The winter of 2013 / 2014 has NOT been a record winter. When the final monthly statistics come out, January in the U.S. won’t be near record cold.

This crazy weather is not just a U.S. thing. Parts of South America and Australia have had much warmer than normal weather this winter. Parts of Europe have been cold and stormy, others record warm. For much of January, Greenland was 8 degrees warmer than norm. Hey, let’s go to Greenland!!

The Winter of 1779-1780 was so cold that ice was piled 20 feet high along the Delmarva Coast and stayed there until spring. The upper portion of the Chesapeake Bay and the entire Potomac River was frozen solid. People were able to walk from Annapolis to Kent Island and from Alexandria into DC.

Lowest world temperature: -128.6°F / -89.6°C, Vostok Station, Antarctica, 21 July 1983–without windchill.

Lowest world temperature in inhabited area: -90.4° F / -68° C, Oymyakon, Siberia (pop. 4,000), 6 February, 1933 and also at Verkhoyansk, Siberia, 3 January, 1885.

Lowest USA temperature: -79.8° F / -62.1° C, Prospect Creek, Alaska, 23 January, 1971.

Lowest USA (48 contiguous states) temperature: -69.7° F / -56.5° C, Rogers Pass, Montana, 20 January, 1954.