Arctic storm by the numbers: 42.5 inches of snow, 34 below zero

The unusually cold Arctic storm punishing the Rocky Mountain states and the Midwest is shattering records for early-season cold temperatures as it slowly spreads to the East Coast.

Temperatures were actually warmer in Alaska on Thursday than they were in much of the central and northern Plains.

Meanwhile, residents in Michigan are seeing snow pile up to levels usually seen in mid-January, not before Thanksgiving.

A sampling of the suffering across the nation:

• 34 degrees below zero: The recorded temperature Thursday morning near Thermopolis, Wyo. The coldest reading in the state.

• 27 degrees below zero: The new record November low for Casper, Wyo., recorded Wednesday night.

• 22: Number of monitoring sites in Fremont County, Wyo., that Thursday recorded temperatures colder than 20 below zero.

• 42.5 inches: Amount of snow that has fallen 7 miles north of Ishpeming, on Michigan’s upper peninsula. That’s the most in the state.

• 25 inches: Amount of snow on the ground in Negaunee, Mich.

• Jan. 18: How long it took the same amount of snow to accumulate in Negaunee last winter.

• 475: Crashes that Minnesota State Patrol troopers handled from 5 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday, when the storm began.

• 20 degrees: The difference between the expected low and average low in Jackson, Miss. The temperature is expected to hit 25 degrees Thursday night.

• 14 degrees: The new record low for Wednesday in Dalhart, in the Texas panhandle.

• 14 degrees below zero: Denver’s new record-low temperature for Thursday. The previous record was set in 1916, when the temperature hit 3 degrees below zero.

• 38 degrees: The high in Fairbanks, Alaska, on Wednesday; the normal high there is 12 degrees. “It is downright balmy for us,” said National Weather Service meteorologist Lindsey Tardif-Huber in Fairbanks.

Sources: National Weather Service meteorologists Alan Campbell, Steven Fleegel, Lance Goehring, Brett McDonald, Kyle Fredin, Lindsey Tardif-Huber and Minnesota State Patrol Lt. Eric Roeske.

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