Coldest Months of the Year in the U.S.
January - 23
February - 22
December - 4
May - 1
The May date is for Hawaii and not really that relevant but for the record on May 17, 1979 it was 12 degrees on top of Mauna Kea which is a mountain on the Big Island of Hawaii. Mauna Kea is the tallest mountain on planet earth when measured from base to top including below sea level.
It is actually almost 5,000 feet taller than Mount Everest, which is the tallest mountain on earth above sea level. The tops of Mauna Kea and nearby Mauna Loa can often be seen covered with snow during the cold months in Hawaii.
The other dates on the list are almost equally distributed between January at 23, and February at 22, with December well behind with only 4. Looking at the data more closely, all four dates in December occurred on the same date - the 30th.
So for December we are really only talking about the last 2 days of the month. All the dates in February occurred on or before the 18th of the month, and the average of all the 22 dates in February when a record low temperature was recorded in one of the United States is 9.41.
The 23 dates when a record temperature was set in January averages out to 17.39. Interestingly there is a definite skewering towards the end of the month as 15 of the 23 dates occurred between the 17th and the 31st.
The coldest temperature ever recorded in the United States is -80 degrees which happened on January 23, 1971 in Prospect Creek, Alaska. Not much of a shocker there.
It does get plenty cold down in the lower 48 states too though as it hit a record low of -70 degrees on January 20, 1954 in Rogers Pass, Montana, followed closely by -69 degrees on February 1, 1985 in the funny named sinkhole, Peter's Sink in Utah. Not sure who Peter is but I sure he hope he goes south for the winter and takes his kitchen sink with him so the pipes don't freeze.
What the overall data shows is that the coldest time of the year in the United States stretches for a little over 7 weeks from December 30th through February 18th. If a record cold temperature is going to be recorded in any of the 49 states outside of Hawaii this year, the odds are very high that it is going to occur over that span of time.
As far as the coldest month of the year, it really is a hybrid beginning on the 17th of January and ending on the 14th of February. Thirty-three out of 49 record setting coldest dates occurred over that four week span which works out to 67% or two-thirds of all the dates.
If a coldest month had to be picked it would be January since the four December dates occurred two days before the month begins, and three more record setting coldest dates occurred on February 1st (Colorado and New Mexico in addition to the above mentioned Utah) and one occurred on February 2nd (Minnesota). So 31 out of 49 record setting dates happened in January or two days before the beginning or two days after the end of the month, which makes January the coldest month of the year.
Comparing the data from the hottest time of the year with the coldest there is no direct correlation. The coldest time of the year stretches from January 17th through February 14th.
Six months later is July 17th through August 14th. But only 19 of the hottest record setting temperatures were recorded over that time frame. Twenty-eight record setting hottest temperature dates occurred between June 27th and July 15th.
Based upon the record setting temperature dates the data suggests that the United States tends to get hotter earlier in the Summer cycle and colder a bit later in the Winter cycle.
Sources: http://www.usatoday.com/weather/wcstates.htm
For more see:
Which Two States Have Never Been Above 100 Degrees?
Hottest Months of the Year in the United States
Most Deadly Mountain Peaks in the United States
For more see:
Which Two States Have Never Been Above 100 Degrees?
Hottest Months of the Year in the United States
Most Deadly Mountain Peaks in the United States
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