Vermont’s coldest day: December 30, 1933
by Timothy Page
On December 30, 1933, the state of Vermont experienced the coldest day on record, with temperatures in the town of Bloomfield plummeting to a staggering fifty degrees below zero (-50°F or -45.6°C). This extreme cold snap remains the lowest official temperature ever recorded in the state.
According to data from the National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI), this extreme cold was part of a larger cold snap that affected the northeastern United States during the winter of 1933-1934.
Bloomfield, a small town located in Essex County, is situated in a valley, which can contribute to cold air pooling and extreme temperature drops. The town’s location, combined with the cold air mass that gripped the region, led to the record-low temperature reading.
The extreme cold had a significant impact on the daily lives of Vermonters. Many residents were forced to stay indoors, as the cold weather made outdoor activities extremely hazardous. The cold also caused widespread damage to buildings, pipes, and other infrastructure, as the water inside them froze and expanded.
Reflecting on those frigid days, Ray Daley, a local worker at the time, recounted his experiences from that winter in an account he wrote in 1983. On the night of December 28, he was called to help patrol electrical lines as the cold intensified. Despite the U.S. Weather Bureau reporting temperatures at -50°F, local lore suggested it felt even colder, with one worker claiming it was “two clapboards below the thermometer.”
Daley recalled the camaraderie among workers as they braved the elements to repair downed lines, sharing heated rocks to stay warm and enjoying coffee and doughnuts provided by a local resident after a long night of work. The conditions were so severe that trees cracked like rifle shots in the cold.
The extreme cold also had a significant impact on the state’s agriculture. Many farmers reported substantial losses, as the cold weather damaged or destroyed crops, livestock, and equipment.
Interestingly, research has shown that cold weather claims significantly more lives globally than hot weather. According to a 2015 study published in The Lancet, an estimated 7.7% of all deaths worldwide are attributable to cold, compared to just 0.4% for heat1. This underscores the critical importance of being vigilant and prepared for extreme cold snaps, like the one that gripped Vermont in 1933.
- Gasparrini, A., Guo, Y., Hashizume, M., Lavigne, E., Zanobetti, A., Schwartz, J., & Armstrong, B. (2015). Mortality risk attributable to high and low ambient temperature: a multicountry observational study. The Lancet, 386(9991), 369-375. ↩︎