Aldeer.com Forums Alabama Deer Talk Aldeer General Forum What's the coldest you've ever been?

1985 in Hudson, Iowa at my uncle's farm (Blackhawk County). Blizzard roared in so fast it was a white out condition. sub zero with a 40 mph wind. I was on a neighbor's property (in the back of the 640 acre my uncle owns) tract hunting. Being a southern boy and dumb teenager I didn't realize the warning signs of the weather. Before I knew it all I could see was white. Made my way to the boundary treeline, somehow leaving the fields for the safety of the wooded creek line and tried to make my way back to the road so I could follow it to the house. So much snow in the air even in the thin woodline I stepped off into the creek and got soaking wet. I knew I was in trouble.

The wind died down for a second and I could see the furthest outbuilding in the distance behind the farm house. I sprinted as fast as I could with frozen coveralls but before I could get there the wind kicked back up. Complete white out. I was in the middle of the field and I kept going. Missed the outbuilding somehow but ended up running into furthest corner of the hog barn. Felt my way around the building until I found a door. Went inside and "warmed up" with the hogs under the heaters. My hair was frozen, my gun was frozen and I had medium hypothermia but the hog barn heaters saved my life. After I knocked off the bitter cold I grabbed my uncles rifle he kept in the barn and fired it outside the door. Praying for help to come, I had full body shakes. He came running from the house on the safety line from the back door of the house to the hog barn...line he uses to get back and forth in a blizzard.

It took me what felt like 3 days to warm up fully in front of the fireplace. Coldest I ever want to be again.

10 degrees duck hunting. Waist deep. Waders split. Thought I was a girl for couple days lol

I seem to remember that on the news then. Funny how cold weather events are forever frozen in your memories!

2008, Jackson Hole WY/Driggs Idaho. Showed up with jeans, a pair of chucks and a t-shirt with a fleece. Didnt take long for the chucks to get soaked. Beautiful mountains out there. Side
Story: on that same trip we were on our way to snowmobile and watch an elk migration on the Teton Mountains and I had to get my brother to pull over cause I had to chit soooo bad. So I found the only darn tree around and let loose at the base of those beautiful mountains. Best poop ever. Had to wipe with one of my undershirts though.

Kewanee, IL: -32
Roseau, MN: -28
God knew where I needed to live.

-38 temp, Northwestern Wyoming, not factoring in the wind. everything wet freezes instantaneously. I put up with three winters there and came back to the South.
I had a 10 year old Tacoma at the time. I never plugged it into anything to warm the engine, and it cranked every time. How, I don't know.

Coldest would be about minus 45 or 50 with 40-50 knot winds on the polar plateau in Antarctica; but since I've got a picture, here's late December 1993 at South Pole (which is the middle of summer there). It was minus thirty-eight with three to five knots of wind. It get a whole lot colder there by June when it's night 24 hrs a day... like minus 70F!

Show-off.

Montevideo,MN in winter of 1978.

Lamars, Iowa. Had a project in Blue Bunny ice cream warehouse where they store their product at -36f. It was middle of winter and outside temp was -24 with a wind chill of -32. I had icicles from my eyelashes. And when your spit bounces, it's too damn cold.

Minus 8F in chest waders on an island off Swan Creek in Decatur 20+ years ago. Gun was frozen, couldn't turn engine off jon boat because it would freeze. Wore out some river ducks that day

I don't remember exactly what the temp was, but the wind was howling. I was going hunting and had forgotten my face mask. You could lick your lips and feel your mustache freeze. Anyway, we had an old school bus converted to a camphouse and I decide I would check and see if anyone had left a facemask or knit cap in there. When my feet hit those metal steps they just froze to the surface. I said nope, and went home.

Either duck hunting near Scottsboro when I crossed the creek without out the benefit of waders or the Yale/Princeton football game in New Haven, CT in 2004.
It was pretty cold in Montana but I was a kid and don't remember it bothering me.

Was duck/goose hunting in Lawrence County many years ago.
Temp was in the single digits and the wind was blowing so hard it made our eyes water and then our eyelashes would freeze our eyes shut. Had to hold your gloves to them for several seconds to thaw them in order to be able to see...
That was DANG Cold!!!

I can't remember a specific time. Iowa when it was -15 ... Saskatchewan in single digit temps and wind chills in the teens ... duck hunting in the early 1980s at -6 when it dropped four degrees in a couple of hours. Family went to Bozeman about 5-6 years ago and it was -22 wind chill when we landed. Stayed in a cabin and it got down into the negative-teens that night, like -12 or -15 or so. That was damned cold.

But I know, and have had conversations with other folks who have experienced it, that I'd rather have to deal with frigid North cold conditions than a damp, cold day with slight wind in Alabama in January or early February.

Sitting in a stand in Illinois or further north when it's dry and cold is far different than a damp cold in the Southeast. The humidity, even in winter, seems to make a helluva bonechillin' OMGdamnationthisiscold difference.

Spent two weeks in Volkfield, Wisconsin on a deployment one time. Had wind chills to -30 degrees. I remember we tried driving wooden stakes for our tents to no avail.

Back in my flying days, took an F-4 on a weekend trip from England to Madrid, Spain the week before Christmas. Madrid climate is about the same as Phoenix, AZ. Desert like with nice dry sunny days in December. The plan was to do a quick mission in Norway, land get gas then head for dinner in Germany, spend the night and spend the rest of the weekend in Madrid. Well, the jet broke in Norway. Hard broke with an engine problem. So I spent the week of Christmas in Bodo, Norway dressed in jeans, top siders and a wind breaker waiting for the maintenance guys to fly in a fix the jet. Good news was I bought some pretty neat hand carved wooden Christmas ornaments. Also got to watch reruns of Dallas dubbed in Norwegian with Dutch subtitles.

On a side note, in the Norwegian Air Force, you don't have to have a college degree to go to pilot training and I met several F-16 pilots who were 19 to 20 years old. They also have a unionized military. If the tower says they close at 3:30 on Friday afternoon and you want to take off at 3:31, you are SOL...

9 degress hunting a swamp in demopolis. About 10 yards before I got to the stand I had water come over the top of my boot. I got hot walking in breaking thru the ice with all of my outerwear on (just the last 300 yards to make sure I didnt drop any clothes in the water) and had a soaking wet foot. But it was the rut and I was going to tough it out. That lasted till about 930. My right leg wouldnt work right when I tried to walk I was so cold.

coldest temp I've seen personally was -16 in Smoot WY.
Coldest I've been would have to be anytime that I'm hunting and it's about 33-34 degrees and raining. That cold wet air penetrates to the bone no matter what I have on.
I have "felt" colder in Alabama under those conditions than I was at the -16.

Kansas in late December, front moved in as we were headed out there, woke up to -5 degrees and -20 windchill. Went to a flooded cornfield and it took 5 of us jumping up and down in a group to break ice. Cut my waders wide open on it, thought I was gonna die. Solid ice in my boots and we had to take turns busting the hole back out every few minutes. You'd bust it back out and step out of the water, then pound on your knees to break up the ice enough to bend your legs and sit down.

1988 stationed in Michigan working on the flightline 12 hour shifts during an exercise with a windchill of -55.