This recent extended cold streak we had is nothing new to us and although people have been talking about cold it’s been, we’ve seen this before.
Zeeland, in McIntosh County, dropped to 40 below zero first. Then it was Crosby, then Carson and Elgin. And finally, New Hradec, in Dunn County recorded a 47 below zero. Here in the gooseneck of Ward County, our coldest morning was -40, only the second time we’ve seen that in 23 years. Numerous other locations were well within the 30 below range…. without wind chill.
How many of you have witnessed 40 below zero without the wind chill? In some parts of the nation, that’s pretty normal in the depth of winter. I’m talking about the Lake of the Woods region of northern Minnesota, some of the higher elevations, almost all of Alaska and let’s not forget Mount Washington in New Hampshire.
Here in North Dakota, I’d venture to guess that few of the cold temperatures we witnessed were records. In fact, if you think about it the history of North Dakota, some of the coldest temperatures in the state’s history were in the 1880s and 1890s.
The most mild winters in North Dakota have been since 2000, with the exception of 1936. The record cold winter of 1936, most notably Parshall at 60 below zero, was an anomaly. That was 94 years ago and we haven’t seen a winter like that since.
Thank goodness there normally isn’t any wind when the temperatures drop into the 40-below-zero range.
It’s always interesting to point out that strange things begin to happen in nature when it gets that cold. Headlights on your car don’t want to light, tires become “square” from sitting in one position too long, oil becomes solid, trees will begin to randomly split open, the steel rail is so contracted it causes derailments and exposed skin will freeze in a matter of minutes.
It’s also strange how wildlife is seemingly unaffected by extreme cold. If you go out into the bush on a bitter cold day, you’re going to see animals moving about, birds soaring in the air and livestock munching on their rations.
Could there be any benefit from extreme cold? Sometimes we’ll see photographers taking pictures at 40 below or others looking through telescopes. Those people aren’t crazy. There is a rationale for it.
The colder it gets, the less diffusion of light, meaning little or no reflection giving photographers the opportunity to get stunning wildlife shots. It also provides incredible views of the night sky. Why do you think the Aurora Borealis is so striking during the winter?
Of course, one has to have a lot of patience to be out in the cold for that reason. You have to be prepared, you have to be dressed for it; you have to respect nature.
It won’t be long and all the snow on the northern tier is going to be gone and we’ll be walking through the mud, rivers will flood and we’ll get on with our spring planting.
In the meantime, it’s a reminder that we live in what can be a harsh environment, one that can strip us of limbs or life if we aren’t careful.
A recent documentary on TV about a city in Russia was stunning because it typically drops to -70 in the winter. We can’t hardly imagine that but apparently a couple of hundred thousand people live in this city and go about their lives as if they didn’t know any different.
In fact, in that documentary, the film crew visited an open-air fish market, yes, at -70 and as you can imagine, you could hammer a nail with the frozen fish.
I’ve always been fascinated by extreme cold more than I’ve been afraid of it. But, I can’t even imagine experiencing 70 below. Or, maybe it doesn’t even matter when it gets to a certain point. Maybe it’s just a number for statistical purposes.
Our winters have generally been pretty mild lately. This is just a reminder, however, there’s no guarantee we’ll experience a mild winter.
