Here on a spot just over 30 miles from Kadoka (to the southwest), Murdo (mostly east and a bit south) and Philip (west and a bit north), it was -38.8 degrees about 3AM this morning. Yesterday never got above about -5%, but the sun is shining and it LOOKS nice. We do have about 4 inches of fluffy snow, so are thankful there is no wind.
It's been a lot of years since we have gotten this cold, but it was even colder in our record year of 1936 when -56% was the low, and a +122 was the high in the summer. I've stated this before, but Shorty's dad always said he (born in July of 1936) was the only thing that grew on this ranch that year. His mother testified that those days before air conditioning made a summer pregnancy awfully miserable!
A real benefit of being old on a family ranch is that we are sitting, sort of warm, in our living room watching the Rose Bowl while some younger members of our homegrown crew are out caking and watering cows!
mrj