At a Glance
- Temperatures have remained below zero more than a week in North Dakota and Montana.
- Those streaks rank among some of the longest on record, but are not record breaking.
Many locations east of the Rockies saw temperatures trend milder after the polar-vortex driven cold outbreak in late-January, but one region of the country has remained in a deep freeze.
Temperatures in parts of the Dakotas and Montana have been frigid through the first 10 days of February, with subzero cold persisting for nearly 200 hours, or more than 8 days, in some locations.
Minot, North Dakota, endured a stretch of eight days with temperatures below zero, from 6 a.m. CST on Feb. 3 to late Monday morning when it finally hit 0 degrees.
Although that’s impressive, the week-plus stretch of extreme cold still falls well short of the city’s record for consecutive days below zero. Minot went 15 days straight with subzero temperatures in February 1936.