The Coldest Temperature Ever Recorded In NY Will Make You Shiver

NEW YORK — New York City is about to endure its coldest Arctic snap so far this season, but the 5 degree freeze predicted to hit on Wednesday night is almost balmy compared to what we've seen in the past.

According to The Weather Channel, the coldest temperature ever seen in the state was a numbing 52 degrees below zero. Though the report did not give a date, St. Louis Today reported that it happened in Old Forge, a hamlet in upstate Herkimer County, on Feb. 18, 1979.

The coldest temperature ever recorded in Central Park was 15 degrees below zero on Feb. 9, 1934, according to the National Weather Service.

If that sounds cold, get this — the coldest temperature ever recorded in the country was in Alaska 48 years ago, when thermometers read 80 degrees below zero in Prospect Creek, near Fairbanks. The coldest temperature recorded in the continental U.S. was 70 degrees below zero at Rogers Pass, Montana, in 1954.

New York City this week is bracing for wind chills of 11 degrees below zero. The brutal cold will come after some rain and snow on Tuesday night, the weather service says.

As you might expect, the coldest temperatures in the Southeast pale in comparison to the Mountain West and Great Plains. While Florida’s coldest temperature was a measly 2 degrees below zero, Montana, Wyoming, Colorado, Idaho, North Dakota and Minnesota have each seen temperatures fall to at least 60 degrees below zero.

No state will come close to breaking those records this week, but that’s not going to warm the hearts of people in the Midwest. Some Minnesotans this week will see wind chills as low as 62 degrees below zero in some places. The Twin Cities area woke up Tuesday with temperatures around 10 degrees below zero and wind chill readings estimated the temperatures felt more like a bone-chilling 32-below zero.

Subzero temperatures and similarly fierce wind chills are also expected in Michigan, Illinois, Wisconsin and Ohio as a breakdown in the polar vortex blasts arctic cold south, leaving many states feeling more like Antarctica this week — only colder. In fact, 75 percent of the continental U.S. is expected to see temperatures fall below freezing this week, CNN reported.

Patch national staffer Dan Hampton contributed to this report.

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