Just how cold is cold
So far this winter in the area, temperatures have been on the mild side. No below-zero readings, although we did have a few days of temperatures in the single digits.
In a normal winter, we usually see five days of zero or below. The Pittsburgh area averages seven days with zero or better and the mountain area averages 10 mornings with a temperature of zero or lower.
On Jan. 24, 1994, Uniontown recorded its lowest temperature of 22 degrees below zero. Records in the city go back to 1916. At the weather station in Chalk Hill, we recorded -27; however, in nearby Elliotsville just south of Farmington, a reading of 34 below zero is the all-time mountain record. Records in the mountain area go back to 1970. Pittsburgh records go back to 1857 and the coldest was -20 in 1899. The state record for Pennsylvania is -42 from Smethport, McKean County on 1-5-1904.
Below zero temperatures have occurred in every state except Hawaii. Their lowest was 12 above zero, and it came from a high mountain location.
Some cold temperatures from places we would expect include -60 in Idaho and North Dakota. Montana holds the record in the continental United States with a reading of -70. Our neighbors to the north in Alaska experienced an all-time low temperature of -79.8 degrees below zero on January 23 1971. This is just 1.6 degrees above the record for North America of -81.4 on February 3, 1947. At these temperatures, water thrown from a dish will freeze and hit the ground as ice pellets. A few surprises include a low of -2 at Tallahassee Florida; -27 at New Market, Alabama; and -34 from Mount Mitchell, North Carolina. All of these records are taken from 鈥淓xtreme Weather鈥� a book by Christopher C. Burt.
It may be comforting to note that in the scheme of things, the area has it pretty nice. It may also be comforting to know that while below zero temperatures can occur during the month of March, they are unusual and have never occurred after March 16. The coldest March record for Uniontown was -3 on March 15 1993. Coincidentally, that was also the day of the famous March 鈥淏lizzard of 93鈥� that left the eastern states paralyzed from northern Alabama to northern Maine. Some 25 inches of snow accompanied the cold in southwestern Pennsylvania.