Definition
An airport designated by the FAA as requiring an altitude correction by the pilot when the reported surface temperature is at or below a published cold-temperature restriction. At these airports, very cold air causes the altimeter to indicate higher than the aircraft is actually flying, so pilots must add a calculated correction to certain published altitudes on an instrument approach to maintain required obstacle clearance.
Plain English
An airport on an FAA list where the air can get cold enough that your altimeter lies to you — it shows you higher than you really are. At these airports, when it's that cold, you have to add extra feet to certain approach altitudes so you don't end up lower than the chart intended.
Context Anchor
Seen on instrument approach charts, chart notes, and FAA cold-temperature airport lists, often with a snowflake symbol and a limiting temperature.
Why Pilots Care
Without the correction the aircraft can be hundreds of feet lower than the altimeter shows, raising the risk of controlled flight into terrain on approaches.
Grounding Statement
In very cold air, the altimeter can make it look like you have more vertical clearance than you actually have.
Intuition Check
Do not read this as simply “an airport where it is cold.” A Cold Temperature Airport is a specific FAA-designated airport where published altitude corrections may be required when the temperature is low enough.
Example Sentence 1
Aspen is a cold temperature airport, so when the surface temperature dropped to minus 15 Celsius, the crew applied the published altitude correction on the approach.
Example Sentence 2
At a cold temperature airport the crew flew the corrected decision altitude instead of the published minimums to maintain terrain clearance.