Date: Fri, 15 Jan 1999 09:10:23 -0500 From: STRAUSS@WCUVAX1.WCU.EDU Subject: Bangor's take on the -55 at Allagash The Bangor Daily News Friday, January 15, 1999 Allagash coldest spot in U.S., residents take it in stride >From Staff and Wire Reports -- ALLAGASH - Cars, pickup trucks and huge 18-wheeler log trucks didn't start too readily Thursday morning in Allagash, and some residents awoke to frozen water pipes in their homes. Unofficially at minus 55 degrees Fahrenheit, the town of Allagash on Thursday morning had the lowest temperature ever recorded in Maine and was the coldest spot in the United States, according to the National Weather Service in Caribou. The service has been keeping records since 1939. The minus-55 reading in the Aroostook County logging community near the Canadian border shattered Maine's old record of minus 48 on Jan. 19, 1925, in Van Buren, said John Jensenius, meteorologist at the National Weather Service in Gray. That compares to a record low on Mount Washington of minus-47 degrees in January 1934, according to the Mount Washington Observatory. The national record low was 80 below at Prospect Creek in Alaska on Jan. 23, 1971, said Tom Hawley, another National Weather Service meteorologist. The lowest reading in the contiguous states was 70 below in Rogers Pass, Mont., on Jan. 20, 1954. The record cold was a prelude to a winter storm expected to arrive today with accumulations of 3 to 6 inches of snow in southern Maine and 5 to 10 inches of snow in northern regions. For most people in the small community of fewer than 300 residents at the northern tip of the state, it was business as usual. Mostly loggers and truckers, Allagash residents are known as rugged people, even by northern Maine standards. It wasn't all fun, however. Collen and Caroline Nadeau of the Inn Road, which runs along the Allagash River, awoke to frozen water pipes in their home. They didn't get the pipes thawed out until after 2 p.m. ''It wasn't too bad,'' Caroline Nadeau said Thursday afternoon. ''We got them thawed out. We are used to this kind of weather, and it doesn't bother me too much. ''It was a bit much this morning,'' she finally admitted. Rich Norton, a meteorological technician with the National Weather Service in Caribou, said the minus-55 temperature at Allagash was not an official reading, but one acquired from a cooperative observer, Roy Gardner, who lives at Allagash. Gardner could not be reached Thursday. His son, Roy Gardner Jr., said the biggest problem in town was vehicles not starting. The town is known as the cold spot of the St. John Valley. ''Most everyone is going now,'' said Gardner. ''We've learned to plug them [the vehicles] in. It's just the usual for us.'' Vehicle troubles were not unique to Allagash. As of 10:30 a.m., the American Automobile Association had received 2,000 calls for help getting cars started across Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont, spokesman Matt McKenzie said. That was double the number on a typical winter day, he said. ''It was just business as usual,'' said Beatrice Gardner, a waitress and ***cook at Two Rivers Lunch, near the confluence of the St. John and Allagash rivers. ''We are a tough breed,'' she said. ''I haven't heard of anyone in trouble. Some had their water freeze, that's about it.'' The temperature didn't make Allagash the coldest place in the world, though it was the coldest place in Maine and the nation. Norton said it was minus-124 degrees Fahrenheit at Volstok Station in Antarctica on Thursday morning. <<< Editor's note: 'Vostok' is spelled incorrectly. >>> <<< Editor's note: The temperature at Vostok was -24, not -124, on Thursday. >>> There were other harsh temperatures Thursday in Maine. Norton of the NWS said it was minus-38 degrees Fahrenheit at Clayton Lake, also in northern Maine, but south of Allagash. Finland Dumond, a weather observer in Fort Kent, said it was minus-28 degrees there. In Caribou and Presque Isle, it was minus-21 degrees at 6 a.m. By midafternoon, temperatures started rising, with Madawaska unofficially reporting minus-3 degrees at about 3:30 p.m. Other unofficial temperatures around the state, provided by local folks, included minus 38 at about 6 a.m. in Rangeley in western Maine, while nearby Dallas Plantation had a balmy minus 20. Lincoln had a temperature of minus 16 at about 7 a.m., and the Dover- Foxcroft area had minus 21 at about 6:30 a.m. At the Millinocket Fire Station, the early-morning temperature was minus-21 degrees. Firefighter Tom Malcolm said a portion of the town lost power for a short time, but he was not sure whether the outage was related to the cold. A Bangor Hydro-Electric Co. official said the power outage, which occurred about 4 a.m., affected about 2,500 customers. Power was restored before 6 a.m. Thursday. The company representative said a wire burned down at the intersection of Congress and Central streets. ''The cold snapped the line,' the company representative said. Despite the outage, Malcolm, who also is Millinocket's fire prevention officer, said, ''We have been lucky, there have been no fires.'' The combination of frigid weather and diesel-fueled buses spelled problems for Deer Isle-Stonington schools Thursday morning. The fuel ''kept gelling all night long,'' according to a woman at the high school, prompting the decision to cancel classes for the day. Three of the four buses used to take students to Jonesport-Beals High School wouldn't start at the crack of dawn, so school was delayed by two hours. In Ellsworth, buses that bring students from outlying Lamoine and Trenton were late, but school got under way on time. The same was the case at Sumner Memorial High School in Sullivan, with a couple of buses running late. Most other districts, from Rockland to Machias, reported no significant problems or delays. At the Lincoln police and fire station, the temperature was 16 degrees below zero at the 6:45 a.m. change of shifts Thursday. Officials reported no serious incidents as the result of extremely low temperatures, but are urging motorists to use caution driving. ''The cold is keeping roads slippery,'' Lincoln firefighter Frank Hammond said. ''People are still driving like it's summer out there, and the cold weather doesn't give the roads a chance to thaw out any, so they are still covered with ice. Public works crews are doing the best they can, but the cold isn't helping them any.'' Copyright (c) 1999, Bangor Daily News Inc. ==================================================================== Bob Strauss Cataloger Hunter Library Western Carolina U. strauss@wcu.edu Class home page: http://www3.wcu.edu/~strauss Personal home page: http://www3.wcu.edu/~strauss/personal ====================================================================