Weather Extremes

For the week of Jan. 20-26, there were 108 weather records either broken or tied. Seventy-eight cold extremes were established. There were only three high-temperature records, two of them in Alaska.

On Jan. 21, Libby, Mont., plunged to 33 below zero . It was 34 below zero at Potomac. Stanley, Idaho, dropped to a record 30 below zero on Jan. 22. It was 23 below at Meacham, Ore., the same day.

The central U.S. was also in the deep freeze last week. On Thursday, Waterloo, Iowa, reported a record 29 below zero, and it hit 26 below the next day. Spencer, Iowa, was 22 below zero on Thursday.

In the Northeast, Caribou, Maine, dipped to a record 29 below zero.

At the National Weather Service in Seattle, record lows were reported five days last week with readings in the 20s.

The only record high temperature in the Lower 48 was at Belgrade, Mont., with a record-tying 50 degrees on Saturday.

There were 10 snowfall records last week. At Salt Lake City, 6.1 inches of snow was measured on the 21st. Waterloo, Iowa, measured a record 5.6 inches on the 22nd. Madison, Wisc., reported 7.2 inches on the 21st.

California put a huge dent in its long drought. On Wednesday, Santa Barbara reported a record 4.16 inches of rain. In San Francisco, 2.54 inches was measured. Long Beach picked up 1.42 inches. Total rainfall last week across parts of Southern California was near or above rainfall totals of the 2006-‘07 season.

Record snows fell across much of the Inland Northwest on Sunday. Some isolated lowland areas picked up over 2 feet.