PENNSYLVANIA, USA — The warmest Valentine's Day ever on record was in 1946. It was 62 degrees that year on February 14th. The coldest temperature ever recorded on Valentine's Day was more recent, in 2016. The low that morning was 6 below. Later that day, it was only a high of 12 degrees.
You probably have no problem remembering the snowiest Valentine's Day ever on record. That, of course, was in 2007. A total of 15.5 inches of snow fell on Wednesday, February 14th that year. The snow actually started falling the night before, the Scranton area received 2.5 inches on the 13th, making for a two-day total of 18 inches of snow.
The Valentine's Day Snow Storm of 2007 stranded tens of thousands of drivers on highways for hours and hours. One of our Newswatch 16 crews was stuck for more than 15 hours on Interstate 81 that day.
Employees at McCarthy Flowers in Scranton were working that day and say they remember it like it was yesterday.
"I ended up sleeping on the third floor of our Clarks Summit store that night," owner Brian McCarthy recalled. "I was looking out the window literally every hour to watch the snow just get worse and worse and get deeper and deeper and I knew we were in trouble. I was talking back and forth with the managers in the wee hours of the morning and I just knew it was going to be catastrophic," he said.
McCarthy says that was probably the most challenging day in the florist's 72 years in business.
"We had 40 drivers scheduled to work the 3 Lackawanna County stores, 40 drivers, of those 40, only 6 of them were able to make it in," he said.
At Rosette Floral & Gifts in Dunmore, it was the flower shop's 10th year in business and to celebrate it was running a special anniversary promotion for Valentine's Day that year.
"We did it, we somehow did it. We have terrific customers. They knew that we were in trouble, and a lot did come and pick up their flowers. They got through the snow to come for their loved ones. It was special when you think about it," said JoAnn Martarano Rabel, Rosette Floral & Gifts.
2007 ended up being one of the snowiest Februarys ever on record thanks to the Valentine's Day snowstorm.