Between 8 and 9 a.m., the temperature in Missoula reached minus 11 degrees, but was 19 below with the wind chill. Seeley Lake and Potomac registered even colder - at 34 below.
The coldest spot in western Montana, however, was in Polebridge, where the temperature was a bitter 37 below.
Not only was it cold outside, some Missoulians woke up Monday to cold temperatures inside.
Plumbing and heating companies had a busy day fixing faulty furnaces in homes and businesses. When it's this cold, your furnace has to work overtime to produce the same amount of heat, said Marcie Kessler, service manager at Garden City Plumbing and Heating.
Furnaces with dirty filters or ones that haven't been serviced in a while tend to malfunction at winter's coldest times, she said.
“This is when (people) will find out, unfortunately,” said Kessler, who recommends changing furnace filters quarterly.
It wasn't the lack of heat that canceled classes for DeSmet School students, though, it was the pipes.
Around 7:30 a.m., one of the pipes in the ceiling above a middle-school hallway froze and broke. Wet ceiling tiles fell to the floor. City firefighters responded to the school to shut off the water.
There was no major damage, but school was canceled to give staff and faculty time to clean up the mess.
“Thank goodness we were going to have school today because otherwise no one would have been here,” said Ellie Rasmussen, the school's lunch manager. Normally the school holds classes on Martin Luther King Jr. Day to teach students about the civil rights leader, Rasmussen said.
Business at Montana Snowbowl was slow for a sunny, clear holiday, said owner Ronnie Morris, chalking it up to frigid in-town temperatures.
Around noon, the temperature at the top of the ski hill was around 3 degrees and 7 degrees at the base, she said. Sunday, the upper chairlift was closed because of 30 to 40 mph gusts that blew perpendicular to the lift.
That scenario is the opposite of what occurred Saturday, when the mountain broke its one-day attendance record. Last week's snowfall attracted 1,647 skiers to the mountain Saturday. Before that, the record was around 1,600, Morris said, which, ironically, was set on the same day - the Saturday before Martin Luther King Jr. Day - two years before.
Luckily, school and city transit buses had the day off; no problems there.
Mountain Line general manager Steve Earle said employees started up the bus fleet anyway just to make sure everything would be running smoothly on Tuesday.
Most pets handle the cold temperatures better than people, said Dr. John Bodner, a Stevensville veterinarian at Sapphire Animal Hospital.
Siberian huskies and Malamutes love this weather, he said. Most Labradors should not be outside for longer than eight hours in subzero temperatures, especially without a place to get out of the weather, he said. Puppies and other newborn pets and also older animals are more affected by colder temperatures. Frostbite is possible with animals, but Bodner said it's most common among calves.
By Monday afternoon, the sky was blue and the sun was shining.
This caused temperatures to warm slightly, Foster said. By 2:30 p.m., it was 3 above.
Foster expects a big difference in night and day temperatures. Though it may warm slightly throughout the week, temperatures will remain below normal for this time of season, he said.
Tuesday's high temperature forecast is 9 degrees with a low of 5 below. Normal for this time of year is a high of 31 and a low of 17.
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