The Coldest Christmas Ever: How December 1983 Set Records
Let's take a chilly trip down memory lane to 1983, when winter enthusiasts got more than they signed up for!
Quick Reference
- Event: December 1983 Arctic outbreak, peaking on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.
- Coldest reading: -50°F in Havre, Montana.
- Records broken: Over 125 cities east of the Rockies set new all-time December lows on December 24 to 25, 1983.
- Reach: Pacific Northwest, Great Plains, Midwest, Northern Appalachians, Deep South, Gulf Coast.
- Driver: A southward push of Arctic air, sometimes called the Siberian Express, that locked over the continent for two weeks.
The coldest Christmas ever recorded in the United States, by most measures, fell on December 24 and 25, 1983. Over those 48 hours, more than 125 cities east of the Rocky Mountains broke all-time December temperature records, and 34 of them logged the coldest reading they had ever seen for the entire month. If you’re dreaming of a white Christmas, the holiday in ’83 came with snow, but it also came with a kind of cold most Americans have never lived through.
Record-Breaking Frost: The Coldest Christmas Ever
The 1980s were already known for hard Decembers. December 1983 stood apart even in that company. More than 70 percent of the month ran colder than average across the country, and the cold tightened, rather than eased, into Christmas week. By the time families sat down to dinner on December 25, much of the U.S. east of the Rockies was reading temperatures that would not be matched again for decades.
The National Weather Service later catalogued the outbreak as one of the most severe Arctic intrusions of the 20th century. According to the National Weather Service, cities from Montana to Alabama logged temperatures more than 40 degrees below normal for three consecutive days. Snow draped the country from the Pacific Northwest through the Great Plains and into the Northern Appalachians, and the wind made every reading feel worse.
City by City: The Numbers From Christmas 1983
The numbers below are the readings that earned 1983 the title of the coldest Christmas ever in the lower 48. Some are bone-cold even for the northern Plains. Others are stranger still: temperatures in the Deep South and along the Gulf Coast that would have been unremarkable in Minnesota.
| City | Reading during the December 1983 outbreak |
|---|---|
| Havre, Montana | -50°F |
| Chicago, Illinois | -25°F, after days that did not climb above -10°F |
| Sioux Falls, South Dakota | -23°F on Christmas, with 60 mph winds driving wind chills to -70°F. Below zero for nine straight days starting December 15. |
| Huntsville, Alabama | -1°F |
| Galveston, Texas | 14°F |
Galveston at 14 degrees is the reading that catches the eye. The Texas Gulf Coast rarely sees a freeze, much less the teens. Citrus growers in the lower Rio Grande Valley lost trees that had stood for 50 years, and pipes burst in homes that had no insulation because they had never needed any.
What Caused the December 1983 Arctic Outbreak
The cold did not arrive from a single storm. It arrived because the polar jet stream dropped far to the south and stayed there for about two weeks, opening a channel that funneled Arctic air down across Canada and into the U.S. interior. Forecasters at the time called it the Siberian Express, a plain-English nickname for the same pattern meteorologists now describe as a displaced polar vortex.
The Farmers’ Almanac long-range forecast for the 1983 to 1984 winter had already flagged an unusually cold December for the central and eastern U.S. The almanac’s math-based formula, which has been refined since 1818, was built to anticipate exactly this kind of seasonal anomaly weeks ahead of standard short-range forecasts. We do not claim every winter prediction lands, but the December 1983 outbreak is one our archive still points to as a clean hit.
The Snow That Came With the Cold
The 1983 Arctic outbreak was not a dry cold. A heavy blanket of snow draped the country from the Pacific Northwest through the Great Plains and into the Northern Appalachians, with parts of the Ohio Valley and Mid-Atlantic adding lake-effect bands. Snow on the ground let the air get even colder at night, because clean snowfields radiate heat back to space efficiently. By Christmas Eve, a person standing on packed snow in Iowa lost body heat at roughly twice the rate of someone standing on bare ground in the same conditions.
