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On Today's Date: Minus 80 Degrees Sets America's Coldest All-Time Temperature Record

Story by Chris Dolce
• 16h • 1 min read



A​laska's interior is well known for brutal cold and 54 years ago today its temperature plunged to America's all-time record low.
The temperature hit minus 80 degrees at Prospect Creek Camp, Alaska, on Jan. 23, 1971, which is located north of Fairbanks. That's more than 50 degrees below the January average low of minus 23 degrees at this location from 1970 to 2016, according to the Western Regional Climate Center.

For comparison, that temperature is 10 degrees colder than the Lower 48 all-time record of minus 70 degrees set in Montana.
Alaska's most frigid winter temperatures are typically in valley floors in the state's interior, away from the moderating influence of the Gulf of Alaska. Valleys adjacent to mountain ranges are optimal collection points for dense, cold air drainage.
While the Prospect Creek record is impressive, it's still milder (if you can call it that) than the all-time record lows in the Northern Hemisphere and on Earth, according to the World Meteorological Organization.
K​linck, Greenland, holds the Northern Hemisphere record, dropping to minus 93.3 degrees on Dec 22, 1991.
T​he world record is held by Vostok, Antarctica, which plunged to an incredible minus 128.6 degrees on July 21, 1983.
T​his segment originally appeared in today's edition of the Morning Brief newsletter. Sign up here to get weekday updates from The Weather Channel and our meteorologists.
Chris Dolce has been a senior meteorologist with weather.com for over 10 years after beginning his career with The Weather Channel in the early 2000s.

Related video: Here Is How Cold It Has Gotten In Each State (The Weather Channel)


On Today's Date: Minus 80 Degrees Sets America's Coldest All-Time Temperature Record

Better Luck Next Time'

I hope you get some Global Warming real soon