Absurd temps for the time of day or season

And -10'C in coastal southern Norway and Finland....

Edit: Nvm, thought the map was of this May...

Insanely cold temps in BC in November 1985 certainly ring a bell. Don't they often get their coldest weather in December though? Never quite understood how, considering it's supposed to be more maritime.

I remember Sioux City, Iowa getting a high of -17C and low of -23C on 2 March 2014, I thought that was pretty damn impressive but that was only 21C below average for the high and 17C for the low!

www.wunderground.com/history/airport/KSUX/2014/3/2/DailyHistory.html?req_city=Sioux+City&req_state=IA&req_statename=Iowa&reqdb.zip=51101&reqdb.magic=1&reqdb.wmo=99999

Also the Christmas Eve 2004 storm in parts of the southern US:



en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2004_Christmas_Eve_United_States_winter_storm

Just to be clear, we are not talking about the coldest months of all time, but rather the coldest lows relative to the average lows...

I do not think the Montana temperature actually happened, but even if it did (highly doubtful since no one else in the state was even close to that cold that day), it would be situated in a spot that has much, much colder temperatures than nearby Lincoln.

When we talk about most below average, what average are we talking about? I mean, averages have gone up so much in recent decades, it's not hard to achieve 30 or more below today's average some 100 years ago. 50 below average, no way.

In January, 1950, many places in here BC averaged for the entire month more than 20 degrees C below the 1981-2010 normal. The cold peaked in the middle of January, so even though it was the all time low for most places, it was also the time of year with the lowest average. Still, despite that, places like Seattle south of the border absolutely shattered any previous or later record by more than 5F! In fact, 8 of the 11 coldest temperature ever recorded in Seattle took place in January of 1950.

Here are some examples:
Quesnel was 34.2C/61.6F below normal with a reading of -46.7C/-52F on January 24th, 1950. Also, 33.6C/60.5F below normal with a reading of -46.7C/-52F on the 17th.

Whitehorse, Yukon, has only ever been 30C below normal once, and that was on North America's coldest cold snap when the temperature hit -52.2C/-61F on January 31st, 1947 (That's 31C/55.8F below normal). Same goes for places in northern BC like Dease Lake.

Unlike Seattle, Victoria (across the water on Vancouver Island) was colder in December of 1968, when December 28th to 30th were 17.2C to 18.4C below normal. Only one other date has been 17C/30.6F below normal, and that was January 13th, 1950 when the temperature was 17.3C/31.1F below the normal of 2.9C.

Other cold places I've found are Barkerville, which is amazingly off of the average given the fact it's an interior rainforest. The cold on January 31st, 1947 was 34C/61.2F below the normal of 12.7C. The next closest record comes from November 27th, 1985 when the temperature was 31.3C below the normal of -10.7C.

Other cold snaps occurred in February of 1907 and 1909, but very few weather stations existed back then. Fort St. James was one such station with the coldest supposedly being 35C/63F below the normal of -21.2C on February 3rd, 1907. Supposedly because I suspect the station has moved since then. February 4th, 1907 and February 13th, 1909 were both more than 34C below normal.

The nearest station to me, Vernon, BC, was 30.8C/55.4F below normal on December 28th, 1968. That's by far the most below normal date on record here, and records go back to 1900. The next closest was February 7th, 1936 at 29.7C below normal.

Some of the most extreme examples of below normal I can find here in BC were set in January 24th and 25th of 1950 in Kleena Kleene and Westwold respectively. Both ere 36.1C/65F below normal (normals are -13.9C and -9.5).

I suspect there were other places even more off in 1950, but they have no recent data to generate normals, or they have new data but nothing from 1950. One is near Kleena Kleene where Lunch Lake was 34C below normal in November 1985. Given the fact that Kleena Kleene was 32.9C below normal in 1985, you can see why this is definitely possible.

And finally, the most extreme examples I can find here in BC are Vavenby and Prince George from January 1950. Prince George was 36.1C/65.3F below normal on January 24th and 36.3C below the normal of -13.7 on January 2nd. Like Kleena Kleene, this was a record shattering -50C/-58F (recorded to the nearest degree F).
Vavenby takes top spot (though really tied when considered rounding error) with a reading of 36.4C/65.5F below the normal of -9.7.

Throwback to two extremes -



October 11, 2015 when Fargo had a high of 97 F (36 C) when the average high for the date is 59 F (15 C) :


www.wunderground.com/history/airport/KFAR/2015/10/11/DailyHistory.html



The other throwback is to Cut Bank, MT on October 9, 2009 when they had a high of 19 F (-7 C) when the average high is 59 F (15 C) for the date as well! :

www.wunderground.com/history/airport/KCTB/2009/10/9/DailyHistory.html?req_city=&req_state=&req_statename=&reqdb.zip=&reqdb.magic=&reqdb.wmo=


Cut Bank didn't go above 20 F for three straight days from October 9 - 11, 2009

I can think of two really prominent examples of this here in the past 10 or so years.

The first is January, 9, 2010. The strongest cold front if the century moved through during the overnight hours and followimg it's passage temps dropped throughout the day. The temperature during the early afternoon, normally the hottest part of the day, was at about 40F (4.5C), 35F (19C) below normal. The low that night was 33F (0.5C)

The other day that really sticks out is December, 19, 2016. The low that mornimg was a stunningly hot 77F (25C) with some areas even warmer (MIA had a low of 79F (26.5C). Was very strange to have legitimate summer temps durimg the shortest part of the year. Something I hope to never experience again.

It was awesome.

It's not too bad out today...75F and mostly cloudy with a breeze right now. Too humid though.

There was isolated frost on the key that morning. I don't think the air temp got to freezing though. Maybe. I was too young to really pay attention to exact temps lol.

Blah, been there seen that here in Buxton.