A deadly winter storm moving through most of the U.S. has plunged wind chill temperatures to as low as negative 50 and negative 70 in the northern Plains, and 30 below in the Midwest, according to FOX Weather.
The extreme temperatures have triggered hard freeze warnings along the Gulf Coast and contributed to a bomb cyclone blizzard currently slamming the Great Lakes and parts of the Northeast.
With temperatures diving into sub-zero territory, some states could be looking at record-breaking cold. FOX Weather put together a map showing the current all-time coldest temperatures for each state, compiling data from NOAA’s National Centers for Environmental Information.
Looking back as far as 1885, most of these records were set in the frigid winter months of January and February. But there are a few notable exceptions.
Five states achieved record-low temperatures in late December, including Nebraska, Tennessee, Vermont, Washington and West Virginia.
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The all-time record low in each state is denoted on the map. (Data: NOAA/NCEI)
(FOX Weather)
Hawaii is the outlier in the union. On May 17, 1979, scientists at the Mauna Kea Observatory on the Big Island of Hawaii recorded a temperature of 12 degrees at an elevation of 13,796 feet.
The lowest temperature ever recorded in the U.S. was minus 80 degrees in Prospect Creek, Alaska, north of Fairbanks, on Jan. 23, 1971, according to FOX Weather.
In the continental U.S., Montana holds the record for the all-time coldest temperature at minus 70 degrees, set at Rogers Pass – on the Continental Divide at 5,610 feet above sea level – on Jan. 20, 1954.
The most recent record low was set on Mount Carroll in northwestern Illinois. The temperature there plunged to minus 38 degrees on New Year’s Eve 2019.
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A jogger runs along Lake Michigan at sunrise as temperatures hover about -8 degrees on December 22, 2022, in Chicago, Illinois. (Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images)
(Scott Olson/Getty Images)
A local resident shovels snow off the end of a driveway, Thursday, Dec. 22, 2022, in Urbandale, Iowa. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall)
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The oldest recorded all-time record is held by Mount Washington, New Hampshire – the highest mountain in the Northeast – where it reached minus 50 degrees on Jan. 22, 1885.
However, the coldest temperature ever recorded in the Northeast was in Old Forge, New York, on Feb. 18, 1979, when it reached minus 52 degrees.
Surprisingly, below-freezing temperatures are not exclusive to north of the Mason-Dixon line. Georgia, Mississippi, Louisiana and South Carolina have all recorded temperatures below zero, Alabama hit a record low of minus 27 degrees, and Tennessee holds the record in the South for the lowest temperature at minus 32 degrees.
In the Midwest, North Dakota and Minnesota tied with minus 60 degrees as their all-time record-low temperatures. But states south of the Great Lakes including Illinois, Indiana and Ohio have only bottomed out in the minus 30s, because the lake effect keeps temperatures relatively higher, according to FOX Weather.
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In the West, lower temperatures were recorded at higher elevations. California’s record low of minus 45 degrees was recorded deep in the Sierra Nevada in Boca, at an elevation of 5,528 feet above sea level, on Jan. 20, 1937. The record low in Arizona was achieved at Hawley Lake, where the temperature plunged to minus 40 degrees at 8,200 feet on Jan. 7, 1971, FOX Weather reported.
FOX Weather’s Brian Donegan contributed to this report.