How 1983 Compares to Other Historic Cold Christmases
The cold Christmases of 1989, 2000, and 2022 each had their own claim. The 1989 outbreak ran further south, freezing Brownsville, Texas. The 2000 Midwest holiday was bitter but did not match 1983’s breadth. The December 2022 storm, sometimes called the bomb cyclone, was meteorologically violent but did not sustain 1983’s depth of cold across two full weeks. By the measure of how many cities broke all-time December records in one stretch, 1983 still leads.
- 1983: 125+ cities broke December records on Christmas Eve and Day. -50°F in Havre, Montana.
- 1989: Arctic outbreak that froze the Gulf Coast and reached -2°F in Brownsville, Texas.
- 2000: A snowy, bitter Christmas across the upper Midwest and Plains.
- 2022: The Christmas weekend bomb cyclone, with hurricane-force gusts and rapid temperature drops from Montana to Maine.
Lessons for Modern Winters
A 1983-scale Arctic outbreak can still happen. The patterns that produced it, a buckled polar jet and a stalled high-pressure block over Greenland, are recurring features of North American winters. A few practical steps from the 1983 record book are worth carrying forward:
- Watch the long-range outlook in November. Severe December cold rarely arrives without weeks of advance signal in the upper-air pattern.
- Insulate exposed pipes, including in regions that “never freeze.” Galveston and Houston pipes burst in 1983 for that reason.
- Keep a 72-hour kit with water, batteries, blankets, and food that does not need cooking. A 1983-style outbreak knocks out grids that were not engineered for the load.
- Check on neighbors, especially older neighbors. Most of the 1983 fatalities were heating and exposure related, not direct weather injuries.
- Run a slow drip at one faucet in unheated walls overnight when wind chills go below -20°F. It is not a guarantee, but it shifts the odds.
Do you recall this frosty Christmas tale? We’d love to hear your stories or memories of this unforgettable chill in the comments below. Where were you when the mercury fell?
Frequently Asked Questions
Was 1983 really the coldest Christmas ever in the United States?
By the measure used by the National Weather Service, which counts how many cities broke all-time December low-temperature records in a single 48-hour window, December 24 to 25, 1983 stands as the coldest U.S. Christmas on record. More than 125 cities east of the Rockies set new December lows, and 34 set their coldest reading ever for the month.
How cold did it get in Havre, Montana, on Christmas 1983?
Havre, Montana fell to -50°F during the December 1983 outbreak, the coldest single reading reported in the lower 48 over the Christmas stretch. Other northern Plains cities saw similar readings in the -40s.
What caused the coldest Christmas ever?
The cold came from a displaced polar vortex paired with a buckled jet stream, which opened a steady channel of Arctic air down across Canada and into the U.S. interior. Forecasters at the time called it the Siberian Express. The pattern locked in place for about two weeks, which is why the cold deepened rather than passed.
Did the Farmers’ Almanac forecast the 1983 cold snap?
The Farmers’ Almanac long-range outlook for winter 1983 to 1984 called for an unusually cold December across the central and eastern U.S. Our math-based formula, in use since 1818, is built to flag this kind of seasonal anomaly well ahead of standard short-range services. We are honest that not every prediction lands, but December 1983 is one our archive returns to.
Could a Christmas like 1983 happen again?
Yes. The atmospheric pattern that produced the December 1983 outbreak, a polar vortex displaced southward and a stalled blocking high near Greenland, still recurs every few winters. A direct repeat would depend on timing, but the ingredients are not unique to the early 1980s.
Where can I check the long-range Christmas forecast for my region?
The Farmers’ Almanac publishes a regional U.S. and Canada long-range forecast covering the holiday season. See the long-range weather forecast page for the current outlook, or the extended forecast for the next 60 days.
Jaime McLeod
Jaime McLeod is a longtime journalist who has written for a wide variety of newspapers, magazines, and websites, including MTV.com. She enjoys the outdoors, growing and eating organic food, and is interested in all aspects of natural wellness.
- Jaime McLeod
- Jaime McLeod
- Jaime McLeod
- Jaime McLeod
We may have this next year. Especially due to the Gulf Stream is gonna collapse.
