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Temperatures in Free Fall as Big Chill Invades Mid-U.S.

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Times Staff Writers

Temperatures took an icy free fall Wednesday as Alaska’s bitter cold front lunged across the wind-swept West, breaking a winter warm spell with February vengeance.

After basking in the nation’s hottest weather--84 degrees--the day before, residents of Russell, Kan., shivered awake to discover that the mercury had plunged 75 degrees. In Helena, Mont., temperatures went from 53 degrees at midnight to 1 below zero by 8 a.m. Wednesday.

The big chill virtually paralyzed much of Montana with fierce winds and drifting snow, while peak calving season forced cowboys in Wyoming to bundle up against zero-degree cold once an hour to check their herds on horseback and carry the vulnerable newborns inside.

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Heads for Alabama

Sweeping from the Pacific Northwest across the plains and clear down to North Texas in just a day, the deep freeze was heading for Alabama, Louisiana and Arkansas, meteorologists said.

The cold snap shut down schools and highways, toyed with power supplies and posed a new threat to the nation’s drought-stressed winter wheat crop as wind-chill factors pushed temperatures far below freezing. In Tioga, N.D., the wind-chill factor hit 90 degrees below zero Wednesday.

“There are ice crystals in the air,” reported Darlene Wolla, assistant Tioga city auditor. “I think Alaska sent us what they didn’t want.” She said neighbors in the town of 1,500 were keeping constant telephone tabs on one another, noting when people are heading outside, where they are going and when they are expected back.

“You know an exact route so that someone can go looking if they’re not there within an hour of their estimated time,” she said. “This week is really bad.”

Typical Pattern

In Alaska, Ted Fathauer, chief meteorologist for the National Weather Service at Fairbanks, said that while the weather system had an exceptionally “strong personality,” it was following a pattern typical of systems that begin in Siberia. Those systems tend to linger over Alaska for long periods, then pick up speed as they head to lower latitudes, he said.

Barometric pressure, which had reached a North American record of 31.84 inches on Tuesday, was still so high in Alaska that the Federal Aviation Administration banned night and instrument flights because altimeters could not be accurately calibrated to give altitude readings.

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As the weather system approached Denver, a local television station played the theme song from “Jaws” and warned viewers that the “arctic monster” was headed their way.

That was good news to Gunnison, Colo., where plans were under way for a winter carnival called “The Hottest Cold Spot in the Nation Celebration” next weekend, featuring snow softball and bicycle races on ice.

But the unaccustomed cold wave spelled serious trouble for Spokane County, Wash., where deputies used four-wheel-drive vehicles to search for stranded motorists because “cars are just being blown off the road” by 40-m.p.h. gusts, said Officer Don Johnson of the Sheriff’s Department.

“The trees are so cold and brittle that they’re snapping easily and knocking down power lines,” Johnson said.

Portable generators and heaters were set up in Spokane-area high schools, where residents could seek emergency shelter from the zero-degree cold.

“This is really unusual for us,” Johnson said. “We get cold weather, but nothing like this.”

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The sparsely populated islands of San Juan County, Wash., were isolated when ferry boats shut down service, and authorities opened shelters for stranded commuters and residents.

The chilly weather also wreaked havoc at Spokane’s Walk in the Wild Zoo, where flamingos huddled under an indoor heat lamp and trees felled by the wind damaged the bear exhibit.

“We’ve locked a lot of the animals inside that normally can be outside,” said zookeeper Terry Hamberg. “The water situation is a real bear, because it freezes over in a matter of minutes and we have to keep going outside to chop it every couple of hours.”

Andy Elisson, manager of the 35,000-acre Thunderhead Ranch near Dubois, Wyo., found the cold particularly untimely.

“We’re coming into peak calving time right now, and when a calf is born, it’s still wet and can get chilled or freeze to death, so we try to find as much shelter as possible for the new calves,” he said.

In Topeka, Kan., meteorologist intern Steve Kisner said the unusual cold was taking a toll on the winter wheat crop, already robbed by drought of its usual shield of snow, which protects the tender grain from harsh winds and flying dust.

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In Thief River Falls, Minn., the forecast called for minus 25 degrees with a wind-chill factor of minus 83 Wednesday night.

When Susan Lillevold went out to start her car Wednesday morning in the Red River Valley town, the engine turned over just fine, but there was a problem with the tires.

“They were square on the bottom,” said Lillevold, executive vice president of the local chamber of commerce. The sharp overnight cold had flattened them. “I went bump, bump, bump down the road this morning.”

Also contributing to this story were staff writer Bob Secter in Fairbanks, Alaska, and researchers Lisa Romaine in Denver and Tracy Shryer in Chicago.

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