Right now it is a nice 42 degrees and sunny in my town. However, I remember back a few years when I was living in Helena MT. January 31, 198 the temp at 5 a.m. was about 48 degrees. I was seeing a few drivers off on their routes. Trees were actually starting to bud out it had been so warm. Then a cold front moved in from the north and by midnight it was around -24. On Feb 2, at about 4:30 a.m. 48 train cars 'escaped' from a parked train that was changing engines on Mullan Pass and came flying down the tracks. They his a parked work train at one of the main crossings in Helena. One of the cars that was hit was a tanker filled with hydrogen peroxide, plus one filled with an alcohol of some type. The resulting explosion took out most windows in a one mile radius. The crossing was was right next to Carrol College and every window in the women's dorm was broken. The temp at the time was -32. We went almost a week never exceeding -20 for a high temp, with lows being around -30. There are videos of the fire fighters trying to put out the fires using water. Basically they were spraying ice cubes at the fire. Many houses / businesses lost power and thus heat for several days. Many, many frozen pipes that Montana Rail Link paid for. Here is a link to a story about it.
https://wikivisually.com/wiki/1989_Helena_train_wreck
Diesel fuel, even #1, gels at about -25 with additives, as I recall. So many tractors were stuck with engines not running due to gelled fuel that every repair shop was buried. Wreckers worked non-stop for days.
When it hits about -15 to -20, you can tell because the hairs in your nose freeze up. Never fun.
I am in love with Montana. For other states I have admiration, respect, recognition, even some affection, but with Montana it is love.... It seems to me that Montana is a great splash of grandeur....the mountains are the kind I would create if mountains were ever put on my agenda. Montana seems to me to be what a small boy would think Texas is like from hearing Texans. Montana has a spell on me. It is grandeur and warmth. Of all the states it is my favorite and my love.
John Steinbeck