Ah, news in AK....

I didn't realize "croaked" was a technical term for cease functioning.

"We'll just never know, it seems. A thermometer at a state road maintenance camp along the Dalton Highway wasapproaching the U.S. low temperature record of minus 80on Saturday when it croaked. The amateur-operated thermometer at the Jim River camp, about 140 miles south of Deadhorse, was reading minus 79 when the battery apparently gave out."

Read more here: http://www.adn.com/2012/01/31/2292509/thermometer-dies-at-haul-road.html#storylink=cpy