77 Years Ago Today Fairfax Reported 48 Degrees Below Zero

[Henry]

I have heard stories about this and somewhere I have more information, but according to some old newspapers, on December 22, 1933, temperatures were recorded to be 48 degrees below zero at Fairfax Falls.

[Dick Brown]

Henry       When I first came to town in 1962 , we were friends with Frank & Melba Perry. He used to relate this story quite a bit , and I think, since  his family lived at the Falls in 1933 , it was a accurate description of the weather at that time.  Chilly isn't the word for it , and since the depression was prominent in everyone's life, it seemed to make it worse. Tough weather and tough times.

[al brodeur]

I do not rember the exact yr 51,52 it was so stupid cold only one school bus started- yep, the one we rode on
the four would not even start, and after we were in school for a whille we were taken home
If I recall Fairfax was supposed to be the coldest in the nation that day
because  after arriving home  my dad the entertainment director put a snoww shovel in my hand and directed me to shovel where the horses could not plow out, one more reason I left the area

[Chris Santee]

This got me to thinking,
so I did some searching,
and this site gave me a few chuckles:
http://www.citytowninfo.com/places/vermont/fairfax

[Henry]

My Bad, It was December 29, 1933 that this happened:

The Dec. 29, 1933 St. Albans Messenger (under a banner headline 'Mercury Shrivels") reported weather that "was something for the books."

It was 48 below zero at 6 a.m. that morning at the Fairfax Falls Public Electric Light plant. Newspaper correspondents of that time reported these temperatures:
-35 on St. Albans Hill; -38 in West Berkshire; -40 in Bakersfield; -38 in Richford; -32 in St. Albans City; -34 at St. Albans Bay; and -36 in Franklin.