Late fall’s balmy weather turns cold as winter asserts itself

By Reed Anfinson
Publisher
Hard to believe that last Wednesday golfers were playing their last round at the Benson Golf Course with the high reaching 54 degrees.
Just five days later, early Monday morning, the wind chill was a dangerous 28 below zero as the temperature fell to a minus 2 degrees with the winds gusting to 37 mph out of the north. Monday’s low was a minus 4 degrees in the early evening as the winds died down.
While our highs now average 29 degrees and the lows 12 degrees, the record highs have reached close to 60 degrees and the record lows have fallen to a minus 22 degrees. Monday morning’s low was a minus 2 degrees. It was the first below zero temperature of the winter season.
The date on which the area sees its first below low fluctuates greatly. Over the past decade, the first minus temperature has come as early as Nov. 12 and as late as Dec. 23.
The record of the latest below zero date of the winter season was set in 1953-1954 when a minus temperature wasn’t recorded until Jan. 2, 1954, There were no below zero temperatures in November or December. But January that year saw 22 days with below zero temperatures with a low of minus 33 Jan. 21.
The only other year in which there were no below zero temperatures in December was 1959. However, that year the temperature fell below zero three times in November.
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