You think you’re cold now? Take a look at some past weather records By RON GOWER | TNEDITOR@tnonline.com

here’s a tinge of excitement whenever we feel we might be experiencing a record-breaking event.

It probably happened to many of us the past few days upon hearing that the polar vortex was going to bring us some of the coldest temperatures in decades.

True to predictions, some records were broken. Winds with the cold air made the temperatures feel even more brutal.

The National Weather Service says a minus 3 reading on Wednesday at 11:59 p.m. tied a record set in 1948. The wind chill was minus 24 degrees, incidentally, but wind chill temperatures are part of the general records.

Allentown’s temperature reached minus 3 Thursday, short of the 9 below zero reading in 1948.

In Mount Pocono, the record for both days is 15 below zero. On Jan. 30 it was set in 1965 and on Jan. 31 it was set over 100 years ago: in 1908.

Social media showed photos with backyard weather stations and car temperature gauges showing readings colder than what the National Weather Service was reporting, but the official readings are taken in controlled conditions.

We’ve been here before.

On Jan. 12, 1981, a reading in Kriss Pines, Franklin Township, was reported to the Times News as being minus 20. That same morning, a dispatcher at the emergency communications center located at the Lehighton Fire Department at the time had a reading of 17 below zero.

The Lansford-Coaldale Joint Water Authority has records indicating a reading of minus 27 on Feb. 9, 1934. That same day, there was a negative 30 reading in Hauto.

The minus 27 for Lansford was officially recorded at the old No. 7 shops of the Lehigh Navigation Coal Company.

Employees of the water company reportedly worked at thawing water lines until well into March. Many of the pipes were frozen solid with 14-inch chunks of ice found when workers dug them up.

According to state records, the coldest temperature ever reported in Pennsylvania was minus 42 on Jan. 5, 1904, in Smethport, McKean County.

The warmest January temperature was 85 degrees on Jan. 22, in Freeport, Armstrong County.

The coldest February temperature ever in the Keystone State was 39 below zero on Feb. 11, 1899, in Lawrenceville, Tioga County.

Even in March, there was a minus 31 degree reading on March 18, 1917, in West Bingham, Potter County. (The warmest March reading was 92 degrees on March 24 in Everett, Bedford County.

One of the weirdest cold weather phenomena happened in 1816 in what was described as “The year without a summer.”

Snow was reported in every month of the year in Eastern Pennsylvania. From June 6-9, severe frost occurred every night from Canada to Virginia. On June 8, snow fell, creating drifts in some locations. Many farmers had their entire crops ruined.

The strange weather was blamed on volcanic dust in the atmosphere. Three major volcanic eruptions took place between 1812 and 1817. They were on St. Vincent Island in 1912, in the Philippines in 1814 and on the island of Sumbawa in Indonesia in 1815.