# God has forsaken the North East **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [January 16, 2004, 3:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/god-has-forsaken-the-north-east/224709 "2004-01-16T03:29:30Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **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 16, 2004, 6:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/god-has-forsaken-the-north-east/224709/21 "2004-01-16T06:24:58Z")
> [@Airman Doors](#): > > Just to put things in perspective for the Celsius folks, -40 is the same whether you’re talking about Fahrenheit or Celsius, so it’s DAMN cold. Yes, I’m well aware of the fact that -40 is -40. And it’s cold, yes, and even we bitch about it when it’s that cold (assuming you mean actually -40, and not just -20 with a wind chill). Thing is, it’s a very, very rare winter where we don’t get close to -40 for a week or so at the least, so we don’t view it as a sign of the End Times or anything. As I said, I just find it humourous that we’re having a warm spell (for us - at these temps in Detroit they’d be warning people about the dangers of hypothermia and such. I know this because I get the Detroit affiliates of the major US networks on cable) while the midwest is getting a taste of what a run of the mill cold snap is like out here. **EddyTeddyFreddy** : perhaps someone from Iqaluit or somewhere will come by and put me in my place. Saskatoon isn’t the coldest place in this country by a long shot. ---
**Author:** ![so\_da\_ne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d9b06d/32.png) [@so\_da\_ne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/so_da_ne)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2004, 6:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/god-has-forsaken-the-north-east/224709/22 "2004-01-16T06:37:58Z")
I lived in the Yukon for awhile and -40 was normal there in the winter. Just down the road in Snag the coldest temperature in Canada was recorded (-63!!!) It was recorded in back in the 1940s IIRC. ---
**Author:** ![so\_da\_ne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d9b06d/32.png) [@so\_da\_ne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/so_da_ne)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2004, 6:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/god-has-forsaken-the-north-east/224709/23 "2004-01-16T06:40:58Z")
that’s in celsius ---
**Author:** ![thumbupmybum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/df788c/32.png) [@thumbupmybum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thumbupmybum)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2004, 8:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/god-has-forsaken-the-north-east/224709/24 "2004-01-16T08:55:35Z")
**EddyTeddyFreddy** : perhaps someone from Iqaluit or somewhere will come by and put me in my place. Saskatoon isn’t the coldest place in this country by a long shot. [/QUOTE] Muh…I’m not from Iqaluit, but I did grow up in Grande Prairie, Alberta, (5 hours NW from Edmonton) - -40 wasn’t uncommon. Still, now I’m in Toronto, where it’s -25 or something, I can still say quite clearly that, no matter where you are, or are from, -25 totally fucking sucks. ---
**Author:** ![Jonathan\_Chance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jonathan_chance/32/701_2.png) [@Jonathan\_Chance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jonathan_Chance)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2004, 12:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/god-has-forsaken-the-north-east/224709/25 "2004-01-16T12:59:01Z")
9 damn degrees when I started the car this morning. Ain’t I living south of the Mason-Dixon line? ---
**Author:** ![Zebra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/c0e974/32.png) [@Zebra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zebra)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2004, 3:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/god-has-forsaken-the-north-east/224709/26 "2004-01-16T15:42:34Z")
You think you’re fucking cold? Try living in Brooklyn where the am temp when I got up was 9. (with out wind chill) and the \*\*fucking boiler in my apt died in the middle of the night last night! NO HEAT! NONE![/B] Now that’s fucking cold. ---
**Author:** ![Casey1505](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/dc4da7/32.png) [@Casey1505](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Casey1505)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2004, 3:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/god-has-forsaken-the-north-east/224709/27 "2004-01-16T15:49:09Z")
Ordinarilly, I don’t complain about the weather. But when giving the wife a jump in the morning involves dressing in layers, work boots, heavy gloves, and a lined field jacket, well…that’s just too cold. ---
**Author:** ![cuauhtemoc](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ecb155/32.png) [@cuauhtemoc](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cuauhtemoc)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2004, 4:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/god-has-forsaken-the-north-east/224709/28 "2004-01-16T16:33:02Z")
> [@Zebra](#): > > You think you’re fucking cold? > > Try living in Brooklyn where the am temp when I got up was 9. (with out wind chill) and the \*\*fucking boiler in my apt died in the middle of the night last night! NO HEAT! NONE![/B] > > Now that’s fucking cold. Did you dial 3-1-1? I heard on the radio that Mr. Bloomberg advised people whose heat wasn’t working to dial 3-1-1, and I was kind of curious about what kind of a response that would get. Do they actually come and fix your heater? Do they lend you a space heater? Whisk you away to a shelter? ---
