How Cold Can it Get in New England? Minus 50 Degrees is the Record
Low temperatures expected to dip below zero in much of New England early next week
Get ready for dangerously cold weather in New England early next week.
Low temperatures are expected to dip below zero in much of the region on Jan. 11 and 12, but they won’t be close to the record: minus 50 degrees Fahrenheit in New Hampshire, Maine and Vermont.
The National Weather Service forecast at the moment calls for lows around minus 2 degrees on Monday and Tuesday nights in Alexandria, New Hampshire, where I live. A high temperature near 9 is forecast for Tuesday.
Lows around minus 8 and minus 9 are forecast in Littleton, New Hampshire, with a high near 3 on Tuesday. Lows around minus 15 and minus 17 are forecast in Caribou, Maine. A high near minus 4 is forecast on Tuesday.
While lows around minus 6 and minus 3 are forecast in Burlington, Vermont, brutal wind chills as low as minus 26 are forecast.
“Heads up for a period of dangerously low wind chills early next week,’” tweeted the Burlington, Vermont, weather service office. “High confidence in very cold conditions, especially on Tuesday. Wind chills between -15 and -30 would be the lowest values seen in three years in many areas.”
A cold air mass “will bring the coldest air of the season so far for next week,” according to a forecast discussion by the weather service office that covers New Hampshire and much of Maine. “The cold looks to peak around Tuesday with highs only making the single digits and teens. Lows will be near or below zero, with the potential to be well below zero if ideal radiational cooling
conditions can develop.”
“This would be most likely Tuesday night when lows of 20 below or colder are possible in the colder valleys while even coastal areas hit zero. There’s still a lot that could interfere with ideal cooling, though, as timing of minor waves that could bring clouds and the progression of the surface high is still not solidly agreed upon. But it does look to be the coldest night of the season so far with the current forecast still having some room to go lower if variables align.”
“The next blast of (Arctic) air makes its presence known across the Northern Plains and Upper Midwest by Sunday in the wake of the strong cold front, and this cold weather will eventually reach the East Coast in modified form as well, bringing highs down to (10 to 25 degrees Fahrenheit) below normal from the Mid-Atlantic through New England on Tuesday for one of the coldest days of the year thus far,” according to a Weather Prediction Center forecast discussion.
Still, temperatures won’t be close to the lowest recorded in New England.
Here are the record lows for the six states in the region, according to the State Climate Extremes Committee in NOAA’s National Centers for Environmental Information:
— New Hampshire: minus 50 degrees on Jan. 22, 1885, at Mount Washington.
— Maine: minus 50 degrees on Jan. 16, 2009, at a U.S. Geological Survey river gage on the Big Black River near the Canadian border.
— Vermont: Minus 50 degrees on Dec. 30, 1933, at Bloomfield.
— Massachusetts: Minus 35 degrees on Feb. 15, 1943, at Coldbrook; Jan. 12, 1981, at Chester; and Jan. 5, 1904, at Taunton.
— Connecticut: Minus 32 degrees on Feb. 16, 1943, at Falls Village, and on Jan. 22, 1961, at Coventry.
— Rhode Island: Minus 28 degrees on Jan. 11, 1942, at Wood River Junction.
For comparison, here are the lowest temperatures on record in some other states:
— Alaska: Minus 80 degrees on Jan. 23, 1971, at Prospect Creek Camp.
— Montana: Minus 70 degrees on Jan. 20, 1954, at Rogers Pass.
— Wyoming: Minus 66 degrees on Feb. 9, 1933, at Riverside Ranger Station in Yellowstone National Park.
—Colorado: Minus 61 degrees on Feb. 1, 1985, at Maybell.
— Idaho: Minus 60 degrees on Jan. 18, 1943, at Island Park Dam.
— Minnesota: Minus 60 degrees on Feb. 2, 1996, at Tower.
— North Dakota: Minus 60 degrees on Feb. 15, 1936, at Parshall.
— South Dakota: Minus 58 degrees on Feb. 17, 1936, at McIntosh.
—Wisconsin: Minus 55 degrees on Feb. 2 and 4, 1996, at Couderay.
—Oregon: Minus 54 degrees on Feb. 10, 1933, at Seneca, and Feb. 9, 1933, at Ukiah.
— New York: Minus 52 degrees on Feb. 18, 1979, at Old Forge.
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