Mercury hits 1920 low mark Bend shivered last night in the most intense cold of the winter and this morning the telephone at The Bulletin office was kept busy with inquiries as to how low the mercury in the official government thermometer had fallen. Eight degrees above zero was the official minimum, reached shortly before 8 o'clock in the morning. One unofficial thermometer in the city recorded six degrees below. Last night's cold snap would not have been considered worth noticing last year. A glance at the temperature record for the night of December 12,1919, recalled the fact that the mercury sank to 22 degrees below zero.