25 Coldest Cities in the US

Hurmat Sajid
10 min read

In This Article:

In this article, we are going to take a look at the 25 coldest cities in the US. You can skip our detailed analysis of the cold weather in these American cities, and go directly to the 5 Coldest Cities in the US.

When we think of cold weather, a steaming cup of coffee, long coats, puffy jackets, and outdoor activities like skiing come to mind. Unfortunately, it might not be the same for people living in the northern side of the country. People in this region are often subjected to below-freezing temperatures, extreme amounts of snowfall, and storms that affect everyday life greatly. The freezing weather may seem magical in the movies but many cities spend half of the year with record low temperatures, falling below -45 °F, and experience more than 60 in. of snow every year.

Many cities experiencing cold weather in the US are situated in the Midwest, with the top ten found in the states of Minnesota and the Dakotas. These do not only have the lowest temperature but also experience the longest winters. Not only this, while the winter season has a duration of about 90 days, all of the cities on our list have at least 120 days where the temperature falls below the freezing point.

However, another very important determinant that has changed the course of weather in the US is climate change. While the northern part of the country still experiences cold weather, there have been massive and unexpected changes in the temperature as evidenced by the fact that this year Alaska, a state that is known for its cold weather, experienced record heat in July.

Our Methodology

For this list, we used the lowest recorded temperature data for US cities to find out the coldest cities in the country. However, the data is not completely uniform as different cities faced their lowest ever temperatures in different time periods. In addition to these factors, it was made sure that the area being considered had a population of over 10,000 and was classified as a city.

We used data on the lowest temperature recorded and the minimum average temperature for each city from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Comparative Climatic Data report 2019. All other information regarding the annual snowfall, population, and the mean monthly temperatures was taken from the Climate Data Online (CDO and certified weather websites like Accu weather.

Photo by NOAA on Unsplash

With this context in mind, let's now discuss our list of the 25 coldest cities in the US.

25 Coldest Cities in the US

25. St. Albans, Vermont

Lowest Recorded Temperature: -4.4F Annual Average Snowfall: 82.4 in.

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