Hey Charley! How's the Weather in Montana?

Hello Everyone!

Wow, a couple weeks of record-setting heat settling in around us. Of course the talk is all about the weather. It gets a guy to thinking…

Should take the word “drought” out of our vocabulary.

Maybe we should just recognize that for the most part we simply live in a semi-arid climate—and accept it.

Reminds me of an old bloke I encountered while passing through the little cowtown of Meandarra, Queensland, Australia. It’s a wide spot in the road between Brisbane and the middle of the Centre. Meandarra in the late summer of 2006 was mostly red dust, rocks and a few forgotten buildings.

Waiting to get a spare tire fixed in the mid-day heat of around 40c, I looked for some shade and a beer. The stockman seated at the middle of the bar was the only other customer in the pub.

So what do you talk about— especially between a local and a strange Yank? The weather always come up, right?

About three questions into the tight conversation the old guy was getting tired of talking. It ended on my not-so-smartassed query, “Does it ever rain here?”

He just stared blankly at the backbar. Not making eye contact he finally replied.

“Sonny boy... ‘Last good rain I remember was in nineteen-sixty-eight. If you ain’t smart enough to see that we live in a bloody dry country I feel damn sorry for you.”

I rest my case!

Charley Pike 

Recent Conversation:

Charley to a rancher friend: How are things on Sage Creek?

His rancher friend: Moisture’s the hot topic.

Charley: When isn’t moisture the hot topic?

Rancher: Good point.

The Deep Freeze

On February 3, 1954, Richard A. Dightman, state climatologist at the Weather Bureau in Helena, let out a low whistle. Scanning the statewide January weather data he noticed a weather observer near Rogers Pass had recorded a temperature of -68° F on the 20th of the month.

Dightman quickly looked through the books and discovered that -68° could very well be a record low temperature for the continental U.S.

It would break the old national record of -66° that occurred near West Yellowstone on Feb. 9, 1933. But the 1954 measurement had to be verified before it could be official.

H. M. Kleinschmidt, the observer, was asked to send his thermometer to the Weather Bureau’s Instrument Division in Washington, D.C. There it was tested for accuracy.

Kleinschmidt’s instrument performed exactly as the observer described; except the when compared to an index thermometer the mercury was actually at -69.7°—thus setting the official record we talk about today.

So we always hear: “Wow what crazy weather we have in Montana!”

Then we hear, “Just wait five minutes, it’ll change.”

Charley has heard those same comments in Texas, Colorado, Mississippi, Washington, and a host of other locales. Even in the Amazon jungles they say: “Espere alguns minutos e o tempo mudará muito!” Translation: Wait some minutes and the weather changes a lot.

Kind of true. Weather can change at the drop of a hat about anywhere on Earth, right? Charley dug a little deeper into the question about Montana’s lock on crazy weather.

Lo and behold! Montana really does hold the World Heavyweight title for crazy temperature changes—both the fastest rise and the fastest decrease.

But, so as not to get too literal; it’s not exactly five minutes, it’s more like 24-hours—or so.

The Crazy Rise! Loma, Montana 1972

At 9:00 on the morning of January 14, 1972, the temperature in Loma rested at -54° F. But, later in the day and throughout the night downslope chinook winds pushed off the Rocky Mountain Front blowing warmer air east across the plains.

About 8:00 the next morning Jim Wood, Loma’s National Weather Service observer, checked the thermometer is his weather shack and recorded a temperature of 49° above zero. At the time Mr. Wood had no idea of the significance of his observation.

The 103° rise at Loma. Montana is the greatest 24-hour change in temperature ever officially measured on Earth.

The Crazy Drop! Browning, Montana 1916

Once again, Montana holds a world record—for the sharpest drop in temperature—as well as the sharpest increase.

In Browning on January 23-24, 1916, the temperature dropped 100° in less than 24 hours—from 44° to -56°.

In that neck of the woods it’s not uncommon for a cold front to drop down out of Canada and chase the chinook winds back where they came from!

On Christmas Eve in 1924 Fairfield was the site of an 84° drop (from 63° to -21°) in just 12 hours. This is generally credited as the world record drop for any 12-hour period.

Other crazy changes:

• 80° rise in 15 hours: Kipp, December 1, 1896.

• 42° rise in 15 minutes: Fort Assiniboine, January 19, 1893.

• 47° rise in 7 minutes: Great Falls, January 11, 1980.

Around that day January 11, 1980 the Great Falls temperature ultimately rose 82°, from -30° on January 10th to 52° by the 14th, then dropped back to -26° on January 29th.

At the same time in central Montana at Roy the temperature went from -25° near midnight on January 11th to 53° on the afternoon of the 12th—a 78° rise in about 18 hours.

This past January 2024, Lewistown saw record daily cold temperatures on three days: Jan. 12 at -42°, Jan. 13 at -43° and Jan. 15 at -32°.

But, after seeing record cold for several days, the temperatures soared to well above “normal” toward the end of the month, hitting a record high of 65° on Jan. 31. A monthly change of 108°—larger than normal, but not unprecedented.

“A 90-degree spread is not that unusual, although for a spread of 100° or more (in Lewistown) we have to go back to 1919,” said NWS Meteorologist Bob Hoenisch of Great Falls.

So What’s Normal?

A question begs to be asked… If what we see as whacky, crazy weather occurs so frequently, when does it then become normal?

And when healthy or desirable or beneficial weather is not frequent, or predicable, then maybe that type of weather is abnormal!

The weather man tell us about “average” temperatures or precipitation, but averages don’t really tell us much. “Average” is a statistical calculation…

“Normal” is a relative term… a judgement or opinion, more or less.

Like the old story of a guy standing with one foot in a bucket of ice water and the other foot in a bucket of boiling water—on average he ought to feel very comfortable. But, you can bet he’s not feeling very normal!

Okay, okay, okay, that’s getting way too deep for Charley’s cowboy philosophy.

Keep COOL!

###