Deep freeze delivers record lows to Flathead Valley
A resident of Third Avenue East shovels snow on Thursday, Jan. 11. (Casey Kreider/Daily Inter Lake)
Casey Kreider
Saturday morning brought the kind of bitter cold to the Flathead Valley that saps car batteries, freezes pipes and takes your breath away.
Temperature readings in Kalispell crashed to record lows as an impressive arctic air mass settled deep into the Northern Rockies.
According to National Weather Service data, Kalispell residents awoke Saturday to a bone-chilling temperature of minus 35, smashing the previous record low for Jan. 13 of minus 24 set in 1972. En route to Saturday’s low, Kalispell also set a daily record low Friday night at minus 29.
The official weather station at Glacier Park International Airport bottomed out at minus 33 on Saturday at 7:55 a.m.
The temperature reading for Whitefish on Saturday registered at minus 36 at 7:45 a.m., while the Creston area plummeted to minus 39 at 8:15 a.m.
Polebridge took top honors as the cold spot for all of Western Montana. The outpost on the northwest border of Glacier National Park dipped to minus 49 on Saturday at 2:15 a.m. In Lincoln County, Libby registered minus 38 at 7:15 a.m.
While certainly brisk, this week’s arctic outbreak failed to meet all-time historic lows for Montana.
Kalispell’s all-time low is minus 38. The lowest all-time temperature for Western Montana is minus 53 set at Seeley Lake on Jan. 7, 1937. The all-time low for the state is minus 70 at Rogers Pass set on Jan. 20, 1954.
Dangerous wind chills were a major factor during the day Friday as remnants of Thursday’s blizzard lingered.
The summit of Big Mountain was no place for human life. The weather station at 6,737 feet recorded a wind chill of minus 68, prompting officials at Whitefish Mountain Resort to close for the day. The resort reopened Saturday without upper mountain access.
The National Weather Services warned that dangerous wind chills are expected to return Sunday morning until winds subside again during the afternoon. Sunday’s temperature was forecast to top off at 2 and dip to about minus 18 overnight. Wind chills near minus 30 are possible for Columbia Falls and Whitefish on Sunday.
The arctic outbreak finally begins to moderate Monday as a wave of Pacific precipitation moves into Western Montana. Snow is likely Tuesday night into Wednesday for the Flathead Valley, with temperatures soaring into the teens and single digits.