When the World Froze: A History of the Coldest Winters on Record

We often complain about a chilly day, but history holds records of winters so severe they reshaped societies and altered the course of events. You clicked to explore winter’s history, and we’re about to journey back in time to uncover the stories behind the most extreme cold snaps ever documented, from volcanic winters to continent-spanning deep freezes.

How Do We Know What's "On Record"?

Before diving into the icy depths of history, it’s important to understand what “on record” means. For modern history, we rely on instrumental records from weather stations, which became widespread in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. These provide precise temperature, snowfall, and pressure data.

For periods before that, scientists and historians act as detectives. They use proxy data, which are natural archives that preserve evidence of past climates. This includes:

  • Ice Cores: Trapped air bubbles in ancient ice from Greenland and Antarctica reveal the composition of the atmosphere and temperature from hundreds of thousands of years ago.
  • Tree Rings: The width of a tree’s annual growth rings can indicate the climate conditions of that year. A thin ring often points to a cold or dry year.
  • Historical Documents: Diaries, ship logs, agricultural records, and even paintings of frozen rivers provide invaluable firsthand accounts of past winters.

By combining these sources, we can piece together a remarkably detailed picture of Earth’s coldest periods.

The Great Frost of 1709: Europe's Deep Freeze

One of the most brutal winters in European history was “Le Grand Hiver,” or The Great Winter, of 1709. The cold was not just intense; it was relentless. Beginning in January, a wave of arctic air descended upon the continent, plunging temperatures to unprecedented lows for three long months.

The effects were catastrophic. Rivers, lakes, and even coastal seas froze solid. The canals of Venice were covered in thick ice, and the Baltic Sea froze so completely that people could walk from Poland to Sweden. In France, the cold was so extreme that it froze the ground more than a meter deep, destroying winter crops like wheat and rye. Fruit trees shattered as their sap froze and expanded, and livestock perished in their barns. The subsequent food shortages led to widespread famine and social unrest, making this winter one of the deadliest weather events in European history. Historians believe the combination of a period of low solar activity, known as the Maunder Minimum, and volcanic activity contributed to this extreme event.

1816: The Year Without a Summer

While not a single winter, the period following the 1815 eruption of Mount Tambora in Indonesia created one of the most prolonged and bizarre cold events in recorded history. The eruption was the largest in over 1,300 years, blasting a colossal amount of sulfur dioxide into the stratosphere. This gas formed an aerosol veil that circled the globe, reflecting sunlight and causing a significant drop in global temperatures.

The result was the “Year Without a Summer” in 1816. Snow fell in June in New England and Quebec. Europe experienced constant, chilling rain and failed harvests. The winter of 1816-1817 that followed was bitterly cold and prolonged, compounding the agricultural disaster. In the United States, this period spurred a wave of westward migration as families left the hard-hit New England states in search of better climates and more reliable farmland. This volcanic winter serves as a powerful reminder of how interconnected our planet’s systems are.

North America's Frigid Winter of 1936

The 20th century also had its share of record-breaking cold. The winter of 1936 stands out as one of the most severe in North American history, particularly across the central United States and the Canadian Prairies. The cold snap was part of the larger climate disruption of the Dust Bowl era.

For weeks on end, temperatures remained far below zero. The town of Parshall, North Dakota, recorded a state-record low of -60°F (-51°C) on February 15, 1936. Many other states in the Upper Midwest and Great Plains set all-time cold records that still stand today. The prolonged deep freeze caused immense hardship. Rivers like the Ohio and Illinois froze over, halting transportation and commerce. Schools and businesses were forced to close, and the cold put an immense strain on families already struggling through the Great Depression.

Modern Cold Snaps: The Polar Vortex Explained

While we may not see winters on the scale of 1709 today, extreme cold events still occur. In recent years, the term “polar vortex” has entered the popular vocabulary. The polar vortex is a large area of low pressure and cold air that always surrounds the Earth’s poles. It is a normal atmospheric feature.

However, sometimes the jet stream, a fast-moving river of air high in the atmosphere, becomes weak and wavy. When this happens, it can allow a piece of the frigid polar vortex to break off and slide south. This is what happened during the severe European cold wave in 2018, often called the “Beast from the East,” and the February 2021 North American cold wave that caused massive power outages in Texas. These events show that even in a warming world, the planet’s complex weather systems can still deliver winters of historic severity.