It’s not going to reach down here to South Texas. Don’t envy y’all one bit. How bad is it? <Yes, you can take that as a straight line if you want to…>
“So bad, my snowman came inside to warm up.”
-20 in Saint Paul now, and it’ll be about -23 with a wind chill of -50 when I drive home in a few hours. Hope all the parts of my car work… I brought my battery pack/car jump-starter with me today, just in case. I think I’ll skip yoga class in the morning.
My office has closed for predicted cold weather for the first time in my career, and I’ve been in the FT workforce since 1990. So far it’s not so bad, but I spent the fall semester of 1989 in a leaky Leningrad dorm, so my standards may not be the same as most people’s. 
I am, however, glad that we went grocery shopping over the weekend and just had the furnace serviced last week.
Crap it’s cold!
The warmest temp here yesterday was at 1:00 am, since then the temp has just steadily plummeted.
We’re expected to break records in the region overnight. We’ve had quite a mild season up until about ten days ago. Things took a turn. The wind is howling around the house and shaking the windows. So far only about 15cm of snow. But that could change quickly.
My old dog is wearing his boots when we go out at -20+. There’s also an amazing amount of salt out there, (we walk past two public schools!)
And the weather report is not sounding good. Ugh!
What is your temp there in S. Texas?
It’s only 27 below Celsius here. Not too bad.
Right now 47. I think it was in the 60s today with bright sunny, blue skies.
Next few days highs in the 60s and 70s. Overnight 40-ish. It’s really perfect weather.
Another Mpls/StP resident here. -26° F overnight, high tomorrow of -14°F and overnight low tomorrow night of -30°F. So pretty much every cliche’ and meme of Minnesota being cold and frozen coming true.
There you go!
We’ve just completed a week down here with temperatures above 40C and humidity below 30%.
Could probably handle a snow cone if somebody had a spare one floating around.
+3F right now, supposed to get down to -21F tonight.
Maybe up to +47F by Sunday.
Schools around here have already closed for the rest of the week, and I had to cancel my tutoring session tomorrow. I’d have been able to make it there, but I wouldn’t have made it back: I can handle brine-freezing temperatures, and I can handle 20 MPH headwinds, but both at once is a bit much for me.
Yeah, it’s warmed all the way up to -24C here. Pretty ordinary January weather, really. Looked at the Winnipeg forecast, though… -39C overnight with windchill of -51. That’s a bit nasty.
I was in the middle of teaching today when, with no warning, they announced the college was closing… until Friday afternoon!
Oh, I’m in Wisconsin. Where in 25 years of teaching, we have never closed for weather like this (Uff da, we got dat Viking blood warming us from the inside, ya sure).
And where our Monday/Wednesday classes haven’t met yet! MLK Day, Snow Day, Snow Day, and now Frozen Day…
I don’t get it. This week the weather men are making a huge deal about how cold it will be this week due to the polar vortex. It’s in the high teens. Half as much of a fuss was made about last Monday when it was a balmy 3F.
For those who need it (like me), Fahrenheit/Celsius conversion widget.
Last weekend it was so cold in Thunder Bay that the ski hill bribed people to come ski: January 19, 2019: Use of force - YouTube , but the next day it was even colder, so the person for whom I obtained a free ticket would not come out of the house. Shazbot!
This weekend it was even colder, so the hill closed on Sunday. My Princess Niece flew in to ski with me, but fortunately she prefers cross-country. The x-c skiing was very, very slow due to the cold keeping the snowflake points pointy like knives rather than rounded like ball bearings.
Unfortunately, my cat held a party for the neighbours’ dogs while I was off skiing on Saturday, and of course they didn’t close the chalet’s door after feasting on cat kibble (duck and veggies if you really must know) and playing and whatever else it is they do when left to their own devices, so it was a tad cool inside when I arrived home. For the first time in years, the wooden door properly fit the wooden door frame rather than being too snug. You’ve heard the expression “It’s so cold it makes my balls contract!” Well, it’s so cold it made my chalet contact.
One of the satellite community offices where I attend for work made the news yesterday: -47 c -51 F in Geraldton. https://images.dailyhive.com/20190128073836/Screen-Shot-2019-01-28-at-10.33.49-AM.png Compare that to many of the arctic communities on the list. Basically, part of the arctic weather moved south.
It takes longer to dress for playing outside. If you have exposed skin, you will get frostbite, and that is not something to play around with. If you do not dress warmly enough, you get hypothermic, but if you dress too warmly you sweat like a pig, which reduces the insulating ability of your clothes, which in turn results in your being a lot colder once you reduce your activity level.
This morning at sunrise for cross-country skiing I wore a thin pair of socks and a thick pair of socks, three pairs of stretch briefs, two stretch long johns, one medium pile long john, Goretex overpants (wind stopping), two long stretch tops, one thick pile jacket, one non-insulated ski jacket, a neck dickie, two medium balaclavas covering all but my peepers, and lined mittens that have so much insulation that they can barely fit through my ski straps. It was comfortable but restrictive compared to x-c skiing in less chilly temperatures when I would not have to wear anywhere near as much.
For lift area skiing, I chart clothing, activity level, temperature and sunshine/cloud cover/sunlight/darkness, so it is no biggie figuring out what to wear, but these days we’re getting into “just wear it all” territory: wicking layers, thick fleece insulating layers, wind stopping external layer. See something that looks like a cross between a space-person and a human igloo skiing past at 80 km/h 50 mph with a down parka down to the knees? That’d be me, all comfy and warm bundled up at the top of the run, but after half a minute at speed, the cold penetrates.
All in all, it is what it is. You have to think and prepare before you go outside, but provided you do so, the dip in winter temps does not put a big ding the the fun winter offers, so suit up, throw yourself into the snow, and enjoy what a cold winter has to offer.
Southern Wisconsin reporting in. -10 F, -50 with wind chill. How cold is it? The local bars (THE BARS!!!) closed early.
Neat fact: -40F and -40C are the same temperature.
Just a reminder: If you have one of those fancy thermostats that automatically turns down the temperature at night when you are sleeping or during the day when you are at work, disable the feature until the temperatures return to normal.
When the outside temp is -20 with -50 windchills, your furnace will probably not be able to raise the temperature in the house. You’ll be lucky if it doesn’t fall too much despite constantly running. Don’t let the temperature fall unnecessarily.