Portland Maine’s All-Time Records For the Month of January



Concord New Hampshire’s Coldest Temperatures

Updated 6-12-06

Rank Temperature Date .

1. -37 degrees February 16, 1943

2. -35 degrees January 8, 1878

3. -34 degrees February 13, 1875

4. -33 degrees January 22, 1984

5. -32 degrees February 3, 1898

6. -30 degrees January 18, 1957

-30 degrees January 19, 1976

8. -29 degrees February 14, 1875

-29 degrees January 26, 1877

-29 degrees January 19, 1971

11. -28 degrees February 2, 1874

-28 degrees January 14, 1957

-28 degrees January 20, 1994

14. -27 degrees January 24, 1961

-27 degrees January 20, 1971

-27 degrees February 3, 1971

-27 degrees January 11, 1976

-27 degrees January 27, 1994

19. -26 degrees January 30, 1873

-26 degrees January 20, 1875

-26 degrees February 2, 1948

-26 degrees February 1, 1971

23. -25 degrees January 8, 1942

-25 degrees February 2, 1975

-25 degrees January 26, 1982

-25 degrees January 21, 1994

This list contains all temperatures -25 degrees and colder.

Months not listed above:

-20 degrees March 6, 1869

7 degrees April 1, 1874

21 degrees May 10, 1947 & May 3, 1966

30 degrees June 12, 1972

35 degrees July 7, 1965

29 degrees August 31, 1965

20 degrees September 30, 1941

10 degrees Oct. 24, 1969 & Oct. 21, 1972

-17 degrees November 30, 1875

-24 degrees December 20, 1875

Here are some noteworthy cold snaps and other temperature oddities in Concord…

The year of 1875:

January of 1875 saw 4 days with lows -20 or colder. They included -23 on the 11th, -21 on the 12th, -26 on the 20th and -23 degrees on the 21st. February followed up with 3 days with lows of -20 or colder including the 3rd coldest temperature ever of -34 degrees on the 13th, -29 degrees on the 14th and -21 degrees on the 19th. The year ended the same way with December of 1875 having two days with lows of -20 or colder… -22 on the 19th and -24 degrees on the 20th. January 1875 is tied for the 8th coldest January ever with a monthly average of 12.6 degrees and February 1875 is the 3rd coldest February on record with an average of 14.6 degrees.

February of 1934:

There were 14 days with lows below zero and 14 days with lows above zero. The average minimum temperature was 0 degrees. This is the coldest February on record with an overall average temperature of 12.0 degrees.

Winter of 1936-37:

Only meteorological winter (December, January, & February) without any lows of zero or less. This is the 4th warmest winter ever recorded with an average of 29.3 degrees. The warmest winter was 1879-80 with an average of 30.4 degrees.

February of 1942:

From the 6th through the 17th there was a string of 12 consecutive days with lows below zero with the 3 days having lows of 20 below or colder. The coldest low was -25 on the 8th.

February of 1943:

The coldest temperature ever recorded in Concord of -37 degrees on the 16th (same day Portland Maine had its coldest recorded temperature of -39 degrees). On the 14th of the month the high was 24 degrees with temperatures falling to a low of -4 at midnight. The mercury continued to fall on the 15th after the midnight high of -4. The low on the 15th was -19 degrees with the mercury plummeting the following morning to -37 degrees. The high on the 16th was 13. Another cold night followed with a morning low of -18 on the 17th. Temperatures didn’t stay cold for long. On the 20th…just 4 days after the all time low…the temperature reached 58 degrees. This was followed by 3 more days with highs in the 50s.

Winter of 1947-48:

December of 1947 had 5 minimum temperatures zero or colder with a -12 reading on Christmas day. This was followed by January of 1948 17 days with lows zero or lower and a string of 9 straight days with lows below zero from the 23rd through the 31st, with lows of -21 on the 24th and -23 on the 26th. The stretch of subzero lows continued into February through the 7th giving a total of 16 straight days with lows below zero. February of 1948 had a total of 14 days with lows below zero and 4 days with lows -20 or colder, with the coldest -26 degrees on the 2nd. March of 1948 continued the extreme cold with 6 days with minimum temperatures below zero with 4 days with lows below -10.

