When I was a teenager in Wisconsin, my car wouldn't start after finishing work one night at two in the morning. I walked the three miles (5 km) home. It was -47 F/-43.8 C (the two scales agree at -40). None of that wind chill crap, -47 on the thermometer.

As is common, when it's that cold, it's usually calm and clear. I was adequately equipped for the walk. I made a mistake about halfway home when I tried to light a cigarette. I took my hands out of my mittens (first mistake) to handle the smoking materials. It was so goddamned cold, my Zippo lighter wouldn't light. Either it was too cold for the lighter fluid to evaporate and burn, or it was simply out of fluid (second mistake). Either way, by the time I abandoned the attempt (third mistake), I couldn't return the cigarette to the pack. My fingers weren't working very well.

I managed to warm my hands inside my coat under my arms as I continued walking. I made it home without further incident. But, it could have turned out badly.

47 below zero is fucking cold. The world sounds different because of the increased air density. You can hear things from much farther away. Smoke rises from chimneys straight up. The snow squeals under each step.

That's the coldest temperature I've ever seen.

-15 C or so. That was one real, crisp winter. Funny thing is, I've had -1 C temperatures which felt colder due to the wind that cuts you in half in this country. I've friends who been to Canada in -40 who said it felt less cold.

I was posted to Saudi Arabia for a six month tour once, from March through August.

I don't even know exactly how hot it got. So hot, you were good for about twenty minutes of work in direct sunlight. A breeze in that heat feels on your face like it does when you open an oven at operating temperature.

Hottest I had was Nerja, Spain. My sister choose late September for her wedding thinking it would be cooler. Didn't account for an Indian Summer and heatwave.

I hate the heat. I remember having to walk to church in a suit and trying to stick to the shadows, only the Sun was perpendicular and there was no shadows.

Don't know the temp. that day. Prolly not as hot as Saudi.

I don't remember the coldest I've been outside in now, probably in the -30's without the wind, but that was only to run from the car to the house, etc. That was in Caribou, Maine before I lived up here, and the forecast wind chills for the night were in the -60's f. We had our winter coats, gloves, hats, and boots on in my cousin's apartment, the stove on, and a 20 year old space heater for heat. It was a dumpy place whose windows leaked bad.
I went snowmobiling in -20f as both the driver and passenger. Driving wasn't too bad with the hand warmers and heat from the engine, but sitting on the back was torturous.
It's exceeded -34f four times in one winter here. I say -34 because my thermometer wouldn't work in temperatures colder. Once of those mornings was -50f in northern Aroostook (New Sweden), but I don't think it was as cold here. It may have been -40c/f-ish though. I didn't go out in that shit.

Animavore wrote:-15 C or so. That was one real, crisp winter. Funny thing is, I've had -1 C temperatures which felt colder due to the wind that cuts you in half in this country. I've friends who been to Canada in -40 who said it felt less cold.

It's -15c right now. I've read someone else say that on this forum, but my experience is different. I grew up next to the ocean near Boston, which is a little colder than Ireland I think, and it's the windiest major city in the US. Just saying that I have plenty of windy humid -1c experience too, and for me, the extreme cold is a lot harder to take. MAybe it's just what I grew up being used to, but I don't get used to -30c, let alone colder. No way.

For fun, I used this wind chill calculator to see what the wind chills were in the blizzard of 1997, the strongest winter storm that I was outside in. I was 4 for the epic Blizzard of 78. which had even stronger winds and more snow, but I wasn't outside in it.
The temp was 34 f and wind 75 mph, for a wind chill of 14f or -10c. Child's play. It did feel colder than that imo, given that it was wet, wind-driven snowfall with rates of 4 inches per hour! That was so awesome.
https://www.weather.gov/epz/wxcalc_windchill

Hottest: Around 105 F in Joshua Tree National Monument in California.

I used to live in Winnipeg, Manitoba, and remember several days when the temp went below -40 (at that point Fahrenheit and Celsius are the same).

