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A livestock professor told me there is maybe one other place in the world where domestic livestock face as much temperature variability as right here in the Upper Midwest/Great Plains.

I took the comment with a grain of salt. Everybody feels that way about his or her own region, right?My Aunt Claire calls from Arizona.

“It’s so cold here, it got down to 45 degrees,” she says.

I listen and wonder if 45 degrees is really cold. Nah, it isn’t.

Over the past couple of months, I have been thinking about that professor’s statement.

How many places can there be in the world where temperatures range from minus 30 degrees to 110 degrees F n like here in my backyard in western Minnesota? Maybe I do live in the land of the greatest variable temperatures.

I watched a program about the Bad Lands on the Weather Channel the other night, and the narrator said the reason for the large temperature swings in the Great Plains has to do with being land locked. Rainfall is low, and there are no oceans to absorb the hot air moving up from the Equator or the cold air moving down from Siberia, the Arctic and Canada.

One thing that not many people know about me is I like to read tables and graphs just to see what I can figure out.

So, to try to find out if livestock in our region really do experience the widest global variability in temperatures, I turned to the Internet.

Talk about a place where you can get a lot of information! I wound up printing off 68 pages of tables to study! My primary source was called, “Extreme temperatures in the USA and Extreme temperatures around the world.” The record temperatures were mostly documented in the 20th Century.

Now, if I can present this information to you in a way that is even remotely interesting, I’ll have succeeded.

From the numbers that I looked at, it appears that the hottest place in the world is Death Valley, Calif., where a temperature of 129.02 degrees F has been recorded.

Lake Havasu, Ariz. is next with a temperature of 127.94.

I guess that would make my Aunt Claire’s 45 degrees seem cold.

From the information I found, Jacobabad, Pakistan has the next hottest temp n 127.04 degrees.

Extreme temperatures over 125 degrees F have also been recorded in Iran, Iraq and Saudi Arabia. I can only imagine what that temperature feels like for men and women in the U.S. Armed Forces n especially for young people that grew up in the Midwest.

Now for the coldest temperatures. It probably doesn’t surprise anybody that Antarctica is the coldest location in the world. At Vostok, Antarctica, the temperature was recorded at minus 128.56 degrees F.

Next coldest is Verkhoyansk, Russia with a temperature of minus 93.64 degrees F. Greenland’s North Ice is next at minus 86.98 degrees.

Other very cold recordings were made at (from coldest) Yakutsk, Russia; Byrd Camp, Antarctica; Summit, Greenland, and Snag, Canada.

Prospect Creek, Ala. n as the coldest U.S. location -- came in next with a minus 79.78 degrees F.

Way down on the global list is Rogers Pass, Mont., with minus 69.88 degrees, followed by Peter’s Sink, Utah at minus 68.98 degrees.

Other cold places in the United States include Fort Yukon, Ala., Fairbanks, Ala., Moran, Wyo. and Maybell, Colorado.

After all of these places, we finally reach three places tied with a low temperature reading of a mere minus 59.98 degrees F nWest Yellowstone, Parshall, N.D. and Tower, Minnesota.

Remember International Falls n the Nation’s Ice Box? Their low temperature is a balmy-by-comparison minus 54.94 degrees.

So what are we crying about when temperatures get a little cold up here? There are many, many places in the world that are a lot colder. Tons of places!

Still, the question I wanted answered is n “Where does livestock face the most variability in temperatures?”

Here’s what I found out:

In Verkhoyansk, Russia, domestic livestock face variable temperatures of 187.74 degrees n minus 88.6 for a low to 99.14 degrees F for a high.

Temperatures were almost as variable in the Russian towns of Oymyakon and Yakutsk. Russia takes first place for the greatest variability.

The next country with the most variability is the U.S. In second place, Medicine Lake, Mont. has 174.96 F degrees of variability n from a minus 58 degrees to 116.96 degrees F.

Temperatures were similar in Glasgow, Mont. (172.08 degrees), Parshall, N.D. (171.9 degrees) and McIntosh, S.D. (171.9 degrees). Steele, N.D. came in next with 169.92 degrees n with a low of minus 49 and a high of 120.92 degrees F.

For the countries, third place goes to Regina, Canada with 169.02 degrees of variability n from minus 58 degrees to 111.02 degrees above zero. Many other cities in Canada also had large temperature swings, including Winnipeg, Dawson and Yellow Grass.

Honorable mention goes to several cities in Kazakhstan and China for temperature variability extremes.

Looking just at Minnesota -- Duluth and Tower tied for the greatest temperature variability n both at 158.04 degrees. Duluth had a measured low of minus 52.06 and a high of 105.98 -- while Tower had a low of minus 59.98 and a high of 98.06 degrees F.

Coming in with more variability than any place in Minnesota were: Havre, Mont., Fairbanks, Alaska, Gann Valley, S.D., Maybell, Colorado, Miles City, Mont., Fargo, N.D., and Aberdeen, S.D. all with 162 degrees of variability.

Bismarck came in at minus 45.04 degrees F and a high of 114.08 for a total variability of 159.12 degrees. Amazing, “Farm & Ranch Guide” Editor Mark Conlon in Bismarck, refers to Bismarck as The Banana Belt, because he thinks it’s so warm!

Surprisingly, Grand Forks came in with just 153 degrees of variability n a high of 109.04 to a low of minus 43.96.

Remember International Falls? With a low of minus 54.94 degrees and a high of 102.92, the Nation’s Ice Box has a temperature variation of 157.86 degrees n that’s almost 30 degrees less variability than Verkhoyansk, Russia’s 187.74 degrees, and it’s almost 18 degrees less than Medicine Lake.

Another surprise is Moorhead has a low of just a minus 38.92 degrees and a high of 114.08 degrees for 153 degrees variability. Apparently Moorhead has 9 degrees less variability than Fargo.

Based on my own knowledge of west central Minnesota, I would say temps here vary by a very paltry 140 degrees n compared to some other places in the world.

My final thought in this column about temperatures goes back to my original question -- “Where does domestic livestock face the most variability in temperatures?”

To answer this question, I went to the Internet again.

I discovered that Verkhoyansk is located in the Arctic Circle and Oymyakon and Yakutsk are in Siberia.

Reindeer are raised domestically there, and so the answer is Siberia n that’s where domestic livestock face the most variability in temperature.

If Montana lets North Dakota, South Dakota and a (head down, kicking stones) Minnesota join in the party, domestic livestock face the next most variability in temperatures here.

Livestock in portions of Canada, Kazakhstan and China also face temperature variability.

Back to the point made by the livestock professor -- he was accurate.

The weather is severe here and that is a very valid reason for raising livestock indoors.

There is one other place in the world where domestic livestock face as much temperature variability as right here in the Great Plains/Upper Midwest.

That area is Siberia n but that just sounds way too cold.

Comments »

Jerome wrote on Jun 16, 2008 11:46 AM:

" --
I read with interest your article about temperature swings. I live just
outside of Regina Sk Canada. I remember a number of years ago a 24 hour
temperature swing in January of about 80 degrees. It went from -40 to +40 in
less than a 24 hour period. Just wondering where that stands in comparison to
other North American or world 1 day temperature swings. "

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