January of 1957:

This month had 15 days with lows zero or less and 8 days in a row from the 13th through the 20th with lows below zero. On the 14th the temperature hit -28 and this was outdone on the 18th with a low of -30. The average low for the month was -0.5 degrees.

Winter of 1960-61:

December of 1960 had 7 days with lows below zero with an average low temperature of 7.6 degrees. This was followed by a January with 13 days with subzero lows and a stretch of 11 of 13 days with lows below zero from the 21st through the 31st. The coldest low for the month was -27 on the 24th. February started where January left off with subzero lows on the first 3 days…giving a period of 8 days with subzero lows beginning on the 27th of January. From January 19th through February 8th the low dropped below zero 17 out of 21 days.

Winter of 1967-68:

December of 1967 had 3 days with lows below zero with lows below zero on the last two days of the month. This cold snap continued into January with lows at or below zero for the first 14 days creating a string of 16 consecutive days with lows zero or less. The string ended on the 15th of January with a low of 16 degrees…but was immediately followed by 3 more days with lows below zero. For the entire month of January there were 17 days with lows zero or less and an average low for the month of 3.9 degrees. February of that year followed with 11 days with lows at or below zero and an average low of 6.2 degrees.

Winter of 1969-70:

December of 1969 had 5 days with lows zero or less. January of 1970 had 17 such days with 7 consecutive days with lows below zero from the 19th through the 25th. The average low in January was -0.4 degrees and the overall montly average of 11.0 degrees makes this the 4th coldest January ever. February followed with 6 days with lows zero or colder.

January and February 1971:

Just one year after the very cold winter of 69-70 there was another extremely cold period with January recording 16 days with lows below zero with a stretch of 7 days with subzero lows from the 15th through the 21st which included 4 consecutive days with lows -20 or colder. They were: -20 on the 17th, -20 on the 18th, -29 on the 19th and -27 degrees on the 20th. This is tied for the 6th coldest January on record with a monthly average of 12.5 degrees. February followed with 6 days with lows below zero which included the first 4 days which also saw 3 days with lows colder than -20. They were the 1st with -26, the 3rd with -27 and the 4th with -22 degrees.

January 1973:

There were 10 days with lows of zero or colder with a stretch of 8 days from the 7th through the 14th with lows below zero.

Winter of 1975-76:

December of 1975 had 9 days with lows of zero or less. January had 18 such days with 3 days of -20 or colder including -30 degrees on the 19th. The average low was -1.3 degrees. There was a stretch of 7 out of 8 days with lows below zero from the 5th through the 12th including -27 degrees on the 11th. This was followed by a 9 day period of lows below zero from the 17th through the 25th. During this time there was a low of -23 on the 18th and -30 on the 19th. These bitterly cold lows helped make this January tied for the 2nd coldest on record with a monthly average of 10.9 degrees. February had 6 days with lows of zero or less.

Winter of 1976-77 (& Summer of 1977):

For the second winter in a row Concord suffered through more extreme cold weather. December of 1976 had 14 days out of 31 with lows zero or colder giving the month an average low of 3.3 degrees. January followed with 19 days of minimums of zero or less including 9 days in a row from the 12th through the 20th. The average low for the month was -1.5 degrees. This was the coldest January on record with an overall average temperature of 10.6 degrees. February continued the trend with 9 days of zero or less. The Winter season from December through February saw a total of 42 days (out of a possible 90) with lows of zero or less. This is the most such days for any winter season (December through February). December of 1976 is the 3rd coldest on record with an average of 16.1 degrees. January of 1977 is the coldest on record with an average of 10.6 degrees…besting the previous year’s record. The meteorological winter of 1976-77 is the second coldest on record with an overall average temperature of 15.7 degrees. The coldest winter on record is 1917-18 with an average of 15.5 degrees.

After such a cold winter, mother nature found a way to balance things out and gave Concord extremes on the other end of the temperature scale later in the year. May of 1977 had a heat wave with 4 consecutive days with highs of 90 or hotter. This was followed by scorching heat in July when the mercury hit 101 degrees on the 20th and 21st! These two 100 plus degree days were part of a 7 day heat wave (temperatures 90 degrees or higher) from the 15th through the 21st.

