Only a Few People Remember Idaho’s Worst Winter

You’re probably 80 years old, or close if you remember what some consider Idaho’s worst winter.  My experience has been that long-range projections aren’t worth much.  In December of 2016, I was driving some days with windows down.  January came, with heavy snow and bone-chilling temperatures.  Some mornings, I left for work when the thermometer was below zero and by double digits.  On one of those mornings, I could hear a pack of coyotes howling and thought even the wild animals were cold.

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Friends told me they had memories of worse winters in 1983, and 1993.  One told me it was so cold in Pocatello during one winter in the 1980s that the air often was sucked from his tires overnight.  That was a new one for me.

Idaho Transportation Department says none of those winters compares to one that happened a few years after the end of World War Two.  You can read more by clicking on this link.

I grew up living with lake-effect snow, but below-zero temperatures weren’t as common as you would find in the Northern Midwest.  But I was once in a place where the thermometer dropped to 46 below zero, which didn’t include wind chill.

While Florida does sometimes sound nice, I’ll take my chances with winter versus hurricanes.

A writer at the Washington Post explains the climate change his paper believes in won’t be much of a hassle in Idaho.  An interactive map suggests our threat, even from drought, is low.