What’s The Coldest Temperature Ever Recorded In Indiana?

Indiana, particularly southern Indiana, is staring down an approaching blast of winter weather. Winter Storm Fern is taking aim and promises to dump considerable amounts on snow on Indiana's southernmost counties.

READ MORE: National Weather Service Gives Update On Winter Storm Impacts For The Ohio River Valley

The snow's also going to usher in an Arctic blast, which will send temperatures plummeting near or even below zero. It's reminiscent of a storm that happened roughly thirty years ago. It was back in 1994 that parts of Indiana were blanketed by a huge snowstorm. That snow was followed by a surge of brutally cold, record-breaking Arctic air.

I was inspired to research the coldest temperature ever recorded in Indiana after doing the same thing for the Commonwealth of Kentucky.

READ MORE: KY Residents Remember Historically Cold Winter As Snowstorm Approaches

As it turns out, both record lows were the result of that exact same storm. I lived in Louisville, Kentucky (just south of New Albany and Jeffersonville, Indiana) in January of 1994. In fact, the day before Mother Nature decided to dump over a foot of snow on us, some college friends of mine and I made plans to head up to Paoli Peaks to go snow skiing. Needless to say, we didn't make it. That snow stranded virtually everyone, everywhere for a few days.

THE COLDEST TEMPERATURE EVER RECORDED IN INDIANA

Any chance of that snow melting away quickly was thwarted by the fact that horrendously cold Arctic air moved down into the region. It brought with it the coldest temperatures ever recorded in the Hoosier State. For some perspective, on January 19th of that year, it got down to minus 27 degrees in Indianapolis. But, that wasn't even the coldest thermometer reading measured in the state.

The coldest temperature ever recorded in Indiana was in New Whiteland, just on the outskirts of Indy. That same day- January 19th, 1994- it dipped down to minus 36 degrees in New Whiteland, which happened to be one degree warmer that the coldest temperature ever recorded in Kentucky.

Let's hope Winter Storm Fern turns the heat up a bit.