Distinctly Montana Magazine

26 D I S T I N C T LY M O N TA N A M A G A Z I N E • W I N T E R 2 0 2 4 - 2 5 tremely cold weather? Ralph Waldt, the author of Crown of the Continent, provides richly detailed insights on this matter. While he was encamped at an alpine lake in a remote portion of Glacier National Park, the tempera- ture plunged from 34°F to -35°F in eight hours. Awestruck, Waldt listened intent- ly to the "phenomenal symphony" of sounds produced as ice formed rapidly over the lake's surface. "The ice groaned, squealed, popped [and moaned. It literally] sang its way across that wild, pure-watered lake." Ice formation also created "deep, high-pitched, undulating sounds, powerful, vibrating expansion cracks, [indeed] an extraordinary array of sound that can only be de- scribed as extraterrestrial." Powerful winds batter the Rocky Mountain Front from November through February. According to Karl Puckett, a columnist for the Great Falls Tribune, wind speeds in this area exceeded 75 mph on 80 different oc- casions during the 2011-2012 season, with gusts surpassing 100 mph on 11 instances. The state record, a 143-mph gust, was clocked on February 21, 2002, at the Miller Colony, located 10 miles northwest of Choteau. Chinook winds provide a welcome respite from the bitterly cold winter weather for which Montana is his- torically renowned. Generated when westerlies, then devoid of moisture, crest the Continental Divide, Chi- nooks are channeled down through mountain passes onto the high plains, thereby warming air at the rate of ap- proximately 5.5°F per thousand feet of elevation loss. Chinook conditions can persist for days, but their onset is often marked by incredibly swift tem- perature changes. According to Christopher Burt, author of Extreme Weather, the tem- perature at Kipp, Montana, rose 80°F in roughly 15 hours on December 1, NWS COOP observer Jim Wood and his instrument shelter at Loma, Montana, where the famous (and officially investigated) world-record 103°F change of temperature occurred on January 14-15, 1972. At that time, Mr. Wood was unaware of the significance of his observation. COURTESY NWS/GREAT FALLS

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