I had the pleasure of working the midnight shift that night at the refinery. Outside air with a nice breeze blowing off Lake Michigan made it feel like it was hundreds of needles hitting any exposed flesh. The vinyl gloves we wore would go stiff as bricks rendered hands useless. At times during the cold dark night we had to go to Berry Lake Tank Field to restart a pump. The winds were much stronger there between the large tanks. I believe the wind chills were closer to -70. In the morning our reliefs all showed up! The 77 impala had a rough wake up that morning, but it carried my frozen but back home.
I was driving a bread truck Christmas Eve 1983 and got stuck in a snow drift in the country. Caught a ride into the nearest town where I got in another bread truck with a friend headed home. We ran out of fuel twenty- five miles from home and walked to a country restaurant where we caught a ride in a pick up truck to home.
Our firstborn daughter was 6 mos old at Christmas 1983. We’d had record high temps bringing her home from the hospital in June. My brother’s family was to host my family’s Christmas reunion that year in Suburban Chicago. We lived north of Indianapolis at that time.
At first, I gathered insulated clothes and blankets, for the trip, but I-65 North (our path to Chicago) closed due to drifts and wind chill. We we’re told if our car failed, we could freeze to death in a matter of minutes. Alternate routes north would add many hours to our trip.
From then on, we all decided that new year’s weekend or other times were fine for Christmas reunions, whatever allowed us safe travels.
How lucky that you were able to avoid that! We agree – safe travels mean happier reunions!
I was a baby that time only 2 years old and my brother Bradley was born 2 months before in October of 1983. 39 years later, same thing happened and I realized I lived through that event even though I have no memory of it.
That was the year my oldest son was born. We were living in a single wide mobile home and the water pipes froze for a week we had to move in with my in-laws. It was terrible and there was a small lake on my route to work that was completely frozen. One year I will never forget.
I remember December, 1983 quite vividly. It was so cold that the Mississippi River froze solid as far south as Memphis, and all river traffic came to a halt. Living in Natchez, Mississippi, my entire life, I had never witnessed ice flowing down the river although my father indicated that similar conditions occurred in 1940. On New Year’s Day, 1984, the ice flowing down the river covered the entire width of the river, which is a mile wide at Natchez. Some brave (?) souls got into boats, approached some of the larger pieces of ice an actually got upon them and rode them for several miles downstream!
WOW! What a memory! Thank you for sharing!
I remember December 1983 very well. We buried my grandpa on December 23rd. It was -27 that day with a wind chill of -50. The entire family made it to central IL for the services. Some driving from KY and OH taking up to 14 hours to get here. That Christmas was brutal in so many ways but at least we were all together as a family.
I had my 2nd son Dec 24, 1983 in Minneapolis and it was very cold. -80 wind chills.
Wow … that is COLD!
I was in the Air Force, and remember that storm quite well, because I was changing bases from Sunnyvale AFS in the SF Bay Area, to tech school at Biloxi, MS. I had leave to visit my parents for Christmas in Arkansas.
I was driving a ‘76 Chevy banger with a recently repaired engine. Unbeknownst to me, the mechanic neglected to replace the thermostat that regulated the heat in the car cabin.
Everything was fine until I got into the mountains and the temperature dropped like a rock. The heat was nonexistent and I was getting colder the further east I went. There was frost inside my car. I put my Santa hat on to keep my head warm.
On day two I stopped for gas and a break in NM and was so cold that I could barely move. It was Christmas Eve, and I wasn’t sure if I could get to Dallas before sunset.
But someone in the shop saw me struggling to get out of the car and helped me into the shop. They were having a Christmas Eve celebration and invited me to join them. I did. While I thawed out, the mechanic asked if he could look at my car. He discovered the missing part, but didn’t have anything in his shop to replace it with. So he took some cardboard and put it behind the front grille of my car to get some heat into the cabin.
I filled the tank, and got ready to leave, but the grandmother insisted that I take a thermos of hot soup with me. I gratefully accepted it and got back on the road. I made it to Dallas, and then to Little Rock on Christmas Day. The heat was feeble, but better than it was before the kind mechanic installed the cardboard. I got home in one piece, and only after getting home did I learn how severe the cold was.
I’m eternally grateful to the kind Mexican family who helped me, and I have loved posole soup ever since.