A regularly scheduled Red Cross Community Blood Drive will be Thursday, January 25 in Scobey at St. Philip’s Catholic Center from 11:45 a.m. to 5:15 p.m.

Call 1-800-733-2767 or visit RedCrossBlood.org and enter: scobey, to schedule an appointment.

Daniels-Sheridan Federal Credit Union and Silver Star Insurance of Scobey will provide free admission to the movie at Richardson Theatre on Sunday, January 21 at 4 p.m. to those who bring items to restock the Daniels County Food Bank.

Each person who brings two items (see ad elsewhere this issue) to help restock the food bank, a movie ticket will be purchased and provided by the Credit Union and Silver Star.

The food bank is especially low on most items after this Christmas season.

This is the fourth year the businesses have teamed up to help restock the local food bank.

Non-perishable items, dry goods and personal care items all work well for those caring to donate.

People are welcome to bring more than two items each as well.

Come a little early to the 4 p.m. showing to help volunteers accept the items in a timely fashion.

Those interested in attending five, 1.5 hour sessions in February to learn more about creative writing, wordsmithing, editing, journaling, grammar and publishing should sign up for classes now. The classes will be each Thursday evening February 1-8-15-22-29 at Scobey Schools. The cost is $10 per person to cover costs of supplies.

Clerk of Court/County Superintendent of Schools, Tammi Fladager will be the instructor.

Contact Scobey Schools at 406-487-2202 or email Collen Drury at cdrury@scobeyschools.com

Filing for elected offices began January 11, statewide.

This year on the ballot in Daniels County will be a few offices, including Daniels County Sheriff which at this writing is now vacant; County Commissioner in District 3 currently held by Mikel Lund who has announced he will not be seeking a third term; and district Clerk of Court/County Supt. of Schools, held by Tammi Fladager. She will finish her term, but will not be seeking another term in that capacity. She filed for County Commissioner opening day.

With the Monday holiday and Tuesday morning being under the wire for press time the only candidate we are aware of filing is Fladager, see story. We will address other candidates as they file to provide more information similar to Fladager’s bio in this issue (page 5).

Last week’s Wind Chill Warning sure stuck around much longer than anybody wanted in this northeastern Montana region.

How cold was it? It was so cold over the weekend that many propane tanks in the area were virtually froze up and a minimal amount of gas or in some cases no gas came through the lines to provide heat in homes and businesses. Some folks figured out ways to cover tanks and get the propane to a decent temperature where the propane liquid could convert back to a gas in order to flow through the gas lines. That’s cold!

The notice from the National Weather Service on the back-half of last week read as such: “Wind Chill Warning now in effect until 11 a.m. Mountain Standard Time Monday (Jan. 15). Dangerously cold wind chills, projected as low as 65 below zero in portions of northeast Montana until 11 a.m. MST Monday. The dangerously cold wind chills could cause frostbite on exposed skin in as little as five minutes. Affected area in Montana is North Dakota state line, along Canadian border south down through the eastern edge of Fort Belknap Indian Reservation, south to the Winnett area into eastern Fergus County and northern Musselshell County.”

The initial time of checking Google Weather on the personal cell phone to discover what the wind-chill factor had dropped to at the moment was at 5:12 p.m. Friday, January 12: minus 23 degrees, wind chill made it feel like minus 47 degrees with humidity at 63 percent and the wind at 12 miles per hour.

At that point, a decision was made to check the weather on the cell phone for the Scobey area from time to time and record it to see just how cold it was actually going to get.

Thelowesttemperaturethe Leader recorded, again, with continued on page 3 Wind Chill . . .

From Page One

Google Weather as the source, occurred Saturday 3 a.m. with a reading of -34 degrees below zero. Mixed with 12 mph wind and 73% humidity the windchill factor was -62°. The wind-chill temperature might have even dipped lower than that but no recordings were taken by the Leader between 3:01-8:16 a.m. Saturday.

When talking by phone to a member of the National Weather Service in Glasgow late Monday afternoon he revealed it had a recording in Glentana sometime after midnight of the wind-chill factor sitting at -72° below zero.

The extreme cold snap not only sent Montana into a deep freeze but the entire middle section of the country as well, moving into: North Dakota, South Dakota, Minnesota, Wisconsin,Wyoming,Nebraska, Iowa, Kansas, Oklahoma, eastern Colorado, eastern New Mexico, Texas, Louisiana, Arkansas, Missouri, Illinois, Michigan, Mississippi and Alabama. Even parts of the south experienced wind chills below zero.

Here is how it all played out and how extremely cold it actually became (keep in mind these figures are from Google Weather, not U.S. Weather Service Readings taken daily at the official station, located about three miles northwest of ScobeyatTandeRanch,which appear on the front page of this issue (compare them and see how close they were to each other for the highs and lows).

Here are some of the numbers from the deep freeze passing through Daniels County:

FRIDAY, JANUARY 12, 2024 5:12 p.m. — Actual temperature minus 23°, wind-chill temperature

At a public hearing Wednesday, January 10 the City of Scobey Zoning Commission voted to recommend to the City that the General Business Zone be extended south to meet the Central Business Zone. This will affect only five Highway 13 frontage lots, changed from Light Industrial to General Business.

Other business included drafting an ordinance to cap the number of short term rentals to 3% of habitable dwellings within the City. This would be approximately 15 where there are now 8 to 10 operating.