We've Got The County Covered
We've Got The County Covered
The piles of snow created from cleaning the post office parking lot in Chinook have been removed several times this winter. The piles soon begin to grow again, at times creating traffic problems where space is lost to the snow piles.
This photo looks north on Indiana Street in Chinook with some of the Lohman Block stores to the left. Note the snow piled to the right along the sidewalk and parallel to the street. This photo was taken on April 1, 1938. As folks are so prone to say this winter, "It could be worse...." Certainly in April, 1938, it was worse.
Workmen have been removing snow from Chinook streets and parking lots and hauling it to the northwest corner of the Blaine County Fairgrounds. The piles of snow cover several acres and are looking a bit like a new chain of mountains. With one of the snowiest winters on record, the piles of snow are likely to grow larger before spring begins to get rid of them..
One month ago I wrote a story for the paper titled "Finally, warmer weather allows locals to 'dig out.'" Readers may recall we had a brief warmup in mid-January, of a couple of days, and snow removal and clean up began in earnest. Before my story about the warm up could run in the paper, the bottom fell out as far as weather and we plunged back into frigid temperatures and more snow, snow and snow ad nauseum. I had to scrap that story and hope for another warmup.
The recent spring-like day on Valentine's Day was a needed break in an otherwise very harsh winter. Sure, it never got much above freezing but even the wind, though biting, had a bit of that reminiscent feel we could recall from early springs of bygone days. Puddles of melting snow were actually welcome sights.
So, how much snow have we gotten?
While exact amounts of snow are hard to measure because of drifting and the variation among locations, the National Weather Service (NWS) says this winter in north central Montana is one of the snowiest starts to winter in many years. Jason Anglin, a NWS meteorologist in Great Falls, said weather records have been kept for the Havre area since 1880 and this winter, so far, is breaking records.
The closest 'official' measuring of snow for our area is from the NWS station located at the Havre airport. The snowfall for December, 2017, was recorded at 18.6 inches compared to a normal December snowfall of 7.2 inches in the Havre area. And the snow just coming at us. Anglin said, "Measuring snow from October 1 to February 12 the Havre weather station recorded 70 inches of snow for this winter. That's four feet above the average for the to-date winter period." The previous record-to-date was 68.5 inches of snow, a record set in 1977.
Interestingly, the temperatures for the October to December period this year averaged 31.2, less than a degree below the normal temperatures for that time period. Winter made up for those early winter months when average temperatures were still in play. Significantly colder temps for January, and thus far into February, are running several degrees below normal.
Local weather observers (COOP)
In addition to the weather data gathering station in the Havre area, the NWS also relies on its NWS-partners in the Cooperative Observer Program (COOP) to record weather around Blaine County. The COOP is a group of 10,000 volunteers, nationwide, who gather and send weather information to the national service. Here's what some of the local weather observers are saying about this 2017-2018 winter season.
Patty Quisno has participated as a NWS weather observer for about 20 years. She lives midway between Hays and Harlem on the Fort Belknap Reservation. Asked about snowfall measurements through January this year in her area, she said, "The Weather Service sends observers all sorts of devices to measure temperature, precipitation and snowfall. From a practical standpoint I don't try to measure snowfall because the wind causes so much variation in snow depth that for me to measure is meaningless." She does have a way to capture snow to melt and measure it as precipitation.
Quisno offered a guess about snowfall amounts so far this season through early January, saying, "I'd guess at about two to two and a half feet out here." She said the drifting snow made feeding her animals very difficult and noted, "after a couple of trips through waist-deep snow to feed I'm basically worn out." She recorded one other interesting piece of data for this winter season. On New Years Eve she recorded -35.8 degrees adding, "the temperatures were really up and down that night, like the wind was blowing cold air, then blowing even colder air around."
Down in the Bear Paws, at Doug and Joanne Mitchell's NWS cooperative observer point, Joanne said in January, "There's no reliable way to measure snowfall in this country. I can tell you we have some very deep drifts and Doug has to use a four-wheel drive tractor to get around." She estimated the area where they live had received about a foot of snow through the beginning of January.
Snow kept falling through January and February and folks scramble to clean up the snow whenever there's a break in the weather. Just recently a story appeared in a national publication noting that "ice dams are forming and could cause some flooding problems in certain areas." Hopefully that kind of warm up with accompanying flooding is not imminent in Blaine County. An old timer from the area observed, "We really don't need a Chinook wind right now. That would melt a lot of this snow which would refreeze and create a giant ice pond."
Despite the brief warmup, the danger from cold is still present. After two deaths related to cold weather in the county this year, a notice from the Blaine County Sheriff/Coroner's Office reminded, "...be vigilant and check on family or friends that may be living in non-traditional or temperature sensitive living arrangements when the outside temperatures are so cold." The recent "Valentine's Day was a welcome break but keep in mind there is still a lot of winter ahead of us.
