Possible Headline: Montana Winter Murders a Small Plant from the Arctic Circle

Trees will not grow in the Arctic Region.  The winters are much too long and the short summers see temperatures that only rarely climb to 50° F.  Trees require a few days above 50° in order to complete their growing cycles.  Plants native to the arctic tend to be modest in size and have learned to thrive with shallow root systems that cling to the barest of soils (often layered above permafrost).  Yet, for all of their hardiness, most plants from the Arctic would not survive a single turn of the four seasons in Montana.

Many would not even survive the winter here.

The weather here in Montana is much too fickle for most plants.  Mind you, the season-to-season changes in climate are not the problem.  The trouble for most plants arises from the minute to minute alterations.  Here in the “Chinook Belt” of Montana, the weather is particularly fickle.  We have recoded some of the wildest temperature fluctuations on the planet.

I live on the eastern front of the Northern Rockies.  During the winter we are often overrun by what we call the Arctic Express.  An express will shove bitter cold impulses all the way from the Arctic Region down along the eastern slopes of the Rocky Mountains and into Montana.  These fronts often bring temperatures below -20°F.  Sometimes the sub-zero temperatures will remain trapped in the mountain valleys for days on end—even as warmer air slips directly over top.

Weirdly enough, these bitter cold impulses might be followed immediately by a Chinook.  Native Americans called Chinooks “snow eaters.”  I have, on occasion, scuttled off to bed on a sub-zero and snowbound winter night only to awaken to water pouring down my rain gutters and temperatures warm enough for a short-sleeve game of golf—almost as if summer dropped out of the sky during the night.  Winter temperatures may suddenly hoist into the upper-sixties.  A whole foot of snow might vanish in a few hours during a Chinook event.  For a day or two in January or February everyone in Montana might be wearing shorts and hosting outdoor barbeques!  Chinooks, however, are typically accompanied by strong winds.

Chinooks are created by warm Pacific fronts interacting with mountain ranges.  They are most prevalent in Southern Alberta, Canada and here in Montana where the Rocky Mountains meet the Northern Plains.  According to Wikipedia the most dramatic rise in temperature recorded during a Chinook occurred in Loma, Montana in January 15 of 1972.  The temperature purportedly rose from -54° to 48°F in a matter of 24 hours.  Though I am always doubtful of the veracity of Wikipedia facts, I have seen temperature changes very near that dramatic during Chinooks.  Sometimes, we call a prolonged Chinook “false summer.”  These are the sort of events that would fool an Arctic plant into awakening—only to be killed when winter abruptly returns.

We are known for crazy weather.

Below are a few examples of Montana weather extremes I gathered from the National Weather Service:

·         The lowest temperature ever recorded in the lower United States was recoded at Roger’s Pass (about 20 miles, as the crow flies, from my house).  On January 20, 1954, the temperature plummeted to -70° F.

·         Montana has recorded the widest range in temperatures of all 50 states—a high of 117°F at Medicine Range in 1937 and the low at Roger’s Pass in 1954—a range of 187°.

·         In January of 1916, an Arctic front overran Browning, Montana and forced the temperature from 44°F down to -56°F in 24 hours.  This 100 degree swing is the most dramatic 24-hour swing ever (officially) recorded in the United States.

·         January 11, 1980.  The temperature recorded at Great Falls International Airport rose from -32°F to 15°F in only seven minutes as a Chinook front invaded the area.  This 47 degree change in only seven minutes stands as the most rapid temperature change recorded in the United States.

Here in Montana, we have the same joke as everyone: “If you don’t like the weather…stick around for five minutes…it will change.  The difference is we have many records to prove it.

--Mitchell Hegman