. Situated on the equator, Ecuador is a top pick if you really desire warm weather. ...
- Colombia. ...
- Costa Rica. ...
- Malaysia. ...
- Spain. ...
- Nicaragua.
The No. 1 city with the best weather in the U.S.? Honolulu, Hawaii. Honolulu took the top spot with an average annual temperature of 77.7 degrees. While the city endures an average of 93 rainy days per year, it also averages 90 sunny days and zero days where the temperature dips below freezing.
From Dr. Stephen Warren, University of Washington (8/22/2007): The world record for low temperature was set at Vostok Station, Antarctica, on 21 July 1983. Cerveny et al. (2007) give this temperature as -89.4°C in their Table 2, quoting Krause and Flood (1997), who gave the same value.
The lowest natural temperature ever directly recorded at ground level on Earth is −89.2 °C (−128.6 °F; 184.0 K) at the then-Soviet Vostok Station in Antarctica on 21 July 1983 by ground measurements.
The latest ice age peaked about 20,000 years ago, when global temperatures were likely about 10°F (5°C) colder than today. At the Pleistocene Ice Age's peak, massive ice sheets stretched over North America and Eurasia.
An underground superconducting particle accelerator at the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory has been cooled down to a mind-boggling minus 456 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 271 degrees Celsius or 2 kelvin). That's just a few degrees above the coldest possible temperature in the universe, absolute zero.
What is the hottest temperature ever recorded on Earth? The highest temperature on record belongs to California's Death Valley which, in 1913, reached a temperature of 134 degrees Fahrenheit, or 56.7 degrees Celsius, Al Jazeera reports.
Can Your Lungs Freeze in Antarctica? Cold air can irritate your airway, but there's nowhere on Earth cold enough to actually freeze your lungs. Your body is just too good at keeping them warm - the rest of you will freeze long before your lungs ever do.
Stellar black holes are very cold: they have a temperature of nearly absolute zero – which is zero Kelvin, or −273.15 degrees Celsius. Supermassive black holes are even colder.
What was the coldest day on Earth in 2023?
An astonishing -62.4°C was recorded in Tongulakh, Siberia, on Jan. 14. In addition to becoming Earth's coldest temperature recorded in 2023, the all-time station record was broken in Tongulakh.