The freezing air that ripped through coats and stung skin Thursday accounted for the third coldest Jan. 15 on record in Mitchell, according to the National Weather Service.
The NWS logged Mitchell's temperature at 22 below early Thursday. Jan. 15's all-time local low is 30 below, recorded in 1972. It was 26 below on Jan. 15, 1963.
It was downright frigid, but still didn't approach the city's all-time record low of minus-50, recorded Jan. 25, 1955.
The weather made for a miserable day for anyone who needed to be outdoors Thursday. A handful of city workers, for instance, spent part of the day repairing a broken water main at 319 W. 14th.
Mike Gillispie, a National Weather Service meteorologist, said the unusually cold air came to the region by way of Alaska, where the average temperature is 25 degrees below normal.
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"That's very cold air up there and it's been sitting there for quite a while," Gillispie said. "This air mass has ... had plenty of time to get very cold."
But there's a silver lining: Gillispie said the cold streak should come to an end today. He expects temperatures to warm up to the upper 20s today and stay above 30 for most of next week.
Western South Dakota could experience temperatures above 60 degrees next week, Gillispie said.
"The areas that don't have snow cover are going to warm up really nice for the next three to five days," Gillispie said.
In some parts of the state, the winter has been cold and snowy, but it's not all bad. The snow is welcome in the northern Black Hills, where winter sports enthusiasts are enjoying snow depths not seen since 1996.
Shannon Percy, Black Hills trials manager for the state Department of Game, Fish and Parks, said regular January snowfalls of 3 to 5 inches have left snowmobile trails looking good.
In the Mitchell area, temperatures will cool down again yet this winter, Gillispie said, but he doesn't expect to see the dramatically cold temperatures of this week to return.
"Hopefully, this is going to be the last cold blast of the winter," Gillispie said.
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He does expect another frigid air mass to hit the area in mid-February, with a predicted high of 16 degrees and lows in the single digits -- but above zero.
Thursday's temperature was 28 degrees below Mitchell's average low temperature of 6.
