North-central Montana cold spot in the nation

Along with some locally record-setting snow over the weekend, this part of the nation caught some nationally recognized cold Sunday and Monday.

The snow that fell early last week let up for a couple of days of warmer weather Friday and Saturday — after highs in the teens and lows below zero in the middle of the week — with a high in Havre of 50 Friday and of 54 Saturday.

Then the temperature dropped again, with Havre’s low Saturday at 20 degrees.

While snow fell Saturday and Sunday during the day, the temperatures did not drop significantly — the high Sunday was 20 — but when the snow let up and the skies cleared late Sunday, they plummeted.

The low in Havre was minus 18 degrees, recorded at 11:59 p.m., and Monday was minus 18, recorded at 12:11 a.m., both setting new records for Havre. Havre’s high Monday was minus 3.

Havre’s previous low on Nov. 11 was minus 16 set in 1911 and of minus 17 on Nov. 10, set in 1911.

But other areas in the region eclipsed Havre’s lows.

The National Weather Service listing for the national high and low temperature listed the Port of Morgan north of Malta as the coldest in the nation Sunday at 1 a.m. with minus 3 degrees.

The cold drifted south, and the next listing, at 7 a.m. Sunday, was for Malta at minus 24 degrees.

But the coldest spot in the nation a little later was some 120 miles west — at 1 a.m. Monday, the pages listed a recording station 21 miles north of Rudyard showed minus 30 degrees. That temperature was listed as the coldest in the nation again at 7 a.m. 21 miles north of Rudyard.

The page officially listed the site north of Rudyard as the coldest spot in the nation for Monday.

The latest listing on the page was for Skibo, Minnesota, which had minus 16 at 7 a.m. today.

The forecast for this region the rest of the week predicts a chance of snow mixed with freezing rain late this afternoon, with more more snow tonight.

The forecast calls for mostly coldy to partly or mostly sunny through Saturday, with highs in the 30s through Thursday and drifting up into the 40s for the weekend.