A few inches of snow fell in Washington DC yesterday. Predictably, the capital is paralyzed.
Britain is shrieking about the cold. “London colder than Antarctica” screams today’s Daily Telegraph. In true “Sunday paper” form, the Telegraph neglects to mention that it’s summer in Antarctica.
The Independent puts things in perspective, listing the world’s chilliest capital cities. The coldest: Astana, Kazakhstan, where the lowest recorded temperature was -61.6F (-52C). Runners-up: Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia (-56F [-49C ]) and Minsk, Belarus (-40F [-40C ]).
Lowest recorded temperature in London: 3.02F (-16.1C ). DC dropped to -15F (-26C) during the historic cold wave of 1899.
Coldest inhabited place on earth: Oymyakon, Siberia. On January 26, 1926 the temperature there plummeted to -96.2 F (−71.2C).
Feeling warmer now?
Extreme temperatures: global records 2002 — 2009.
DC weather (refresh for current data).
Image by Mike Licht. Download a copy here. Creative Commons license; credit Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com
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NotionsCapital 
January 31, 2010 at 3:26 pm
It seems to me that Washington DC is paralyzed even in the best weather.
January 31, 2010 at 3:31 pm
TomCat wrote: Washington DC is paralyzed even in the best weather ….
True, but Congress is out of town right now.
January 31, 2010 at 11:48 pm
Those of us in Northern Illinois would gladly swap winters with D.C. any day.
February 1, 2010 at 12:15 am
Lawrence E. Rafferty wrote: Northern Illinois would gladly swap winters with D.C. any day.
Up in Buffalo they have a name for the kind of weather DC has now — Spring.