Hi There ! 
 
1.  I need to find the coolest town in each of these states:
 
Texas 
Oklahoma 
Louisiana 
Arkansas 
Tennessee 
Alabama 
Georgia 
South Carolina 
North Carolina
Mississippi
 

2.  Any temperature metric (or even anecdotal evidence) would be fine
with me.  Accuracy and hard data are not crucial.  I just need a
general idea of the mildest regions.

3.  The goal is to find a place in the South with cool weather in the
summer months.


4.  I would imagine the coolest town in each state would be at a high
elevation (e.g., Asheville, North Carolina or Beech Mountain,
Alabama).  But that is just a hunch. 
 
All comments greatly appreciated ! 
 
ron

Hello nronronronro-ga:

It was a pleasure to answer such an interesting question. Sorry! I
myself got immersed in the data and statistical records.

Here what I did to locate the information that you needed. First, I
checked the weather extremes for each state so that it would give me a
general idea of the coldest ever temperature recorded in a particular
state and the name of the station. SINCE, we cannot imply from the
coldest weather ever recorded at a certain station that the station is
the coldest in the state. Therefore, for the sake of curiosity, I
found a source that provided me what we needed. The information
provided a very comprehensive data for the number of cold days on more
than 5500 stations, starting from the year 1971.

Before providing you the sources so you can check for yourself, here
is the answer to your question:

Texas: Coldest ever recorded was at Seminole (3275 feet) on Feb 8, 1933 at -23 F.
Coldest Towns/Station: (by number of days at base 40F after 1971)

Perryton (872)
Dalhart (865)
Lipscomb (857)
Follett (824)
Gruver (815)

Record Holder Seminole is (209) 
____________________________________________

Oklahoma: Coldest ever recorded was at Watts (958 feet) on Jan 18, 1930 at -27 F.
Coldest Towns/Station: (by number of days at base 40F after 1971)

Turpin (916)
Newkirk (906)

Record Holder Watts: Not Available
_____________________________________________________

Louisiana: Coldest ever recorded was at Minden (194 feet) on Feb 13, 1899 at -16 F.
Coldest Towns/Station: (by number of days at base 40F after 1971)

Lake Providence (209)
Plain Dealing (202)
Homer (200)
Cotton Valley (200)

Record Holder Minden is (163)
___________________________________________________

Arkansas: Coldest ever recorded was at Pond (1250 feet) on Feb 13, 1905 at -29 F.
Coldest Towns/Station: (by number of days at base 40F after 1971)

Bentonville (767)
Lead Hill (767)
Mountain Home (740)
Mammoth Spring (728)

Record Holder Pond: Not Available
____________________________________________________

Tennessee: Coldest ever recorded was at Mountain City (2471 feet) on
Dec 30, 1917 at    -32 F.
Coldest Towns/Station: (by number of days at base 40F after 1971)

Mt. Leconte (1832)
Mountain City (944)

Record Holder Mountain City is (944)
_______________________________________________

Alabama: Coldest ever recorded was at New Market (760 feet) on Jan 30,
1966 at -27 F.
Coldest Towns/Station: (by number of days at base 40F after 1971)

Valley Head (504)

Record Holder New Market: Not Available
_______________________________________________

Georgia: Coldest ever recorded was at North Floyd County (1000 feet)
on Jan 27, 1940 at -17 F.
Coldest Towns/Station: (by number of days at base 40F after 1971)

Blairsville Exp (595)

Record Holder North Floyd County: Not Available
_________________________________________________

South Carolina:   Coldest ever recorded was at Caesars Head (3,100
feet) on Jan 21, 1985 at -19 F.
Coldest Towns/Station: (by number of days at base 40F after 1971)

Caesars Head (620)

Record Holder Caesars Head is (620)
__________________________________________________

North Carolina: Coldest ever recorded was at Mt. Mitchell (6525 feet)
on Jan 21, 1985 at -34 F.
Coldest Towns/Station: (by number of days at base 40F after 1971)

Mount Mitchell (1660)
Grandfather Mou. (1640)

Record Holder Mount Mitchell is (1660)
____________________________________________________

Mississippi: Coldest ever recorded was at Corinth (420 feet) on Jan
30, 1966 at -19 F.
Coldest Towns/Station: (by number of days at base 40F after 1971)

Iuka (527)
Holly Springs (490)

Record Holder Corinth is (320)
______________________________________________________

Here are the resources:

NCDC Base Station Monthly Average: (More than 5500 stations)
http://www5.ncdc.noaa.gov/climatenormals/clim81_supp/CLIM81_Sup_02.pdf

Derived from this page:
http://www5.ncdc.noaa.gov/cgi-bin/climatenormals/climatenormals.pl

***** It might be a little complicated at first to understand the
data. For simplification purposes just read the left hand side column
for Heating Base F and neglect the Right hand side column of Cooling
Base F. To estimate the number of days at any base temperature (40F in
our case), read the figures underneath 40F.

----------------

Coldest ever temperatures:
USA TODAY
http://www.usatoday.com/weather/wcstates.htm
NCDC
http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/oa/pub/data/special/mintemps.pdf

_____________________________________________________

I hope this will help. Please clarify, if you are not satisfied with
my answer or seek further information. I will be obliged to serve your
needs.

Sincerely,
Leader-ga.

Wowie Zowie!   
leader, you are a credit to your species.

Thank you!!!
ron