Peter Sinks is a natural
sinkhole
A sinkhole is a depression or hole in the ground caused by some form of collapse of the surface layer. The term is sometimes used to refer to doline, enclosed depressions that are locally also known as ''vrtače'' and shakeholes, and to openi ...
in northern
Utah
Utah ( , ) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. Utah is a landlocked U.S. state bordered to its east by Colorado, to its northeast by Wyoming, to its north by Idaho, to its south by Arizona, and to it ...
that is one of the coldest places in the
contiguous United States
The contiguous United States (officially the conterminous United States) consists of the 48 adjoining U.S. states and the Federal District of the United States of America. The term excludes the only two non-contiguous states, Alaska and Hawaii ...
.
Peter Sinks is located above
sea level
Mean sea level (MSL, often shortened to sea level) is an average surface level of one or more among Earth's coastal bodies of water from which heights such as elevation may be measured. The global MSL is a type of vertical datuma standardised g ...
, in the
Bear River Mountains
The Bear River Range (also known as the Bear River Mountains), is a mountain range located in northeastern Utah and southeastern Idaho in the western United States.
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Description
The range forms the eastern boundary of the Cache Valley. ...
east of
Logan
Logan may refer to:
Places
* Mount Logan (disambiguation)
Australia
* Logan (Queensland electoral district), an electoral district in the Queensland Legislative Assembly
* Logan, Victoria, small locality near St. Arnaud
* Logan City, local gover ...
, within the
Wasatch-Cache National Forest. Due to
temperature inversion
In meteorology, an inversion is a deviation from the normal change of an atmospheric property with altitude. It almost always refers to an inversion of the air temperature lapse rate, in which case it is called a temperature inversion. No ...
s that trap cold nighttime air, it routinely produces the lowest temperatures in the contiguous United States. Even in the summer, the bottom of the sinkhole rarely goes four consecutive days without freezing. It is so cold near the bottom of the hole that trees are unable to grow.
On 1 February 1985, a temperature of was recorded there, the lowest recorded temperature in Utah, and the second-lowest temperature ever recorded in the contiguous United States.
Peter Sinks' meteorological significance was discovered by
Utah State University
Utah State University (USU or Utah State) is a public land-grant research university in Logan, Utah. It is accredited by the Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities. With nearly 20,000 students living on or near campus, USU is Utah's ...
student Zane Stephens in 1983. Stephens, along with the Utah Climate Center, placed measuring instruments in the valley in the winter of 1984. On February 1, 1985, Peter Sinks dropped to , while another nearby valley, Middle Sink, located to the north-east, dropped to . Stephens hiked into Middle Sink along with Burns Israelsen to record the temperature personally. He then flew into Peter Sinks in a
KUTV
KUTV (channel 2) is a television station in Salt Lake City, Utah, United States, affiliated with CBS. It is owned by Sinclair Broadcast Group alongside independent station KJZZ-TV (channel 14) and St. George–licensed MyNetworkTV affiliate K ...
television station helicopter with broadcasting
meteorologist
A meteorologist is a scientist who studies and works in the field of meteorology aiming to understand or predict Earth's atmospheric phenomena including the weather. Those who study meteorological phenomena are meteorologists in research, while t ...
Mark Eubank
Mark Edwin Eubank is a retired Salt Lake City, Utah television broadcasting meteorologist who served as chief meteorologist for the 2002 Winter Olympics.
Career
Eubank joined the KSL-TV channel 5 Television news team in 1990 as their chief meteor ...
. State
climatologist
Climatology (from Greek , ''klima'', "place, zone"; and , ''-logia'') or climate science is the scientific study of Earth's climate, typically defined as weather conditions averaged over a period of at least 30 years. This modern field of study ...
Gayle Bingham also traveled to the area and confirmed the temperature. The
alcohol thermometer
The alcohol thermometer or spirit thermometer is an alternative to the mercury-in-glass thermometer and has similar functions. Unlike the mercury-in-glass thermometer, the contents of an alcohol thermometer are less toxic and will evaporate qui ...
being used was retrieved and sent to the
Bureau of Standards
A standards organization, standards body, standards developing organization (SDO), or standards setting organization (SSO) is an organization whose primary function is developing, coordinating, promulgating, revising, amending, reissuing, interpr ...
in
Washington, D.C.
)
, image_skyline =
, image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...
to confirm the temperature.
Since 1985, Peter Sinks and Middle Sink have been studied extensively by Stephens and Tim Wright with the use of Campbell Scientific weather equipment. On January 29, 2002, the temperature dropped to at Middle Sink. Stephens and Wright's main study is the change in temperature through the inversion at these sites. These valleys act like a dam trapping cold air, with the coldest of the air settling to the bottom of the valley. Stephens and Wright have found that temperatures between the cold air "lake" and the warmer air above the valley can be different by as much as .
Climate
Peter Sinks, sitting at an elevation of 8,164 feet, is a natural limestone sinkhole approximately one-half mile wide in diameter and has no valley outlet (referred to as
dolines geologically) to drain water or air. It is one of the coldest spots in the
lower 48
The contiguous United States (officially the conterminous United States) consists of the 48 adjoining U.S. states and the Federal District of the United States of America. The term excludes the only two non-contiguous states, Alaska and Hawaii ...
.
During calm cloudless nights, this high elevation basin dissipates daytime heat rapidly into the atmosphere. Cool dense air can then slide downwards towards the basin floor in a process known as cold air pooling. Consequently, extremely low temperatures can occur, particularly in the wake of arctic fronts in winter. According to the
Köppen climate classification
The Köppen climate classification is one of the most widely used climate classification systems. It was first published by German-Russian climatologist Wladimir Köppen (1846–1940) in 1884, with several later modifications by Köppen, notabl ...
, it has a continental
subalpine
Montane ecosystems are found on the slopes of mountains. The alpine climate in these regions strongly affects the ecosystem because temperatures fall as elevation increases, causing the ecosystem to stratify. This stratification is a crucial f ...
/
subarctic climate
The subarctic climate (also called subpolar climate, or boreal climate) is a climate with long, cold (often very cold) winters, and short, warm to cool summers. It is found on large landmasses, often away from the moderating effects of an ocean, ge ...
,
[Beck, H.E., Zimmermann, N. E., McVicar, T. R., Vergopolan, N., Berg, A., & Wood, E. F. ] abbreviated ''Dfc'', though the exceptional attributes of this climate preclude one of the hallmark features of the climate type, the
boreal forest
Taiga (; rus, тайга́, p=tɐjˈɡa; relates to Mongolic and Turkic languages), generally referred to in North America as a boreal forest or snow forest, is a biome characterized by coniferous forests consisting mostly of pines, spruces, ...
, which as
Köppen Köppen is a German surname. Notable people with the surname include:
* Bernd Köppen (born 1951), German pianist and composer
* Carl Köppen (1833-1907), German military advisor in Meiji era Japan
* Edlef Köppen (1893–1939), German author and ...
based the system around vegetation distribution indicates that Peter Sinks stretches the limits of the system.
See also
*
List of sinkholes of the United States
References
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External links
Peter Sinks - Utah Climate Center- real-time temperature monitoring of Peter Sinks and rim temperatures. Maintained by the Utah Climate Center
- current project by Utah State University for onsite remote automated monitoring at Peter Sinks
by John Horel in 1999 - includes map and photos
*
{{Coord, 41, 54, 45, N, 111, 30, 50, W, display=title
Mountain meteorology
Protected areas of Cache County, Utah
Sinkholes of the United States
Landforms of Cache County, Utah