Brrrr! Record cold hits Coeur d'Alene!

If you haven't already, time is running out to prepare your home for the winter and hunker in.

A story in the Coeur d'Alene Press stated the obvious - Anything left in the garden Friday night might as well be considered a write-off, as temperatures hit a record low overnight.

The 19 degrees recorded at 6:43 a.m. Saturday by climatologist Cliff Harris broke a record for the day of 26 degrees set in 1954. By 2:56 p.m. the high for the day only reached 45 degrees, beating by 1 degree the record low high temperature set for the date in 1946.

"We broke records on both sides," said Harris, who fielded phone calls all day about broken sprinklers and water pipes.

Temperatures in Kootenai County reached as low as 12 degrees northwest of Garwood and 14 degrees near Athol, he said. That means the end of the season for gardeners.

"It got everything today," Harris said. "Even stuff we had covered."

If you haven't already, time is running out to prepare your home for the winter and hunker in.

The record was the first time such a low temperature was recorded prior to mid-November, he said. The only time it has been colder earlier in the year was Sept. 24, 1926, during what was called "The cold wave of the century," when it hit 17 degrees. And Harris expected the chill to repeat on Saturday night, or even go colder if winds died down.

"We'll see this for at least two more days, then it will get warmer and rain," Harris said. And if the moist air moves in before the temperature rises, "there may be rare October snowflakes. It's like a November pattern."

In spite of the chilly air, the skies were brilliant blue with lots of sushine. It was a beautiful autumn weekend in beautiful North Idaho!