Frigid temps grip county

By By Clif Knight, Hartselle Enquirer
An unrelenting Arctic cold front held Hartselle and Morgan County in its icy-fingered clutches earlier this week and showed no signs of loosening its grip until next week.
A low temperature of 16 degrees was reached early Monday morning followed by a 13-degree reading 24 hour later. A five-day forecast on accuweather.com predicted even colder temperatures for the weekend, with a low of 12 on Saturday and a low of 11 on Sunday.
With weekend highs not expected to rise above freezing, a possibility of snow and ice-covered roads adds a danger for motorists. Snow of up to two inches is predicted for the Tennessee Valley on Thursday and if that happens freezing conditions will allow it to accumulate and stay around for at least two or three days.
But what lays ahead still pales in comparison to the “Alberta Clipper” that blitzed the Deep South in the winter of 1985.
Arctic winds that followed a four-inch snow caused temperatures to plunge to minus 11 degrees on Jan. 11. The high for that day was 17 degrees. A four-day span of sub-zero temperatures from Jan. 18 – 22 forced schools and many businesses to close, left many utility customers without power and frozen water pipes and made driving on streets and highways extremely dangerous.
The low temperatures broke records that had existed since Feb. 13, 1899.
Hartselle Utilities expects to have adequate supplies of electric power and natural gas to meet the demands of its customers, according to Ferrell Vest, general manager.