In the mid 70's, I can remember delivering papers when temps were below zero, without the wind chill. IIRC, one time it lasted about a week, warmed up to almost freezing for a week and then dropped to below zero for almost another week.
I remember in the 80's, puting a heater under my car, a number of times, so that I could start it in the morning.
Extreme weather can happen just about anywhere. Toronto usually has pretty mild winters (-5C/23F) but in 1997 we went more than a month where it never went above -15C/5F.
I remember days like that too. Every winter we got a few days of -25 to -30 F temps. It was normal. I would get up at about 3 am to start my car so that it would start at 7:30 am.