Today in history: Michigan's coldest temperature on record hit on Feb. 9, 1934
Ninety-two years ago, historians say, the state of Michigan experienced its coldest recorded temperature.
That point was a brutal -51 recorded on Feb. 9, 1934, in the northern Lower Peninsula community of Vanderbilt, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration says.
"When winter descended in 1934, it wasn't your average cold snap. Michigan was gripped by an arctic blast that made even seasoned northerners bundle up a little tighter," relates the website Northern Michigan History.
However, the weather in Detroit that day was not that cold, as the high that day was 4 degrees and the low was -16.
The coldest day noted in Detroit since record-keeping began in 1874 happened decades later. On Jan. 21, 1984, the actual temperature in Detroit hit –21 according to National Weather Service Detroit bureau records that show day-to-day coldest temperatures.
The average temperature range for Detroit on Feb. 9 is 34 for the high and 20 for the low, CBS News Detroit NEXT Weather meteorologist Stacey DuFord says.