Kalispell sets record low temp on Monday

Dead batteries. Frozen pipes. Aching fingers. Wind-burned faces. Breath riming eyebrows white.

The usual meteorological miseries associated with arctic cold fronts continued Monday in the region as the weather version of March madness continued.

Kalispell nailed a record low for Monday, March 4, with a temperature of 20 degrees below zero. The previous was minus 16, set in 1966. The record low for the month of March in Kalispell, set in 1960, is 29 below, according to the National Weather Service.

Eureka experienced a low Sunday of minus 23, unofficially setting a record for both the day and the month, and minus 20 on Monday, unofficially setting a record for the day.

Hungry Horse reported a low Monday of 19 degrees below zero and the low there Sunday was 24 below.

Jeff Kitsmiller, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service, said a low pressure system to the west has set the stage for the arctic cold to cross the Continental Divide from the east and linger in the region.

He said the forecast suggests regional temperatures will begin to warm Wednesday, with highs expected to reach the mid-to-upper 30s on Thursday. But even that is lower than normal for the region for March, he said.

Whitefish Mountain Resort shut down access to the summit of Big Mountain on Saturday because of the bitter cold, delayed the opening of some lifts and a T-bar on Sunday and then operated normally on Monday, the resort said.

Records were toppled elsewhere in Montana, too, on Monday.?Bozeman saw minus 35, breaking the 1989 record of minus 31. Seeley Lake’s Monday low of minus 30 broke a 1989 record of minus 24, and Butte recorded minus 30, breaking a 1989 record of minus 25.

The spring equinox will be March 20.