**Author:** ![Nutty\_Bunny](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/d07c76/32.png) [@Nutty\_Bunny](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nutty_Bunny)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2004, 4:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/god-has-forsaken-the-north-east/224709/29 "2004-01-16T16:33:04Z")
Wow. In Albany, NY it just warmed up to 0 F! We had a wind chill last night of -30 F and at 7:00 pm, while I was at the market, I felt it! Now, regardless of which region is the coldest, cold is cold and my -10 F is wicked cold, as is someone’s -40 F. It’s all relative. Growing up in extreme northern NY (15 miles from Cornwall, Ont.) in the 80s, I had to walk about a 1/4 mile to school. No big deal, except in heavy rain or snow. One year (I think 1983), it was -40 F one morning. Our newly arrived from Long Island superintendent cancelled school for that day. Cancelled school because of cold? We had never had a situation like that. It wasn’t extremely unusual to have many days of below 0 F weather. He got so much flak for cancelling school because we get so much snow there that we need all of our snow days for blizzards and ice. But the next day when it was -44 F, we all went to school. Walking that morning was brutal! ---
**Author:** ![Anaamika](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Anaamika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anaamika)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2004, 4:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/god-has-forsaken-the-north-east/224709/30 "2004-01-16T16:33:45Z")
You know what really annoys me? All these people who say “-35? That’s not cold! What’s really cold is…” It is cold! No matter what you say. And I don’t care if it’s colder out wherever you are. And I don’t care if every day you have -100 temps. You know what? IT’S STILL FUCKING COLD! ---
**Author:** ![AmericanMaid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e480ec/32.png) [@AmericanMaid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AmericanMaid)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2004, 5:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/god-has-forsaken-the-north-east/224709/31 "2004-01-16T17:01:14Z")
Well, it has warmed up to 3 degrees here in MA. Schools across the state are closed to help conserve energy. The dials in my car have been frozen all week so it takes some muscle to turn anything on. My engine warning light is frozen on. Oh yeah, that 3 degrees with windchill equals -15 degrees (all temps in fahrenheit). I’m not complaining yet. Gas prices up here have jumped about 5 cents/gallon. Price gouging really does piss me off! God may had forsaken the NE and Big Oil is getting rich off of it. Grr… ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2004, 5:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/god-has-forsaken-the-north-east/224709/32 "2004-01-16T17:13:12Z")
I work in Maine with a bunch of people who transferred up from West Palm Beach. I’ve been hearing a lot of fond reminiscences about it lately, so much so that I miss it too and I’ve never even been there. -13F last night. Winds up to 35 mph. This weather pattern used to be called a Montreal Express here, with the Midwestern version being the Alberta Clipper. Effin’ Canucks. It’s their fault. ---
**Author:** ![Duke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e8c25b/32.png) [@Duke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duke)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2004, 5:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/god-has-forsaken-the-north-east/224709/33 "2004-01-16T17:22:42Z")
It had to be really cold here in Niagara Falls on Wednesday night, because yesterday the high was 0 F and when I went outside my first thought was, “It doesn’t really feel that cold out, as compared to last night.” I don’t mind the cold so much here either, but, I swear, after Mount Washington, this has to be the windiest place in the US. The university I work for is on an exposed part of the escarpment, and there’s nothing to stop the wind between it and north of Toronto, so the wind has about 40 miles to pick up speed. The other day the wind blew my hat off and I had to chase it at least 200 yards through the parking lot. Add wind like that to temps of 0 F and it’s going to feel cold, even if you’re from Iqaluit. ---
**Author:** ![Gravity](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gravity/32/14322_2.png) [@Gravity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gravity)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2004, 5:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/god-has-forsaken-the-north-east/224709/34 "2004-01-16T17:23:12Z")
> [@MacTech](#): > > Here in central Vermont (Barre, a town less than 10 minutes from the state capital of Montpelier) the average temperature over the past few days has been anywhere from -10 to -15 during the day, -15 to -30 in the evening, and that’s not taking into account wind chill > > as long as you’re prepared (the secret is _layers_) and keep exposed skin to a minimum, you should be fine, heck, I plan on skiing this weekend and it’s going to be bitter, but I’ll be prepared… Hey, MacTech - Kisses from Montpelier. Y’know, when I first read your secret for keeping warm, I thought you said _lawyers_. The funny thing is that I just said to myself “yep, we do have a lot of them around here. …wait…” Remember, folks, [twenty below is a magic number](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=235231) - and it doesn’t even have to be that cold. I have since done it at about 15 below. C’mon. I would have been damn impressed if my dad or girlfriend had introduced me to the magic that is very cold weather. ---
**Author:** ![Ponder\_Stibbons](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ponder_stibbons/32/343_2.png) [@Ponder\_Stibbons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ponder_Stibbons)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2004, 5:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/god-has-forsaken-the-north-east/224709/35 "2004-01-16T17:23:57Z")
You know what’s funny? Just a few weeks ago we were having record _highs_ where I’m at … and it’s still shaping up to be one of the mildest winters on record. Hey, stop throwing things at me!! Not to worry, though. Come August let’s talk again about who God has forsaken … ---
