70 Years Ago

While perusing the Montana Historical Society’s excellent quarterly publication, we came across an article about the terrible weather across much of the West and Northern Plains in 1949. Looking back through early 1949 issues of the Examiner, we discovered articles on the storms and how the winter was dealt with by the local populace. We will include snippets from that time period over the next few weeks.

January 28, 1949

Thirty-Nine Degrees Below Zero Recorded Here on the 25th. Sixteen of First 25 Days in January Had Readings of Zero Below

Sixteen of the first 25 days of January had thermometer readings of zero or below zero. Only one day of the first 25 days was the minimum temperature above freezing, the 7th when the minimum was 33 degrees.

Coldest recorded reading was the 25th when the mercury slunk to the low of minus 39 degrees. The low reading on the 24th was minus 35 degrees and on the 21st was minus 31 degrees.

Snow on the level measured 11 inches at the Broadus weather bureau station on the 25th. Total precipitation for the first 25 days of the month was 1.37 inches according to weather observers Fred Edwards and Jay Meade.

Highest temperature reading was on January 7 when the thermometer climbed to 46 degrees. There were seven of the first 25 days of the month when the maximum reading of the thermometer was below zero.

According to the weather observers at the Broadus weather bureau station this is the coldest month recorded at the local station since the records were started in December 1936. There is also more snow at this time of the year since the winter of 1935-36.

Snow has fallen in measurable quantities of 11 of the first 25 days of January. In most instances the snowfall came during periods of high velocity winds with the result that the snow is packed into huge drifts.

The storm over the last weekend which was heralded as the grand daddy of them all lived up to all of the predictions. Fine snow driven by 25 and 30 mile an hour winds from the north and northwest at temperatures that never rose above 12 degrees below zero gave this section an Arctic appearance.

Ranchers are making heroic efforts to feed their livestock and only small losses have been recorded to date. If the severest winter in modern history does not abate within a short time, the livestock losses locally will be tremendous.