1983: “The Coldest Christmas Ever”
Let's take a chilly trip down memory lane to 1983, when winter enthusiasts got more than they signed up for!
Are you dreaming of a snow-kissed Christmas this year? Or perhaps you’re hoping for a milder day, free from the grip of the frosty temperatures traditionally associated with the yuletide season. You might be surprised to learn that, despite the popular holiday songs, a white Christmas is more of a fantasy than a reality for most of the continental U.S.
Record-Breaking Frost: The Coldest Christmas Ever
Let’s take a chilly trip down memory lane to 1983. This was a year when winter enthusiasts got more than they signed up for! The 1980s, in general, were known for some of the iciest Decembers on record, but 1983 was a year in its own league. Over 70% of the month saw colder than average temperatures sweep across the country.
The Christmas of ’83 was one for the books. On Christmas Eve and Christmas Day alone, over 125 cities east of the Rockies shattered previous temperature records. A whopping 34 of these cities even recorded the coldest temperatures for the entirety of December! Accompanied by biting winds, these sub-zero temperatures were far from merry and bright. To top it off, a blanket of heavy snow draped from the Pacific Northwest through the Great Plains and Northern Appalachians.
Imagine, if you will, a frigid -50°F in Havre, Montana. Or Chicago, where the mercury refused to climb higher than -10° F in the days leading up to Christmas, eventually plummeting to a shocking -25° F. Sioux Falls, S.D., found itself in a deep freeze as temperatures fell below 0° F on December 15, and remained stuck there for over nine chilling days. The city experienced a bone-chilling -23 °F over Christmas, enhanced by 60 mph winds that delivered wind chills of -70 °F. Even typically temperate locations like Huntsville, Ala., experienced a dip to -1° F, while Galveston, Texas, shivered at a brisk 14° F.
Do you recall this frosty Christmas tale? We’d love to hear your stories or memories of this unforgettable chill in the comments below!
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.
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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.