Duluth, Grand Forks, Fargo, St. Cloud and Bismarck all appeared in the original cold-city list. The problem was the numbers beside them: without a month, averaging period or weather station, a temperature ranking tells us surprisingly little.
Ask what “coldest” means
Annual average temperature, January average temperature, average overnight low and an all-time record minimum answer different questions. A ranking also needs a definition of “large city” and a consistent geographic scope.
NOAA’s U.S. Climate Normals provide station-based statistics over defined periods, including the 1991–2020 standard set. Compare the same variable and period across locations, then check whether an airport station represents the neighbourhood you are interested in.
Use climate for context and forecasts for a trip
Long-term averages describe typical conditions; they do not predict your arrival day. The archive photographs illustrate winter settings; they do not establish a reliable ranking of the coldest places.
For how winter changes familiar streets, browse U.S. city photographs. For an exceptional cold-weather transport story, revisit the reported Igarka aircraft incident.
Five cities, different winter measures
The five named places are Duluth and St Cloud in Minnesota, and Grand Forks, Fargo and Bismarck in North Dakota. That geographic concentration is useful information in itself. The original temperature figures, however, were not accompanied by a clear averaging period, observing station or definition of “large.”
For a traveller, the useful comparison begins with the question the number should answer. A monthly average may help describe a season, while a forecast concerns the approaching visit and a record low describes an extreme from another time. Those figures should not be placed in one ranking as if they measured the same thing. The five cities make a northern-US winter shortlist to explore, with NOAA’s defined station statistics providing a better basis for comparison than the original unlabelled temperatures.
Sources, photography and further reading
Original feature and image attributions:
- See.Place
- For Those Who Don’t Travel: This Is What America Looks Like...Frozen
- 40 Photos Of The Powerful Snow Storm Clobbering The East Coast
- Historic Freeze Could Break US Midwest and Northeast Temp Records
- Just A Snow Day In New York, Until This Dude Comes Along. Totally Dangerous And I Loved Every Minute Of It.
- The Best 12 Ski Resorts in North America
- Winter Blast Transforms Water Fountains Into Magical Ice Sculptures
- Unbelievable Photos From Upstate New York’s Freak Snowstorm.
- NOAA’s U.S. Climate Normals
- U.S. city photographs
- the reported Igarka aircraft incident
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