Low temperatures can have a significant impact on the design and construction of marine and offshore structures as the performance and functions can be severely reduced. Compliance with relevant rules and regulations forms a prerequisite along with the specific design considerations to be taken into account. This paper provides an overview of the influence that the specification of the air temperature has on the materials selection used in design codes and standards. The paper focuses on the standards and the definitions used for the ambient air temperature and contributing parameters. To highlight the impact, analysis of air temperature data is presented for low temperature regions of the Russian Arctic, and observations from application to design standards for ships and offshore structures are provided based on this. From the analysis it is clear that the design temperature needs to be carefully selected to ensure the reliability of fracture toughness of structures.