Maine hits record low in winter's deepest bite
Maine recorded its coldest temperature ever - a frigid 50 degrees below zero - when a blast of Arctic air hit New England last month. That tied a 1933 thermometer reading in Bloomfield, Vt., for the coldest recorded temperature in New England history.
"It's a big wow," said Tony Sturey, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service office in Caribou, Maine, near where the temperature was recorded on Jan. 16. "It's an incredible number, an insanely cold number."
The lowest temperature ever recorded in the United States - minus 80 degrees Fahrenheit - was reached in January 1971 in Alaska. In the continental United States, the record low is 70 below, measured in January 1954 in Montana.
Maine's previous record of 48 degrees below was measured in 1925 in Van Buren, also in mid-January.
This January was colder than usual in many parts of New England. The low temperature was recorded between 7 and 7:30 a.m. along the Big Black River near Depot Mountain in northwestern Maine, after a mass of Arctic air plunged into Alaska and northern Canada, and traveled eastward into New England.
Residents of Northern Maine are accustomed to temperatures fit for a penguin. Still, no matter how predictable, the cold comes with a price, said Steven R. Buck, city manager for Caribou, a town of about 8,000 near Big Black River. "When we see noontime highs of 10 or 15 below zero, that really takes a toll on the heating bill," he said.
BINA VENKATARAMAN 