The cold's intensity and duration was unlike anything seen in decades in the Lower 48.
Temperatures compared with normal numbers in February. By Ian Livingston Ian Livingston Email Bio Follow March 11 at 2:32 PM There’s a kind of cold that’s legitimately dangerous. It can cause frostbite to exposed skin in minutes. In parts of the Lower 48 states, such extreme cold is not uncommon for a few days to at most a week.
The February temperature departures from normal were stunning. Several major climate locations averaged 27 to 28 degrees below normal, the most extreme departures in the Lower 48 for a full month since January 1969, according to Alaska-based climatologist Brian Brettschneider.An entire week that shapes up 27-28° below normal? That's an extremely cold week.
The punishing and unrelenting cold continued into March. On March 3, the low temperature tanked to a bone-chilling minus-32 in Great Falls. Combined with a high of minus-8, the day finished a whopping 50 degrees below normal. The city concluded its longest stretch on record below freezing on Thursday.
While the cold in February was remarkable for its persistence, the brutal Arctic blast to begin March delivered the most intensity. Almost two dozen official stations in Montana broke monthly records during the early-month Arctic invasion, with widespread readings in the minus-30s to minus-40s. Comparing unusual temperatures in Great Falls, Mont., to others in modern U.S. history. “There are 0.00041% of obs[ervations] in the contiguous United States that have been colder,” Lillo said. That’s 0.00041 percent of more than 30 million days of observations. In other words, it was an exceptionally rare and exceptionally cold 30 days.
Persistent high pressure ridge over Alaska will continue to force Arctic air into western Canada and cold into the East this week. After the 10th, the Alaska ridge breaks down, allowing more Pacific air to spread east. pic.twitter.com/SWwaNvf32I
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