With the hurricane victims every year, I always think at least it’s not cold enough to worry about freezing to death. Imagine a storm like that with an Alberta cold front. Ice 3 foot thick covering everything. The people that haven’t seen the shore near a large body of water in winter with the waves breaking on the shore, are missing an interesting site. Everything where mist can reach on shore is burried in multiple feet of ice sometimes. During a super cold spell the ice can freeze cyrstal clear so you can see the bottom of marshes and lakes. In the morning you can go out and see hore frost crystals a few inches long all over the ice. The lakes crack from one end to the other and you hear a thunder loud tearing roar that lasts for up to 30 seconds. The trees and everything else can end up covered in large hore frost crystals actually, which is beautiful no matter how much you hate the weather.
Sunspace the cold and humid weather you discribe is what I hate the most. The headaches in that weather kill me.
I tell gullable people that the lone corn leaf blowing across the snow covered wind swept fields at high speed are snow snakes. They believe me. The key is the leaf is moving at high speed on the blinding white snow.
It’s currently -38C without the windchill (-54 with windchill). And a blizzard is forecast for tomorrow.
We had some bone chilling cold last week when the temperature was the same, but the 70kph winds put the windchill at -68C one day.
Life goes on. You dress for the cold and respect the conditions. Vehicles and equipment need some extra TLC. Frostbite is a real concern and many people do get a touch of it on their face, hands or feet at some point during the winter.
Temperature alone rarely affects people’s daily pursuits. School, work and leisure activities go on with only the most severe blizzard putting a damper on things. People will enthusiastically participate in dogsled and skidoo races in temperatures of -35. Hunters will still go out on the land, though they take extra precautions to keep their machines warm and always have a “plan B” in place.
These temperatures and blizzard conditions are typical for this region for about four months a year. Occasionally, it will warm up to about -20, making it feel downright tropical by comparison.
Believe it or not, the environment here has a beauty in its harshness. The sight of an arctic blizzard is one to behold. The power and duration are humbling.
The best blizzards are the weekend ones. You know, the ones where you get up to pee, look out the window, see the blowing snow, hear the wind whistling around your house, and go back to snuggling your husband in your warm bed with cats piled here and there, knowing that you have nothing that has to be done and nowhere that you have to go that day.
Reminds me of what I wear out to do chores when I’m at home. It usually went something like long underwear, yoga pants, thin sweatpants, heavy sweatpants, nylon pants, thermal shirt, turtleneck, long-sleeved t-shirt, short-sleeved t-shirt, zippered hoodie, hooded barn coat, seed coat. The first layer of socks (thermal socks, two pairs crew socks) go on under the pants, but the outermost layer (two pairs knee socks) goes on over the the thin sweatpants. Then a stocking cap, a headband over the stocking cap, and both hoods up. Thin knit gloves, work gloves. I remove some layers once I’m in the barn, since the cows give off plenty of heat, and you can’t wear gloves while you’re milking since they just get wet. It’s easier to keep your hands warm if you can dry them off as you go. It’s not too bad if you can keep your head, hands and feet warm.
I talked to my parents earlier today, and Mom said that it was so cold Saturday night, the fuel in the tractor (kept in the machine shed) gelled up and Dad had run the block heater for a good hour before it was warm enough to go. That hardly ever happens. Then this morning, all the pipes in the milking barn froze, and the drinking cups overflowed, so the manger was flooded. Mom and Dad got to clear all the icy water out of the barn before they started milking at 6:30 this morning. The cows are in the barn tonight to keep it warm. I can’t say that I’m not happy to be at school, where the only thing I have to grouse about is the fact that the butter on my kitchen table won’t soften up.
I would also like to point out that my Weather Channel desktop currently says that there was no high temperature today. It just has a – where the number would usually go. The low, however, was -18 degrees F.
It’s actually sort of chilly here today. 14F, -10c or so.
It’s somewhere around 0 here in NE Ohio (it was 3 when I woke up this morning, and it kept dropping), but our heat’s not working well at work, so I’m not sure we’re going to be here all day. I am FREEZING. We’re all working with our coats on right now, I have a space heater as high as it’ll go, but the thermostat’s dead, we think.
I hate living in Ohio.
E.
-10F here at dawn today. Beautiful sunrise over the lake with “steam” rising from it.
Just you southerners wait until August, when we are nice and cool and you suckers are complaining about the heat. Heehee.
