Measuring Temperatures

We measured the rise in temperature several times today and took an average. We sat the kitchen thermometer in the snow and the needle dropped down as far as it could..we guess that it must have been somewhere in the thirtys. We timed it until it reached 250 degrees. The average was 42 seconds. The highest temperature we got was off the scale. Our oven thermometer only goes to 500 degrees and the needle went beyond that point.