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Questions & Answers about Было ужасно холодно.
Why do we use the neuter form было here instead of masculine or feminine?
This is an impersonal sentence describing a weather condition. In Russian, when there is no grammatical subject performing the action (like "he" or "the wind"), the past tense verb always defaults to the neuter singular form было.
Both ужасно and холодно end in -о. Why aren't we using adjectives here?
In impersonal sentences describing states, the environment, or weather, Russian uses "category of state" words. These are predicative words that look identical to adverbs ending in -о. Since there is no noun in the sentence for an adjective (like холодный) to attach to, we must use the state word холодно, modified by the adverb ужасно.
Does ужасно carry a sense of literal horror here?
No, just like "terribly" or "awfully" in English, ужасно is heavily used in everyday spoken Russian as a simple intensifier. It just means "extremely" and has lost its literal connection to ужас (horror) in contexts like this.
How does the feel of the sentence change if we change the word order to Ужасно холодно было?
Было ужасно холодно is the neutral, standard order. Shifting the verb to the end to make Ужасно холодно было is very common in colloquial, spoken Russian. It gives the sentence a more narrative, reflective tone, as if you are vividly recalling just how cold the experience was.