The following is a guest post from local weather enthusiast Lee Warnick.
Record-Breaking Cold
Rexburg old-timers may find this hard to believe. However, the 8°-below-zero low temperature yesterday and the 10°-below this morning are both records for these dates. The accompanying light breezes have given us wind chills as low as 23°-below.
Yesterday’s high was only 21°, a few degrees from a daily record, and today’s predicted high is just 22°. These temps are about 15 degrees below normal. With tonight’s predicted low of 7°-below, this will become the longest zero-or-below spell in late February in 10 years.
By the end of February average highs reach near 40°, so we typically see our snow cover start to melt more consistently after Valentine’s Day. Not so this year. Once the snow stopped in earnest about two weeks ago, the cold moved right in. Most of our snow mountains are still there, right where we left them.
There won’t be much change in the next week: Temps might barely nose above 32° Saturday and Sunday, but otherwise are predicted to stay solidly below freezing.
For you weather nerds, yes, we are in a mild temp inversion. Pressures are very high (30.53 right now), steam from the plants on the north side of town are not rising much vertically, and temps in much-more-frigid West Yellowstone are running 5°-10° degrees warmer than here. The temps at my home station, a mere 250 feet in elevation above the official airport station, have been running about 5 degrees warmer. That’s an inversion!