"Table of Meteorological Observations taken by order of Col. li. 0. Moody, 11.E., at the station nf the Royal Engineers at New Westminster, B.C, in the year 1862."
It appears temps actually dropped to -19C rather than -27C (was measured at ground level rather than further up) on January 15th. However, this observation was taken at 9:30am. As we know mins are normally achieved about 1-2hrs prior to this. So to speculate, the temp could have easily hit -23C just a couple hours prior at around 7:30am. The high for the day (taken at 3:30pm) was an astonishing -14.4C.
More on the frozen fraser...ice didn't melt until March 11th!
The same paper has more stats for the settlement at Lillooet. January 1862 averaged -13.7C, with an extreme low of -30C and 71.1cm of snow."Ice appeared on the 1st January, 1862, and the river at New Westminster was unnavigable on the 4th; it was completely frozen over on the 9th, and the ice attained a thickness of 13 inches in the channel opposite the R. E. Camp, on the 12th of February. Sleighs were running from Langley to several miles below New Westminster, and persons walked from Hope to the latter place, a distance of 80 miles, on the ice, at the end of January. Lake Harrison and the other Lakes were frozen. Navigation from New Westminster was open to the mouth of the river on the 11th of March, and from Yale on the 12th April.