**Author:** ![Ike\_Witt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ike_witt/32/283_2.png) [@Ike\_Witt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ike_Witt)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2004, 5:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/god-has-forsaken-the-north-east/224709/36 "2004-01-16T17:58:52Z")
Spend one summer in Texas and I’d be willing to bet that you would stop complaining about the cold. And I know cold, my last winter in Minnesota we had about a 10 day stretch where it was -40[sup]o[/sup] or lower - without the windchill. It was so cold that airplanes sounded different (I have never heard a good explaination for this). ---
**Author:** ![congodwarf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e36b37/32.png) [@congodwarf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/congodwarf)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2004, 6:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/god-has-forsaken-the-north-east/224709/37 "2004-01-16T18:29:40Z")
I have to disagree with you AmericanMade. I firmly believe that schools are closed here in MA because the people in charge know that kids are too stupid to keep their warm clothes on and that the parents will sue the school board if their idiot kids get frost bite. If conservation was such an issue, the little people (like me) would not have to work today. All the businesses must be using up more energy than the schools. As for pumping gas while sitting in the car, I think this may also be illegal in MA. I know we used to have the little doohickey that allowed this but they’re not there anymore. I haven’t seen one in a couple years. We’re stuck standing out in the cold. ---
**Author:** ![rivulus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/839c29/32.png) [@rivulus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rivulus)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2004, 6:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/god-has-forsaken-the-north-east/224709/38 "2004-01-16T18:55:02Z")
> [@Gorsnak](#): > > You know, I’m finding this winter quite amusing. Here in Saskatoon it’s extremely common for there there to be a couple or three weeks in Jan-Feb with lows of -35 to -40C and highs of -20 to -30C. Before windchill. So when I see Letterman going on about how cold it is, and then shows a billboard thermometer reporting -12C, it makes me chuckle a bit. But the thing is, it’s positively balmy here. We’ve been flirting with positive temperatures here this week, and that just does not happen here in January. And all these midwesterners and easterners are getting a taste of an actual winter is like, as opposed to those pantywaisted things they usually get, and I don’t even have to plug my car in (much). 😃 Saskatoon! My home town! Went home this Xmas hauling a big 'ol puffy jacket and a suitcase full of layers (I’ve gotten soft since living down south in Missouri) only to be greeted with temps around freezing. What’s up with that? Ah… the good old days… when my nose hairs would freeze, the nails pop out of the siding, the car seats transform into frozen rocks… ---
**Author:** ![FilmGeek](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/b19c9b/32.png) [@FilmGeek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FilmGeek)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2004, 7:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/god-has-forsaken-the-north-east/224709/39 "2004-01-16T19:14:21Z")
Normally it’s never above freezing in the winter here and rarely below 90 in the summer. [brag]This summer was rather mild and it’s been in the 50s for the last week [/brag] When it’s ass cold here, we don’t get news stories every night (the weather channel national forecast was ‘rain in the midwest, cold temperatures in Boston, maybe up to 30 in NYC, dangerous windchills in NH and Vermont, Cold in the NE, cold in new england and warm and sunny in the southwest.’) Do other parts of the country see this bias or do I just not see the stories when it’s cold here? ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2004, 7:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/god-has-forsaken-the-north-east/224709/40 "2004-01-16T19:22:50Z")
> [@congodwarf](#): > > I firmly believe that schools are closed here in MA because the people in charge know that kids are too stupid to keep their warm clothes on and that the parents will sue the school board if their idiot kids get frost bite. Partly that, more realistically because the superintendents would rather not deal with even one call from a mad mom. You know how they can get. > [@](#): > > If conservation was such an issue, the little people (like me) would not have to work today. Businesses pay their own energy bills, and so do school systems. This way, they can turn the heat down for a now-four-day weekend and save a few bucks. They’re mostly on shoestring budgets as it is. Also, it lets everyone, students and staff alike, get a head start on a fine ski weekend. I doubt we’d see many closures if this were midweek. > [@](#): > > As for pumping gas while sitting in the car, I think this may also be illegal in MA. Right, you cannot leave a car while it’s running. There have been more thefts than usual this week because of people leaving their cars to warm up before going to work, too - and if that happens, you’ve probably given the thief your house keys too. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/god-has-forsaken-the-north-east/224709.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/god-has-forsaken-the-north-east/224709.md?page=3)