HUNTSVILLE, Ala. — This week has proved just how cold it can get despite living in the southeast, one of the warmest regions in the United States. Believe it or not, temperatures have actually been much colder than what we experienced this week.
The last time we've seen a January this cold occurred a decade ago, January of 2014 where our low temperatures made it to around 8° early January. The last time we were this cold however, only occurred a little over a year ago, in December of 2022, where we saw a low temperature of 3° on December 23 and a low of 9° on December 24.
Our coldest morning we saw this week (January 14 - January 21) was 8° on Wednesday, January 17. Despite the single digit temperatures (some of us even nearing 0°), temperatures actually have reached the negatives before here in Huntsville. The coldest low temperature we've ever recorded just so happens to be -11°, registered on both January 21, 1985 and January 30, 1966.
Top 5 Coldest Low Temperatures Recorded in Huntsville
- January 21, 1985 (-11°)
- January 30, 1966 (-11°)
- January 20, 1985 (-9°)
- January 13, 1918 (-8°)
- February 17, 1958 (-8°)
It seems like January is the coldest month for us here in Huntsville, but let's take a look at the top 5 coldest high temperatures we've recorded:
Our coldest afternoon we saw this week (January 14 - January 21) was 21° on Tuesday, January 16. Our coldest high temperature ever recorded was 10° colder, registering a high temperature of 11° on January 10, 1962.
Top 5 Coldest High Temperatures Recorded in Huntsville
- January 10, 1962 (11°)
- January 20, 1985 (18°)
- February 16, 2021 (19°)
- January 7, 1970 (19°)
- November 25, 1950 (19°)
Now the Florence/Muscle Shoals area received the most snowfall from this particular event, with Florence accumulating around 7" of snow. Here in Huntsville, we only saw 0.8" of snow, but still enough to cause travel issues and to cover the ground. The most amount of snowfall was 15.7", recorded on New Year's Eve of 1963. Even though the blizzard of '93 dumped close to 20" in some areas of the Tennessee Valley, Huntsville only recorded 4.9"!
Top 5 Highest Recorded Snowfall Amounts in Huntsville
- 15.7" on December 31, 1963
- 8.1" on February 25, 2015
- 8.0" on February 15, 1958
- 7.2" on January 29, 1966
- 7.1" on January 7, 1988