Rochester, New York is known for being cold. It’s in central New York and is right on the shores of Lake Ontario, so the lake effect can be a doozy. Although small towns in the Adirondacks regularly beat Rochester as the coldest spots in New York, anyone who has ever been to Rochester in the winter will tell you it’s painfully freezing much of the time. This is true every year. However, it may leave you wondering about the coldest month ever in Rochester history. It actually wasn’t that long ago – it happened in the last decade, in fact. Read on to learn more about how cold it was in Rochester in February of 2015.

The National Weather Service record book goes all the way back to 1884-1885. In all of that time, the coldest month in Rochester, New York, was February 2015. The average daily temperature during that month was just 12.2° F.
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Apparently, there's a meteorology professor at SUNY Brockport that has a record book that goes back even further - all the way to 1830. That book doesn't have any months colder than February 2015 in it for Rochester either.
That's really cold. Remember, since that's the average, it was often colder than that, and sometimes warmer than that, but for most of February 2015, the temperature in Rochester hovered somewhere around 12.2° F.
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At night time, it was probably a lot colder. In fact, Februrary 2015 had at least 10 days in which temperatures dropped to zero or lower.
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On February 12th, it went down to -11° F.
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This actually wasn't a record, though. There are lots of years in Rochester's history with single days that were colder than that. The coldest temperature ever recorded in Rochester was -22° F in 1934. It was also in February, though - on February 9th, to be exact.
Of course, as you might have guessed, Rochester got a lot of snow in February 2015, too. By the end of the month, official monitors at Greater Rochester International Airport recorded 45.2" of snow in Februrary.
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That figure put February 2015 on the list of the top twenty snowiest months ever in Rochester.
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So, anytime you think it's really cold or really snowy in Rochester this winter, think back to February 2015. Chances are that it's not as cold or snowy as it was then!
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Brrrrr! Winter in Rochester is no joke! Be sure to bundle up and stay warm. Enjoy the winter weather and the great outdoors, but don’t stay out there too long! February in Rochester can be rough, but spring is just around the corner. Start counting the days – fortunately, it will be here before you know it!

February 2015 may have been the coldest month in Rochester history, but one of the worst winter storms the state has ever seen was in 1977. Read about it here: A Terrifying, Deadly Storm Struck New York In 1977 And No One Saw It Coming

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