Oh, I believe it. Only, for me anyway, such beauty is best beheld via my favorite PBS tv station. 
I do enjoy driving around in really violent thunderstorms, which we don’t get much around here. Upside of that is we don’t (often) have tornadoes.
A total t-storm, like you see in the midwest, is also a thing of beauty.
And yes, they are very dangerous to be out in.
Still…
Peace,
mangeorge
It was -14F today at sunrise. The bird feeders are empty and I have just made up my mind to fill them. brrrrrr
Lest everyone think the real winter weather is saved for those living in all points north. This moring it was 3 degrees F. when I awoke in lovely Hebron KY. (About 20 miles south of Cincinnati). It was in the teens all last week and we’ll be lucky if it makes it above 10 this week.
Everyone but featherlou has missed the fun of a good cold winter. It was so damn cold on Saterday my wife and I didn’t get out of bed until 4:00 pm. Flannel sheets, a down comforter, a nice quilt and minimal clothing. Who would want to leave?
That reminds me. I want to visit Nunavut some time.
The main reason I continue to live here, in NY, is that I like having wildly varying extremes of temperature. For now anyway I like to experience all the range I can get.
It was actually a balmy 9 degrees out this morning. I remember two Fridays ago waking up to a 1 degree temp, windchill dropping it to below -10. But while we do get cold in that weather, I still rather like treating it like it’s almost nothing and going out anyway.
We still don’t measure up to MN winters, and I’ll pass on those anyway. But honestly, while I don’t love winter, I’ve grown to appreciate it.
All my college classes have been cancelled today, due to extreme cold. Wish I would have checked my e-mail before I started the coffee pot. I hate to levae it on while I head back to bed for an hour or so. At least the kind I use reheats well.
I think today I’m going to bake some banana bread and some cinnamon applesauce bread, then invite my friend Sarah over if her car will start.
I always say you know it’s cold out when it takes more time to put yur clothes on for the outside than it does to get dressed in the morning. To get dressed: bra, panties, t-shirt, blouse, jacket,pantyhose, pants. To go outside: hooded sweatshirt, hooded scarf,regular scarf,hat,heavy hooded jacket, light socks, heavy socks, heavy shoes, light gloves, fur mittens.
-8 below zero here, up from -11 earlier. The sun is shining off the snow, it’s blinding. I am home to stay, with the crockpot filled with pork chops. I plan on making cookies later. I (suppose) I’ll do some homework and housework as well.
I love these days. I love winter. I am not an ice fisherman (woman?), I don’t dogsled. I don’t ski.
I do love the beauty that is found in snowscapes and I love the coming in from the cold to a warm, cozy house.
I was born in Florida, but never felt good until we moved here when I was 4. I LIKE the change of seasons, the dips in temperature, the variety of scenery from season to season. I live just south of Chicago, so I am a wimp compared to some here from the Rockies, UP, WI and Canada, but I also wouldn’t trade the weather here for anything.
I hate bugs and heat and humidity. Like they said upthread, I can always warm up, but I cannot cool down. My body does not deal with heat well–I sweat (which is a good thing), but I don’t cool down. I feel disembodied in the heat–no energy, no ambition, no liveliness. I crave sleep, but can’t. It’s horrible–I dread every August.
Anyway, come on up and explore winter! (or go to Antartica–shorter trip and probably cheaper for you too!). We’d love to have you.
I’d rather live in cold weather. I can’t do anything in hot weather and I just wilt in humidity. Not to forget the issues with freckling.
I don’t have to mow the lawn, weed my garden and no poisonous vermin or cockroaches.
My dog, OTOH, is a bit confused on what to do today. Her normal routine of going outside, laying in the snow and then barking to be let back in 10 minutes later, then bark to be let out again a few minutes later. Her routine is all screwed up today.
MY car (pickup) will start. 
Failing that, could you open, then close, a plastic bag in your kitchen then fedex it to me?
mangeorge
-12C, a 35-km/h wind, and snowing outside my work in Mississauga, Ontario! There’s a wind chill of -23. It’s a fine, powdery snow. This is good. We haven’t had enough snow.
I live in a ski chalet. The good part of it is that there is an old cast iron wood stove. The bad part of it is that there is no chimney, so I can’t use it.
The place is warm enough (central forced air heating), but without a crackling fire to curl up in front of, it’s just not quite right. That and a ski bunny; I needs me a ski bunny. Comes to think of it, it was -27F last night, so I needs me somes ski bunnies.