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PRESS RELEASE: Canaan Valley, WV Reaches a Frigid -27° F This Morning, Lowest in the Contiguous U.S.
FEB 9 
ISSUED 7:50 am EST Monday, February 9, 2026
Canaan Valley, West Virginia’s National Wildlife Refuge (NWR) professionally sited, equipped, and maintained weather station (operated and maintained by VA Tech instructor David Carroll) measured a -27° F minimum temperature at 5:07 am EST this February 9, 2026 Saturday morning.
According to the National Weather Service’s (NWS) Weather Prediction Center (WPC), this was the lowest officially recognized temperature in the lower 48 states as of 7:00 am EDT.
It is not uncommon for Canaan’s highest valley floor in eastern North America (3,200 ft.), to reach frigid low temperatures throughout the year. This occurs only when dry air, clear skies, and calm winds all combine to allow good radiational cooling at night to collect cold air on the elevated valley floor’s basin. When a deep fresh powdery snow pack is present, as this morning, this further enhances the valley’s efficient cooling mechanisms (Figure 1).
Research suggests these extremely low morning temperatures reported at the NWR Canaan Valley station are representative of scattered low spots throughout Canaan Valley’s elevated floor; near bogs, open low meadows, and tributaries of the Blackwater River and the river proper. The Blackwater drains the entire 50 square mile valley basin. Precipitation falling into Canaan eventually flows west into the Gulf of Mexico (for snow, when it melts), as the lofty Eastern Continental Divide (reaches 4,560 ft.) is the valley’s eastern rim.
Low temperatures where people live and work in the more developed, higher, southern end of the valley tend to be 5 to 10° F milder that the VA Tech NWR station on clear, calm nights. This morning there, an unofficial -20° F reading was reported near Deerfield Village. 
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NOTES: The Canaan Valley NWR VA Tech University research weather station lies in a large flat, open meadow in the wild, untouched northern end of Canaan Valley at an elevation of 3,150 feet.
Canaan Valley is shaped like a huge bath-tub with only one exit where the Blackwater River leaves the valley flowing west towards the Gulf of Mexico. The valley floor is flat and high with an average elevation of about 3,200 feet. It’s large in scope at 10 miles long by 5 miles wide (50 square miles). The elevated valley floor is completely surrounded by a rim of ridge-tops that range in elevation from 3,600 to 4,460 feet. Canaan Valley is the highest large valley in eastern North America.
This high elevation and topographic shape make it a classic text-book cold sink/basin. Such places are commonly referred to as “frost hollows“. Frost hollows catch and pool cold air forming extremely well at night. The high elevation of the valley floor also contributes with the heavy dew/frost removing moisture from the shallow surface temperature inversion, drying the air out further and allowing the temperature to continue dropping.Clear, calm evenings (no wind) with dry air (as was the case this morning) and snow cover (none today) aid in cold air formation and pooling.
The Canaan Valley NWR VA Tech University research weather station is professionally sited, equipped, and maintained by instructor David Carroll. The station has, in it’s very short operating life, already been officially recognized by the National Weather Service on numerous times for recording the lowest temperature in the lower 48 states.
The Fearless Canaan Weatherman (aka: Bob Leffler)
Figure 1: Cam Image of the Canaan Valley from the Slopes of Timberline Resort State Park (Feb. 9, 2026)
This is an unofficial, informational forecast — not an official National Weather Service (NWS) forecast. Weather is inherently uncertain. For safety warnings and decisions in particular, always rely on official NWS and local emergency guidance.