When winter hits hard, it's still business as usual for some

Havre was reported to have a temperature of minus 29 degrees this morning, but workers in the cold were staying tough and upbeat.

As of 5 a.m. today, the Montana city with the coldest temperature in the previous 12 hours was Bannack, with a high of minus 27. In the previous 24 hours, the warmest city was Thompson Falls, with 20 degrees.

Havre had a high of 3 degrees and a low of minus 24 degrees Wednesday.

The roads of Havre were divided by long mounds of ice and snow, left by city workers' plows and sidewalk crews shoveling snow to clear the walkways of the downtown area.

As one gets to higher ground, the landscape is a solid white, speckled with buildings.

Kino Detrick is a groundskeeper at Montana State University-Northern and was seen plowing the sidewalks of the university with his "little tractor."

When asked how he prepares for working outside in the winter, Detrick responded with "layers."

His advice to others for dealing with the winter weather was "don't go outside."

"I love it," Detrick said. "It doesn't bother me."

Detrick said he has lived in Havre 15 years and has worked as a Northern groundskeeper for 12 of them.

He said he couldn't remember the worst winter or if this was one of the worst of Havre's Decembers he has been through.

"It's all the same to me; it's Havre winters," Detrick said.

Plowing the snow off the sidewalks and clearing the steps of snow and ice will take him all day to complete, he said, but he remains upbeat about his job.

Richard Shanklin, the only employee at Gary & Leo's Fresh Foods this morning helping customers by taking their groceries out and bringing shopping carts back indoors, said the winter weather doesn't bother him.

Shanklin's job requires him to go outside into the cold often.

"Going from the heat to the cold is the worst part," Shanklin said. "The slip hazards are a problem."

Shanklin added that when temperatures are as cold as they were this morning, the slip hazards are not as much of a problem, but the snow on the ground may cause accidents as it warms up a little.

Shanklin, a former truck driver, drives to work from Rudyard and has been employed at Gary & Leo's for three months.

According to Weather Underground's almanac, Havre's average temperatures, from 1995 to the present, for today are a high of 31 degrees and a low of 9 degrees.

Follow John Paul Schmidt on Twitter @hdn_jpschmidt