BRAINERD — Forecasters said it hasn’t been this cold for this long in north central Minnesota since Richard Nixon was in the White House and gas was 36 cents a gallon.

The National Weather Service in Duluth looked at the coldest 6-day stretches and found it was 1972 when it last has been this cold in Crow Wing County. The stretch from Dec. 6 to 11 averaged about 6 degrees above zero.

The coldest December stretch on record was 1927 with an average temperature of 7 1/2 degrees below zero.