Lets face it, Montana is not for wimps.  And the winters can be brutal.  Most of you know the all time record low temperature in Montana was set back in 1954 outside Helena where the temp dipped to -70 at Rogers Pass.  And that's without the windchill.  Did you know that is also a record low for the lower 48 states?

View from the top of Snowbowl in Missoula, Montana.
Jared Maynard
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Montana Mountains

View from the top of Snowbowl in Missoula, Montana.

Did you know Montana also holds the record for the largest temperature change ever.  It was Christmas Eve 1924.  In the town of Fairfield the temp went from 63-degrees above at noon to -21 by midnight.

I went diving in to the history books to find some all time record low temps for a few towns in central Montana.  After talking with the national weather service here in Great Falls I quickly learned that February 15, 1936 was an especially brutal winter.  In fact, the all time low ever recorded in Great Falls was -42 on February 15, 1936.  Central Montana low temp records were also recorded on the same day for Cut Bank which sank to -47 and Choteau hit a low on the same day of -50. Much of central Montana recorded 57 straight days of below zero temperatures back in 1936.  According to records,  February of 1936 is still the coldest February on record for the 48 contiguous states.

Cattle
Montana in the winter
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Cattle surviving a Montana winter

Surviving the winter

Here's another Montana record.  Potomac, Montana recorded -33 on October 25, 2020.  This is the coldest ever temperature in the lower 48 for this early in the season.

Two other Montana record lows.  Yellowstone, 1933, -66.  1905 Hebgen Dam,  -60.

ronniechua
ronniechua
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Winter in Montana

White winter landscape against the sun with fluffy clouds in Whitefish, Montana, overlooking Glacier National Park.

It is true,  Montana can be a wicked place in the winter but I think most of us would say, Montana is still the last best place to live regardless of what Mother Nature brings our way.

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