I always get a laugh when people in warmer states complain about being cold when the temperatures are in the 20s and 30s. They don't even know what it's really like. According to the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources and the University of Minnesota, here are the top 10 coldest winters Minnesota has experienced.

Notice that most of the coldest winters were in the 19th century. It's a little harder to determine the coldest days in Minnesota history, because the windchill formula was modernized in 2011. Possibly one of the coldest days in the Twin Cities was in January 1936 when the windchill was recorded at -63. That means according to the windchill chart at that time the temperature was -34 with a 15 mph wind. January 9 and 10 in northern Minnesota they had -30 temperatures with 40 mph winds creating a windchill of -71. And let's not forget the all-time low of -61 recorded in Tower in 1996.

  • 1

    1887-88

    The average temperature was 10 degrees.

  • 2

    2013-14

    The average temperature was 9.7 degrees, the coldest since the 1970s.

  • 3

    1978-79

    The average temperature was 9.4 degrees.

  • 4

    1882-83

    The average temperature was 9.2 degrees.

  • 5

    1916-17

    The average temperature was 8.5 degrees

  • 6

    1903-04

    The average temperature was 8.4 degrees.

  • 7

    1872-73

    The average temperature was 7.9 degrees.

  • 8

    1935-36

    The average temperature was 7.3 degrees.

  • 9

    1886-87

    The average temperature was 5.7 degrees.

  • 10

    1874-75

    The average temperature was 4 degrees.

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