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Record Low Temperature
Tribune photo published January 14, 1957

Time Stands Still as Ames has State Low –30

CLOCKS FREEZE IN ALL-TIME RECORD CHILL  --  It is possible that the 30 below reading recorded here – at about 3 a.m., as close as could be reckoned – was the national low since the low reported elsewhere by United Press was -27 at Havre and Glasgow, Mont.

Time stood still at 30 degrees below zero here today.  That was literally true, as the all-time record low reading at the Iowa State College Agronomy Farm Weather Station occurred sometime between 6:30 and 9 a.m. at a time when clocks which would ordinarily record exact time of readings were frozen up.

The clocks were shivering in silence from about midnight until shortly after 9 a.m., Weather Observer C.N. Brown said.  The clocks are hand-wound and simply got too cold to function.  Ames’ 30 below was low official temperature reported for Iowa, although unofficial readings of 42 below were reported near Boon (see other story on this page).

The thermometer reached its record depth here after a long still night of cold.  It was 10 below Sunday at 8 p.m., 20 below just before midnight, 22 below about midnight when the clocks quit operating, and 25 below sometime between midnight and 6 a.m.

It “warmed” up to 19 below at about 6:30 but dropped to 24 below at 8 a.m. before the record which encompasses at least 26 years was reached.  Records have been kept continuously here only since 1931 when the weather station was moved from Iowa State to the Agronomy Farm.

The previous low was 27 below in February, 1936.  Previous low this season was 13 below Dec. 13.  Brown said erratic action of the thermometer such as experienced this morning from 6:30 on is not unusual in times of great cold and still air.  By noon, the temperature has risen to 7 below.  Temperatures from the time clocks were thawed out at the weather station here to press time were: 8 a.m. (before thawing) 30 below (estimated), 9 a.m. 22 below, 11 a.m. 10 below, Noon 7 below, 1:40 p.m. 1 below.

Contemporary view of Fifth Street looking east towards Kellogg.  The primary differences noted in the contemporary photo are the change to diagonal parking and the absence of the O'Neils Dairy building (the 1905 Armory building).

Farmers in this area struggled today to thaw out water lines supplying stock and keep them thawed out.  Many residents walked to work in temperatures in the 25-30 below range.  Many cars were left unstarted, others were pushed.  Towing services were rushed all day and by early afternoon were still from 15 to 25 calls behind in getting cars pushed.

Yellow Taxi Cab Co. here was swamped with calls this morning, particularly from 5:30 to 10.  At the busiest, the company was between an hour and two hours behind in answering calls.  By noon, it was within 10 minutes of catching up.

Incidentally, if you think your home heating unit is using a lot of fuel today, Iowa State College which heats all its buildings from a central heating plant, will probably use almost four carloads of coal today.

The college used an average of 472,000 pounds of coal per day last January.  Sunday, a "light" day for the college power and heating plant, 517,000 pounds of coal were used.  Today, the college plans to use about 550,000 pounds of coal, about a half carload more than the average.

By United Press --  BOONE HAS UNOFFICIAL 42 BELOW -- Arctic air cut loose the worst cold weather blast of the year today and dropped temperatures to record and near record levels throughout Iowa.  It was an official 30 degrees below zero at Ames, three degrees colder than the previous all-time low there set in 1936 and the coldest official spot in the state.  There was an unofficial report of 42 below near Boone.

The "warmest" overnight reading was 13 below at Mason City, Dubuque and Council Bluffs.  The mercury dropped to 19 below at Des Moines, the lowest reading there since Jan. 22, 1936, when it got down to 22 below.

Other low readings included 22 below at Burlington, 20 below at Sioux City, 18 below at Ottumwa, 17 below at Cedar Rapids, and 16 below at Lamoni, Waterloo and Davenport.

School children and office workers bundled up in their warmest clothing to fight off the cold.  Cars and trucks chugged reluctantly over snow clogged streets.  Milk bottles were frozen on door steps.  The snow was left over from a one-to-four inch snowfall that moved through a wide belt of Iowa from Des Moines to Burlington Sunday.  Coupled with the heavy snowstorm last Wednesday night, it left eight inches of snow on the ground at Des Moines and Burlington, six inches at Ottumwa, Cedar Rapids and Dubuque and five inches at Davenport.

But it was the bitter cold temperatures that dominated the weather reports.  Three Boone County farmers, Joe King, Glen Ferguson and Marvin Morgan, who live near the Boone River pumping station, all said their thermometers registered 42 below zero early this morning.  Another gauge at the pumping plant recorded 32 below.

The weather was so cold it froze the clocks that were supposed to record the time of the temperature readings at the Iowa State College farm southwest of Ames.  It was believed the record 30-below reading there was set between 6 a.m. and 9 a.m.

Another report of 42-below weather came from Moingona, Iowa.  It later was confirmed at 40 below.  The mercury climbed slightly as the day progressed, but it was still 7 below at Des Moines, 5 below at Cedar Rapids, 3 below at Ottumwa and 1 below at Davenport and Dubuque at noon.  Another frigid blast was ready to move into Iowa tonight.  Temperatures from 5 to 15 below were predicted before morning.  Snow flurries were expected in northeastern and the extreme northern counties tonight.

Cold weather will grip the state again Wednesday and forecasters said temperatures through Saturday will average from 10 to 20 degrees below normal.

The cold blasts today came as no surprise to Iowans.  High temperatures Sunday reached only 7 degrees at Council Bluffs, 6 and Lamoni, 5 at Waterloo, Burlington and Sioux City, and 4 at Ottumwa, Dubuque and Davenport.  It got no warmer than 2 above at Mason City.