Hi-Line no timeline for winter

Digging deeper into National Weather Service records, the Havre Daily News found that recent summertime snow and frost not only wasn't a record for early cold weather, it wasn't even close.

Snow fell in the Bear Paw Mountains and on the Hi-Line west of Havre Sept 10, and temperatures in Havre dropped below 32 degrees Fahrenheit Sept. 12 with a morning low of 28 degrees fahrenheit.

Not only did those not break records - the record low for Havre Sept. 12 was 23 degrees in 1889 and 1999 - seeing cold Sept. 10 is months late for the Hi-Line.

Weather Service reports that Chester recorded a freeze one year on Independence Day, July 4, 1971. Havre's record is a bit later, with 31 degrees reported July 28, 1892.

And, as often happens on the Hi-Line, the region returned to summer weather the week after the snow and that continued through Festival Days last week and into this week, with a high of 90 predicted Wednesday.

The warm and generally sunny weather was well above the norm following the freeze, with lows warmer than the high of 42 degrees Sept. 10. But they still are not records with highs in the 80s 10 to 15 degrees cooler than the records.

In Havre, residents now are at the time of the normal first frost. The average date for first frost here, from the temperatures from 1981 to 2010, is Sept. 21, although many early frosts have hit, with 27 degrees recorded Aug. 25, 1910, and Sept. 6 seeing 28 degrees in 1992 and 32 degrees in 1983.

Similar dates pop up along the Hi-Line. Chinook recorded a frost Aug. 22, 1928, and another Aug. 25, 1992. It's average first-frost date is Sept. 16.

Farther west, along with its Independence Day frost, Chester saw a frost Aug. 12, 1987. That community's average first frost is Sept. 16.