The Coldest Day/Month Ever in Grand Forks, ND

With a morning low of -39° and an afternoon HIGH of -30°, the average temperature of -34.5° on January 22, 1936 was the coldest day ever recorded in Grand Forks, ND (1893-2010). The morning surface map above depicts a 1035mb high pressure nosing into the Red River Valley, behind an Arctic cold front located from the eastern Great Lakes, through the Ohio Valley, then westward to the central Plains. Aiding the cold temperatures was a snow albedo caused by a 15" snow depth on 1/22/1936, as shown below on the monthly weather record form.

There have been colder low temperatures than -39°, as temperatures have reached -40° or colder eleven times here in GFK. However, the high of -30° is an all-time record low maximum temperature. The next coldest high temperature recorded was on February 1st, 1996 with a high of -27°. The morning low that day was -40°, making it the second coldest day ever in Grand Forks.

An interesting footnote from the January 1936 monthly observation form; the weather observer noted this was the coldest month ever at Grand Forks. The average high that month was 0.4°, the average low was -20.6°, giving a mean monthly temperature of -10.1°. That record still stands (and by a wide margin for meteorological standards), as the next coldest January occurred in 1950, with a mean monthly temperature of -6.8°. I can not fathom having to endure a month like January 1936.