Dear Tom,
Has there ever been a day when the high temperature failed to reach 70 degrees in the contiguous states?
— Jon Charneskey,
Bartlett
Dear Jon,
There has, but it is a fairly rare event. We checked the National Weather Service archive national extremes, which date back to November 2011, and found nothing lower than 73. We contacted University of Wisconsin-Green Bay Geoscience Professor Emeritus Steven Dutch, who cataloged the USA Today national temperature extremes from 1995-2006, and he provided the following: During a Christmas cold snap from Dec. 22-24, 1995, there were eight sub-70-degree national highs, the lowest being 66 degrees at Parker, Ariz., and several California locations including Coronado, Thermal, National City and Monterey, all on Christmas Eve.