Strangely, as both were in very dry climates, neither felt as extreme subjectively as the numbers would suggest.

For the hottest it's between 101 and 105 f or 38-40c, right in greater Boston as well. I don't remember the 105f, but when I tell my dad 101's the hottest it got where we lived, he tells me it was 105. It hits the upper 90's in Boston at least once virtually every summer. Not here, that hasn't happened once for me yet.

Let's see ... weather generated temperature extremes I've experienced ...

Hottest: 36°C during a record summer here in the UK.

Coldest: -15°C on Christmas Eve, 2010.

However, I've been up close and personal with some interesting heat sources ... such as the thermite reaction in my chemistry lessons that reached 2,500°C.

Just up the road from me is this place, which has a particle accelerator for electrons that operates at 30 MeV - equivalent to a vacuum temperature of 340 million Kelvins.

Cool. I have no conception of how hot that is, but it sounds bad.
When I visited Weaver in western NY, he took me to a glass blowing demonstration and it was probably hotter than 40 c in that room.

Hottest - Hepsatshut's temple in Egypt in 2008 110F 43C We went all round Valley of the Kings, Karnak temple and a few other places. I drank around 12litres of water during the day and pissed once.
Coldest- Lapland 2009. -25C which didn't feel that bad thanks to good thermal suits. What felt really cold was going 70mph on a snowmobile out on one of the lakes with my helmet visor open. When we were trundling though the forest, I was cooking in all the kit so opened the visor to cool down. On the lake, letting rip big time, it was only when my teeth started killing me that I realised what a dick I'd been. Grinning into something like -45C wind really does get the teeth.

-37° F in South Dakota as I was shoveling drift snow at the museum, which returned within minutes.

The hottest was in southern Arizona at a rest area on Interstate 10 where it was 117°F.

Neither of those were the cause of the most discomfort related to temperature. I slipped into a pond, breaking through the ice, in eastern Washington, and got wet from the crotch down when it was around -15°F. Hypothermia set in quickly and was lucky to make it home. My clothes were frozen to me. A couple summers back I experienced heat exhaustion while playing golf here in Arkansas when it was 105° F with ar least 70% humidity. Had my partners not put an ice soaked/filled towel in my head it would have got serious.

RS

My Polish friend Jakob relayed the story of his cousin being doused in petrol and burnt alive by gangsters. He saw the whole thing aged 10; held back from intervening by...er...idiot men tbh. RIP.

When I was in second grade the radio station in Iron Minnesota said it was -64F. My mom bundled me up and sent me out to the end of the driveway to wait for the bus. She had a lot of kids, I figure she thought she wouldn't miss one if he froze to death.

I remember hearing tree branches cracking off in the woods. Sound was like crystal knives.

When I worked in the mines up north or went hunting it was typically -30 to -45F.

It seems like it's about 20 degrees warmer now in MN than when I was a kid. Always has been 15 degrees warmer in Mpls than on the Iron Range. God damned balmy down here in southern MN.

Another thing I forgot to mention was that maybe some people who say that windy and -1c feels colder is the difference in weather gear.I doubt people are wearing snowsuits and long johns, etc when it's -1c., and it feels colder because the wind is penetrating the clothing. At least, I don't wear the same gear for -1c that I do even for -10c.

Hottest I've experienced was 48C/118F and humid on my veranda a few summers back. Truly awful weather with nothing to recommend it at all. Just recalling it is making the 32C/70% humidity we've got right now seem not so bad.

Coldest I've experienced is about -16C in Japan, and whatever that drops to with wind chill when you ski in it. And yeah, with proper gear that's no problem at all, unlike the -2C July mornings at home that catch us unawares every year, because here in the subtropics we're in denial about winter's existence.

54C/130F in Bahrain, -31C/-25F in Syracuse NY.

54C ....urk.

I have no idea about Farhenheit/Celsius temperatures. Completely clueless.