Box Elder Schools closed due to heating issues

Box Elder Schools Superintendent Jeremy MacDonald said the schools are closed today due to a heating issue.

MacDonald said propane is freezing at the schools and the buildings cannot be heated.

MacDonald said the district expects the schools to be open Thursday.

"We'll be working on them all day today," he said.

The closure comes as cold, snowy weather returned to the area following a mostly mild winter.

The return of winter - and the first major cold and snow of the season - led to the schools in Box Elder, Rocky Boy, Harlem and Hays-Lodge Pole shutting down Monday, due to the extreme cold. The schools had reopened by Tuesday.

Temperatures had mostly been well-above normal and most of the the region had seen less than a foot of snow, 8.1 inches at Havre, since Dec. 1 until the storm that hit this week.

That amount has nearly doubled since Saturday, with the reporting station at the Havre City-County Airport recording 6.3 inches for the month through midnight Tuesday. Snow continued to fall this morning.

The low at Havre Tuesday was minus 9 degrees, warmer than the average low of 9 degrees but far bellow the record, minus 35 degrees, set in 1935.

The high Tuesday was minus 5 in Havre, with the normal value 31 degrees, just below freezing.

The sub-zero temperatures hit Sunday, following a high of 42 degrees in Havre Saturday.

The high Sunday was 1 degree with the low minus 9.

The record low in Havre was set in 1887, at minus 55.

Temperatures are expected to stay with highs in the single digits or below zero and lows below zero through the middle of next week, with the low tonight predicted to hit a frigid minus 27.

A chance of precipitation continues through the forecast period, with the highest chance in the forecast at 40 percent Friday, with less than an inch of accumulation expected, 50 percent Friday night with 1 to 3 inches accumulation expected, and a 40 percent chance of snow showers in the forecast Saturday morning.