February 1978:

This month had more days with lows at or below zero than above. The temperature dropped to zero or colder 15 times with the coldest reading of -16 degrees (only 13 days kept temperatures above zero). The monthly average low was 0.2 degrees and the overall average temperature of 13.5 degrees made it the 2nd coldest February on record and helped make this tied as the 4th coldest meteorological winter on record with a winter average temperature of 17.3 degrees. March followed this with subzero lows on the first 3 days of the month.

February 1979:

This month had 12 days with subzero lows and they were all consecutive from the 9th through the 20th. The coldest low was -16 on the 13th. The average low for the month was 6.5 degrees.

December 1980 and January 1981:

December had 11 days with lows of zero or less including a low of -21 on the 21st. The montly average minimum was 5.9 degrees. January had 14 days with lows zero or less including 3 days with lows of -21 degrees…on the 4th, 12th and 13th. The average low this month was 0.5 degrees. December tied for the 10th coldest ever (an average of 19.2 degrees) and January was tied for the 6th coldest ever (an average of 12.5 degrees).

January 1982:

This month recorded 19 days with lows of zero or colder including a -25 degree reading on the 26th. Lows of zero or less occurred 5 days in a row from the 9th through the 13th and for 8 days in a row from the 16th through the 23rd. From the 16th through the 28th lows were zero or less 12 out of the 13 days. The average low was -1.6. This is tied for the 2nd coldest January on record with an average of 10.9 degrees. The 4 coldest January’s occurred between 1970 and 1982 and this period also boasted 6 of the 7 coldest January’s on record.

January 1984:

This month had 12 days with lows zero or les. The 4th all-time coldest low of -33 degrees occurred on the 22nd. There was a low of -24 on the 21st and -21 on the 12th. The average low for the month was 4.3 degrees.

Winter of 1989-90:

December was extremely cold in 1989 with 15 days with lows of zero or less which included -20 degrees on Christmas Eve. The average low was 1.3 degrees. This is the coldest December on record with an average temperature of 11.9 degrees. After the record setting low, January of 1990 followed with very mild weather with an average temperature of 28.6 degrees…tied for the 10th warmest. The temperature in January never got any colder than 6 degrees (on the 14th) and had an average low temperature for the month of 19.3 degrees. February was colder with 4 days with lows zero or less.

January and February 1994:

January of this year had 15 days with lows zero or below with 4 days of bitterly cold readings of -20 or colder. The low for the month was -28 degrees on the 20th and was followed the next day with a low of -25 on the 21st and a low of -27 degrees a week later on the 27th. The 19th of the month had a low of -21 degrees and was part of a string of 7 subzero days from the 15th through the 21st and a string of 3 successive days with lows colder than -20 degrees. This is the 5th coldest January on record with a monthly average temperature of 11.3 degrees. February saw 10 days with lows zero or less including the first 5 days (after the last 2 days of January had subzero lows) and had a monthly low of -15. The average low for February was 4.3 degrees.

January 1995:

This month was noteworthy not for its cold, but lack of it. The lowest temperature was a mere 1 degree above zero with a monthly average minimum of a balmy 20.4 degrees. This was the 12th warmest January on record with an overall average temperature of 28.0 degrees.

January and February of 2003:

January had 15 days with lows of zero or less contributing to an average monthly low of 1.4 degrees. There was an 8 day stretch of lows below zero beginning on the 13th and ending on the 19th when -19 degrees registered the low for the month. This was part of a stretch of 15 days out of 18 with lows below zero from the 13th through the 30th. Only 3 days had lows above zero during this period…the warmest low only plus 4 degrees. This was tied as the 8th coldest January ever with an overall average of 12.6 degrees.

February followed with 9 days at or below zero, including a -20 degree low on the 14th and is the most recent day that Concord has seen a low of -20 or colder.

Winter of 2005-06:

A mild winter with January having an average low of 19.0 degrees with the coldest low of 4 degrees above zero and February having its coldest low of zero. March actually had a colder low than January with a montly low of plus 3. December had the only subzero readings that winter with the coldest low of -12 degrees.

Note…temperature records began September 1, 1868.

end/sjc

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