Friday / Weekend Open Line


Winter arrived this morning at 6:12 a.m., Eastern Standard Time. While some parts of the country already have a blanket of snow, others anxiously hope for a white Christmas. Still others have unhappy memories of recent winters and hope this one turns out to be milder. In the continental U.S., Rogers Pass, Montana holds the record low winter temperature at 70 below zero, followed by Peter’s Sink, Utah, just one degree warmer. The absolute lowest temperature ever recorded in the U.S. was at Prospect Creek, Alaska, an unbelievable 80 degrees below. Making residential snow blowers is part of a home and garden equipment manufacturing business worth $8.2 billion a year. Profile America is in its 16th year as a public service of the U.S. Census Bureau.