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This month marks the 69th anniversary of a record-setting cold event which produced Oregon's all-time low temperature, and set new records in other parts of the world. My friend Bruce Johnson inspired me to publicize this record Bruce has created a nice Seneca Web Page on his Oregon Photos Web site. Bruce was also a contributor to my two books, The Oregon Weather Book and The Climate of Oregon (including some narratives and the cover photos). Some of the material below is excerpted from The Oregon Weather Book.
Winter in Oregon is characterized by wet, somewhat cold weather in the western third of the state, and drier, much colder weather east of the Cascades. The same (infrequent) storms that bring snow to western Oregon also provide the coldest temperatures. But in eastern Oregon, where snow dominates during winter, "cold" is much, much colder than in the west.
When Oregonians think "cold weather," the little town of Seneca generally comes to mind. Not only does Seneca share Oregon's all-time record cold temperature (with Ukiah), the temperatures there get cold A LOT. Here is a description of "Oregon's icebox."
Seneca
The town of Seneca is nestled in the Bear Valley, a high elevation bowl in the mountains of eastern Oregon. The Silvies River flows through the valley on its way southward, but other than the small gap in the mountains through which the river flows, Bear Valley is surrounded by mountains, with some peaks exceeding 8,000 feet. On calm, clear nights (frequent in this region), cold air flows steadily downward, pooling in the valley below; this is generally called the "frost hollow" effect. Seneca, at about 4,700 feet, is in the lowest part of the valley, and the recipient of much of the cold air. As a result, Seneca often records the lowest temperatures in Oregon. Cold weather can occur any time of year, and freezing temperatures in summer come as no surprise to residents. Small wonder, then, that Seneca is widely known as "Oregon's icebox."
Lumber executive and weather hobbyist E.W. Barnes described Seneca's climate in 1932, one year after the installation of the first certified thermometer: "Seneca... is in Bear Valley, which is a sort of "draw" or funnel where cold air settles and makes a business of being cold. In the old stagecoach days passengers used to dread the part of the trip through the valley. A few miles away the temperature is moderate." (Oregonian, Dec. 2, 1932, quoted in Johnson, 1994).
Thus, it is fitting that Seneca shares Oregon's all-time cold temperature record. In February, 1933, both Seneca and Ukiah (a nearby station in a similar high valley) reached -54 degrees F (see story below). At Seneca, that temperature has been approached a number of times since. The table below lists the lowest temperatures in Seneca since 1948 (when digital records begin), as well as the longest streaks of consecutive days below 0 degrees F.
Seneca records since 1948
Lowest Temperature Consecutive days below 0 deg F Date Temp (deg F) Ending Date Days 12/23/83 -48 1/1/86 21 2/6/89 -48 2/5/72 12 1/26/57 -43 2/4/79 12 2/4/85 -43 1/7/60 11 1/22/62 -41 1/12/74 11 12/30/78 -41 1/12/74 11 12/9/72 -40 1/4/79 10 1/1/79 -40
Johnson ( 1994) quoted a number of Seneca residents who recalled the extreme cold. Leo "Duce" McKrola, a timber worker, remembers the sounds that occur when trees are felled: "They crack and pop, the timber does. It's just like cutting an icicle." His wife Kathryn recalls trying to wash her children's clothes and "hanging up those clothes and bringing them back in frozen and standing 'em up around the heater."
In an effort to help Leo avoid frostbite, Kathryn would "take my worn-out nylons, then I'd cut the tops off and tie a knot in the topnotch and he'd wear that over his head." Many of the men had similar devices, said Leo, because "a tin hat gets awful cold, just like an icicle on top of your head." The only problem with the head-warmer was that "it was so slick that your tin hat wouldn't stay on very good, you'd turn your head a little bit, and it was always falling off."
Doris Barott "Dodie" Lohf, whose father Howard was
the Seneca weather observer during the 1933 event, remembers winter
car troubles as being just an accepted part of life. "Sometimes
you'd get the cars started but they wouldn't shift gear because
they were so frozenI mean, sometimes you start 'em, sometimes
you don't and if it's 3 or 4 days you just don't start 'emand
you just stay in."
Record-Setting 1933
February of 1933 was one of the coldest ever in Oregon. Seasonable temperatures in the first several days of the month followed a mild January in what had been an unremarkable winter. In the meantime, however, record cold was occurring over Siberia. Strong west winds carried this frigid air mass toward Alaska, where additional records were set early in the month. Then an area of high pressure began to build in the Gulf of Alaska. Clockwise wind circulation around the high caused air to flow southward from Alaska, across western Canada and directly into eastern Oregon. It also reached all the way to the Gulf of Mexico.
Johnson's article points out that low temperature records were set in widely-scattered places:
February 6th, 1933, 90 below zero, Verkhoyansk, Siberia, still the coldest it has ever been in the Northern Hemisphere!
February 8th, 1933, 23 below zero, Seminole, Texas, still the coldest it has ever been in Texas!
February 9th, 1933, 63 below zero, Moran, Wyoming, still the coldest it has ever been in Wyoming!
February 9th, 1933, 54 below zero, Ukiah, Oregon, tied for the coldest it has ever been in Oregon!
February 10th, 1933, 54 below zero in Seneca, officially cited as Oregon's coldest due to Weather Service policy of citing the most recent occurrence of a temperature record.
Seneca's -54 reading was short-lived, however. Mild maritime air reached eastern Oregon on the 11th, pushing the temperature to 45 degrees F -- an increase of 99 degrees in only 36 hours!