Cold, Colder, Coldest

If there's one thing Montanans seem to love, it's bragging about how cold their town got during a cold snap. Maybe it's pride in being able to deal with extreme cold; maybe it's due to the old idea that "40 below keeps the riff raff out;" or maybe its because record cold temperatures often make both state and national headlines, as Lincoln did on Dec. 22, 2022. It hit minus 49 at the Lincoln Ranger Station weather site and broke the previous local records of 48 below, set first on Jan. 3, 1950, and matched Dec. 9, 1990.

Although that was reported as a "once in a generation" cold snap, was no match for the weekend of Jan 12-13, when low temperatures made the news as records fell across the state. Yet it wasn't widely reported that Lincoln not only beat but shattered its previous record.

At 4 a.m. Saturday, Jan. 13, the Lincoln Ranger Station Remote Automatic Weather Stations saw the temperature dip to 50 below. By 6 a.m. it hit an official record low of minus 53. And it stayed at that temperature for at least three hours, before edging up to 52 below at 9 a.m.

The extreme cold prompted many Lincoln businesses to close for the day , wth a few staying closed through the weekend.

The record low reading was just one degree warmer than the 54 below reading at Chester, which was widely reported as the coldest in the contiguous US. for that date.

There is some room to argue Lincoln really should have taken the title on that day. Not only did the temperature stay at 53 below for several hours, it was recorded at a recognized weather station. In response to a post on the Conquer the Storm Facebook page, meteorologist Ryan Dennis explained that Lincoln's reading came from a recognized weather station, making it an official reading. Meanwhile the Chester reading came from a co-op observer using equipment approved by the National Weather Service. Not technically "official," but it is considered a trusted reading.

Residents from other parts of the state such as the Dillon area reported temperatures as low as minus 58, but those reading came from personal thermometers and aren't recognized as either official or trusted readings.

Seventy years ago, the Upper Blackfoot Valley took the title as home to the record cold spot in the nation Jan. 20, 1954, with a reading of minus 70 degrees Fahrenheit at the 4K's mine near Rogers Pass. Although Alaskan statehood five years later shifted that paradigm, it's a record that something that has yet to be bested in the lower 48 states. West Yellowstone was the previous record holder for the nations cold spot with a minus 66 degree reading on Feb. 3, 1933. and holds a record January low of 60 below.