The worst winter I had e xp erienced was actually around this time (a bit later... later January) in 1997.
That week, everyone was talking about a massive cold front coming down to our area and that Friday at school, people were thinking that "school will probably get cancelled on Monday" so people were joking "see ya Tuesday." I can vaguely remember people talking that the particular storm was going to drop temperatures to having windchills at -80 degrees... I don't think it got THAT cold here, but maybe some of our members in the forums, from up north will remember a winter storm from 97
Well come Sunday we got outside and low and behold, there was no snow (I think it takes an act of congress and divine intervention for us to get snow
) but EVERYTHING was covered in ICE... Icicles everywhere, trees covered in ice, the patio furniture covered in ice, etc etc. I think I can remember my dad watching the Cowboys playing football, no one thought anything of it, until, oh yea, ice is on the power lines... and there goes the power... for DAYS, no electricity, no heat, our stove is electric... luckily we have a really nice wood burning fireplace.
Me,being 14 was having the time of my life... camping like you are in an Alaskan wilderness, but in your own house. A lot of my family members came over (well that part wasn't so much fun, he hehe). The power was off for the better part of the week, but we had gone to the store and got camping stoves and stuff and we were all set, had propane, etc... anywho, I can remember the time of year, because that following monday was MLK day, so we did end up going back to school on a Tuesday. I was a huge professional wrestling fan at that time, and luckily for me, we had tickets to Monday Night Raw that Monday and were still able to go.
If you would like, someone put this video on youtube and I found it...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0S5RmQ0nhxY you may or may not care for wrestling from that time period, but if you go to about 34 seconds in, you will see a kid in the stands wearing a white hat, and a blue jersey (Houston Rockets) and from the perspective, "right next to/eye level" with the guy in the ring... thats a 14 year old, chubby, puberty being horrible to...ME!
Sorry for the long rambling... but its weird how my coldest weather memory was tied to another memory of one of my biggest hobbies and past times as a kid. Oh yea, my dad bought me my first real pellet gun during that time too, I had had a BB gun, but nothing on that scale.