# 42 Below, Ice Crystals, Wind Chill - and Loving It! **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [January 29, 2004, 3:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/42-below-ice-crystals-wind-chill-and-loving-it/226594 "2004-01-29T15:47:26Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Gorsnak](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gorsnak/32/7587_2.png) [@Gorsnak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gorsnak)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2004, 9:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/42-below-ice-crystals-wind-chill-and-loving-it/226594/21 "2004-01-31T21:21:14Z")
> [@featherlou](#): > > Have you tried putting some cardboard/carpet in the front of your car, in front of the radiator? That usually fixes the “won’t blow anything but cold air” problem. (But remember to take it out in spring!) No, I didn’t cardboard my rad. I never get around to it until it’s cold enough to actually matter, and at that point it’s too cold to do it. 😛 Thing was, that morning my temp gauge was up high enough that the air _should_ have been warm, but it was ice cold (well, colder than that, actually). So I’m theorizing that my coolant mixture is a bit off, and the coolant in the heater core was a bit gelled and wasn’t circulating. The problem hasn’t recurred in the subsequent above -40 temps, so I’m not going to lose sleep over it. Cold snaps in February rarely hit -45. ---
**Author:** ![MissTake](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/misstake/32/3189_2.png) [@MissTake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MissTake)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2004, 10:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/42-below-ice-crystals-wind-chill-and-loving-it/226594/22 "2004-01-31T22:49:37Z")
_Does happy dance_ It hit zero, it hit zero!! Don’t get me wrong, I love winter. I’m like **Eggerhaus** ’s kid. I planned on student teaching in Northern Alaska (before I decided I didn’t want to teach), live for snowball fights and snow tubing. But DAMN it’s been cold. LilMiss has been throwing hissyfits seeing so many schools delayed or closed, knowing that her school district never closes. They follow the Minneapolis School District which has closed maybe 3 times in the past 20 years. Poor kid. Happy mom. ---
**Author:** ![french\_frog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/c77e96/32.png) [@french\_frog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/french_frog)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2004, 12:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/42-below-ice-crystals-wind-chill-and-loving-it/226594/23 "2004-02-01T00:42:46Z")
Just to contribute : a little New England joke > [@](#): > > New England Temperature Conversion Chart > > 60° F: Southern Californians shiver uncontrollably. People in New England sunbathe. > > 50° F: New Yorkers try to turn on the heat. People in New England plant gardens. > > 40° F: Italian & English cars won’t start. People in New England drive with the windows down. > > 32° F: Distilled water freezes. The water at Moosehead Lake in Maine starts getting cooler. > > 20° F: Floridians don coats, thermal underwear, gloves, wool hats. People in New England throw on a flannel shirt, buttons open. > > 15° F: New York City landlords finally turn up the heat. People in New England have the last cookout before it gets cold. > > 0° F: All the people in Miami die . New Englanders close the windows. > > 10° below zero: Californians escape en masse to Mexico. Girl Scouts in New England sell cookies door to door. > > 25° below zero: Las Vegas disintegrates. People in New England rummage around the attic to find some winter coats. > > 40° below zero: Washington DC runs out of hot air. People in New England let the dogs sleep indoors. > > 100° below zero: Santa Claus abandons the North Pole. Some New Englanders are frustrated when they can’t start their “kahs” (=“cars” with a boston accent). > > 460° below zero (absolute zero on the Kelvin Scale): All atomic motion stops. People in New England start saying . . . “Cold 'nuff for ya?” > > 500° below zero: Hell freezes over. Red Sox win World Series. Coming from a mediterranean wheather I enjoyed -40 w/wind chill as a enlightning and refeshing experience: Don’t take your chances with nature. My admiration for Canadians, Eskimos and other crazy people is way up. ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Whisperer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cat_whisperer/32/4839_2.png) [@Cat\_Whisperer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Whisperer)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2004, 2:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/42-below-ice-crystals-wind-chill-and-loving-it/226594/24 "2004-02-01T02:14:49Z")
> [@Mnem](#): > > It’s days like these that I look forward to that good old -20C Funny you should say that, because I had a real Canadian moment this morning. Getting up to go to a class, I looked at the temp on the weather channel, and said to my husband, with absolutely no irony, “Oh, great, it’s up to -21°C.” ( **french frog** , I’ve seen that joke before with “Saskatchewan” substituted for “New England”. And “pick-ups” substituted for “cahs”. :D) ---
**Author:** ![Mama\_Tiger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/6de8d8/32.png) [@Mama\_Tiger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mama_Tiger)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2004, 2:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/42-below-ice-crystals-wind-chill-and-loving-it/226594/25 "2004-02-01T02:27:15Z")
> [@](#): > > and one glove (I lost the other one a few days ago and haven’t gotten a new pair yet) A few years ago I was living in the Washington DC area and we had temps in the single digits F (about -15C – I realize it’s not the same thing as -40, but it was still damn cold) and had one hand in a big clunky cast so I couldn’t put a glove on over it. I discovered that two wool socks pulled over the hand makes a terrific substitute glove. In fact, I would have worn them on both hands had I been able to use my thumb on the other hand. Papa Tiger, who grew up 80 miles south of the Canadian border in northern Minnesota (who wants me to tell you that the Winter Carnival is in St. Paul, NOT Minneapolis!), says a doormat in front of the radiator is the wind-blocker of choice to keep the cold air from blowing in so the radiator can head up. (He also headed south, and finds our current location, New Orleans, to be not quite warm enough – Guam was just perfect, but Singapore was a bit _too_ hot for him). ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2004, 4:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/42-below-ice-crystals-wind-chill-and-loving-it/226594/26 "2004-02-01T04:41:54Z")
> [@Tripler](#): > > suffering through Minot, ND for 3 1/2, and now getting shrinkage in Great Falls, Montana… [Darth Vader] Come over to the cold side, **Tripler**. You have the cold in you… [/Darth Vader] ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2004, 4:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/42-below-ice-crystals-wind-chill-and-loving-it/226594/27 "2004-02-01T04:44:06Z")
> [@featherlou](#): > > ( **french frog** , I’ve seen that joke before with “Saskatchewan” substituted for “New England”. And “pick-ups” substituted for “cahs”. :D) And the Riders substituted for the Red Sox, no doubt? ---
**Author:** ![PastAllReason](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/f07891/32.png) [@PastAllReason](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PastAllReason)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2004, 5:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/42-below-ice-crystals-wind-chill-and-loving-it/226594/28 "2004-02-01T05:05:43Z")
I didn’t realize there are so many people with Saskatchewan connections here! Some blizzard yesterday, with the resulting digging out this morning. I opened my front door and there was a snow bank three feet high just waiting for me and my shovel. After the weather earlier in the week, though, it was actually quite nice by the time I finished the shovelling this afternoon - no wind and sunny. The current -26 with -37 windchill feels almost balmy. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Tripler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripler/32/21807_2.png) [@Tripler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tripler)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2004, 5:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/42-below-ice-crystals-wind-chill-and-loving-it/226594/29 "2004-02-01T05:14:26Z")
I just stepped outside to run to the store real quick. We have no degrees. That’s right, I said _no_ degrees. The thermometer said “0”. We have no degrees. Hell, I had a hard enough time lighting the grill this afternoon - so fuckin’ cold the regulator on my propane tank froze up. Tripler And with shrinkage like this, it’s no wonder I can’t get any. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/42-below-ice-crystals-wind-chill-and-loving-it/226594.md?page=1)