Minnesota’s All-Time Low Recorded on this Date

TOWER -- It was on this date, February 2nd, 1996 that the coldest temperature ever recorded in Minnesota was observed.

A location in St. Louis County, three miles south of Tower, recorded 60 degrees below zero.  This temperature ties us with North Dakota for the all-time record low for a non-mountainous state.

The air mass that produced the record low at Tower also produced bitterly cold temperatures across the rest of the state that Ground Hog day.  The Twin Cities recorded 32 below.  The Twin Cities has not had a temperature of 30 below or colder since then.  International Falls bottomed out at 45 below, and Duluth's maximum temperature was only 21 below that day.

Governor Arne Carlson canceled school statewide that day due to the cold.

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The that coldest day in Minnesota, on January 27th, 2019 the temperature fell to 56 below at Cotton, which is the coldest statewide reading since the 60 below at Tower.

If you are wondering how our state record low of 60 below stacks up nationally, the all-time U.S. low is 80 below observed on January 23rd, 1971 at Prospect Creek, Alaska.  In the contiguous U.S., Montana has a record low of 70 below, Wyoming 66 below, and Colorado 61 below.