On this date in history: -60 temperature reported in Cameron, WI – WQOW TV News 18

It was on January 9, 1977 at 7:30am that Barron County Undersheriff Jerry Johnson reported a temperature of -60 degrees at his home on the north side of Cameron. It is known as the unofficial coldest temperature recorded anywhere in the state of Wisconsin. That's according to several articles from the Rice Lake Chronotype, including one from 2017 written by Dave Greschner.

That -60 degree temp is not considered official because it didn't pass the National Weather Service's strict guidelines on quality control. The other confirmed reports from the area were much 'warmer', closer to -40 and as cold as -50 further north near Stone Lake, which is about 15 miles east of Spooner. There were other local reports reported by Rice Lake Chronotype in the flat area east of Cameron in the Canton area of temperatures between -50 and -60, but there were only a handful of these reports.

Another issue according to the Rice Lake Chronotype was that the official thermometer at the old Rice Lake Airport near Moon Lake froze and broke. Greschner reported in 2017 that the airport manager in charge of relaying the weather conditions to the NWS, Carl Rindlisbacher, had no choice but to report -44 degrees as it was the last reading before the thermometer broke. Even though he wanted to believe the Undersheriff's report of -60, the official rules of reporting meant he had to report the low temperature as the lowest that he saw, which was -44.

Still, stories from that day show that the temperature was much colder than a "normal" burst of extremely cold arctic temperatures as there were reports of furnace oil gelling up, tires frozen with flat spots from where they were parked and riding bouncy as a result. That was, of course, for the cars that even managed to start.

Other temperature reports from that day in the map below are provided from the Twin Cities NWS office. It shows a low of -39 in Eau Claire, -44 near Amery, and other reports between -35 and -50 in northwestern Wisconsin.

The official record coldest temperature in the state of Wisconsin is -55 from 7 miles west of Couderay on February 4, 1996. While that's the official record, those that lived near Rice Lake and Cameron on January 9, 1977 will know what they lived through, and it's very real to them.

As for this meteorologist, I do believe the reading on Undersheriff Johnson's thermometer of -60. I'd like to run some tests and/or do some more research on some of those stories. I'd like to figure out what temperature would cause a tire of the 1970s to freeze in a flattened shape and the freeze point of the specific blend of heating oil used in that era. Maybe that'll be a good story to work on for next year on the 45th anniversary of this frigid, frigid day in history.

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On this date in history: -60 temperature reported in Cameron, WI - WQOW TV News 18