SEEING IN TOTAL BLACKNESS WHEN IT IS BELOW 35 DEGREES F

I believe if you look up (using Google or Wiki) the term refraction or heat refraction you might gain a better understanding of what you're visualizing. The heat (not the light) emitted causes the atmosphere or ambient surroundings to appear to 'wiggle' thus causing a fuzzy or distorted appearance.

For more info, see the following excerpt:
http://www.infoplease.com/dk/science/encyclopedia/refraction.html

BTW, if it were truly total blackness, you'd see nothing! You're probably seeing a limited amount of light. If it appears to be coming from behind you, then it's probably being reflected back at you from somewhere. Your eyes (look up rods and cones ...parts of the cornea) take 5 minutes or more to get used to the dim available light and can 'see' better with using that limited amount of light. When it's cold, you are not being light polluted. If you look away from those heat sources like cities, homes, cars, exhausts and other sundry heat sources.

in this accurance we experimented in an ice cave 3/4 of a mile underground.
we found a spot where night vission and infrared scopes could see nothing without eluminators my companions then left me in the dark taking all equipment with them leaving me notes writtel in different color inks
i could see quite fine under these zero light conditions and all immages were sharp and un destorted
i only started to have some difficulty when the temprature of the cave rose above 35 degrees
we also experimented in a totally sealed container inside a dark building with the same results in every instance i could see clearly when my eyes were directly exposed to tempratures below 35 degrees

I can only assume it had to do with moisture and obviously as you drop below 35 deg, you reach the freezing temp of water. Whether or not it was the moisture in your eyeballs or ambient room moisture (or both) is beyond my grasp. water molecules may refract light less when freezing temp of water is reached, but the effect of all this is pure guessing on my part.

I suggest you research more on the physiology of vision and the effects of rods and cones of the cornea.