We’ve all gotten a pretty good dose of frigid weather all across Wyoming in the last few days with temperatures plunging to 20 or 30 degrees below zero (without any wind).
Those temperatures don’t rival the coldest temperature of 66 below recorded on Feb. 9, 1933, at the Riverside Ranger Station just west of Yellowstone.
And they also aren’t as bad as Wyoming residents endured 120 years ago. In February 1905, Arctic air flowed south like we had this past few days, though the cold then seemed to have been of longer duration.
One early report in the Converse County Herald, Feb. 2, 1905, included these notes.
“Old King Winter is getting in some mighty hard knocks now.”
“Stockmen should keep a stiff upper lip during this cold and snowy weather and take good care of them as it is the first real bad spell we have had this winter.”
And the newspaper added, “The past week regular Klondike weather has been toying with our whiskers. It has snowed a little every day and there are now several inches on the ground. Very little wind accompanied it therefore a good deal of it is on the level, thus covering up the feed to a great extent and interfering with stock grazing on the range. … To make matters all the worse it has been steadily cold, the thermometer registered 15 degrees below zero Tuesday night and last night she went 10 below.”
That was just a taste of what was to come.
On February 13, 1905, the Laramie Republican touted the cold under the headline “Laramie Plain Gets Touch of Meteorological Stunts.”
Having a little fun with the story, the paper’s writer, who in keeping with the practice of the times was not identified, laid out the weather this way:
“The report that it was 49 below at Sherman hill the night before was not permitted to go unchallenged, and the banana belt, noted for records in the matter of meteorological conditions, made a new record that cut the life out of the little touch of winter felt on Sherman hill.
“’This cold enough for you?’ inquired the anxious citizen, dodging in time to avoid an angry kick.
“’But ‘I’ve seen it colder.’
“’Never.’
“’Betcher the drinks.’
“’Go ye.’
“And the two repaired to a fountain and quaffed the drinks in advance.”
The article continued that the high temperature for the day remained at 13 to 18 below zero, “In many places in the warmest part of the day.”
A day earlier, on Feb. 12, the Cheyenne Daily Leader, had reported on the cold weather across the region. “Eighteen degrees below zero was the highest temperature registered in Cheyenne yesterday. Wouldn’t that frost you?”
The low in Cheyenne on unofficial thermometers “registered between 27 and 28 degrees below zero. This temperature was recorded at 5:30 o’clock.”
The Daily Leader added, “The cold wave is the most severe of the season in the Rocky Mountain region. Snows are general in Iowa, the Dakotas, Nebraska, Kansas, Colorado and Utah.”
That makes me wonder, did Montana not have the cold weather, or did Cheyenne not care about the state to our north.
In that wave of cold weather, some of the most extreme weather was recorded by the Grand Encampment Herald in a story published on Feb. 17, 1905. The complete Herald report is included below.
44 DEGREES BELOW
Cold Wave Visited the North Platte Valley over Sunday
The coldest cold snap that has struck Encampment and the North Platte valley for many a year paid a short visit Saturday, Sunday and Monday.
The thermometer had a sinking spell Saturday afternoon, when it fell down about ten or twelve flights of registers and all efforts to revive it were in vain. By Sunday morning, the pulse of the temperature was so low that a majority of thermometers had gone the limit and had given up the chase.
"My thermometer quit at 45 degrees below," declared Jake Wagoner, "it having done the best it could to indicate the condition of the weather. So I judge that it was at least 46 below, allowing one degree for the bulb.”
The thermometer at Parkinson’s store registered 44 below shortly after daylight Sunday morning. Lordier's thermometer said the same. The small thermometers were put out of business.
At Saratoga, thermometers registered as low as 55 and 56 below. At Wombaker's ranch in the south fork canyon the thermometer said 34 below.
The degrees below zero doubled from six o'clock Saturday night until six o'clock Sunday morning, the number being 22 and 44 respectively.
All day Sunday the weather lingered around the zero mark and much lower at times, being 17 below at noon. Monday morning dawned equally as cold as Sunday. The weather gradually moderated however and since Tuesday the weather has been normal for February.
Water pipes suffered during the cold snap in residences where pipes were not protected, the whole water system was put out of business, while pipes burst here and there about town, causing great inconvenience and much expense.
If Encampment has one or two more of these attacks the Herald is going to quit talking so much about the ideal winter weather.
Back to the Present
The temperatures across the area over the recent Martin Luther King holiday weekend, don’t rival those of 1905, though the cold is expected to linger for at least a few more days, and some areas are not expected to get above freezing until perhaps Friday, so bundle up. And I’ll go throw another log on the fire.
Correcting the Record
In last week’s column I wrote about the Dinosaur trail in Montana and incorrectly identified Bynum’s Montana Dinosaur Center by referring to it by its former name, the Two Medicine Dinosaur Center. For more information about the center visit www.tmdinosaurcenter.org
Candy Moulton can be reached at Candy.L.Moulton@gmail.com
