I’m not one to comment on the cold. I live in northern Montana, and I knew what I was signing up for when I moved here. I knew that cold can kill, and I knew all about windchill. I even joke about the cold, and taunt those whom I consider pansies (pretty much anyone south of Wyoming ;)).
But -50F is too damned cold, even if that’s the temperature factoring in windchill!
At -50F, it isn’t cold so much as it is painful. It’s painful outside. It’s painful to walk, painful to feel the wind, painful to breathe. It’s like having pins driven into any exposed skin, whether or not it’s actually exposed. (That sounds like nonsense, but anyone who knows wind understands.) At this temperature, frostbite comes within minutes if one is not prepared, and death isn’t much slower.
All of my pets are inside warm shelter. I hope all humans around here are, too. There is no margin for error anymore: You get inside, or you die. Taking a long walk is a suicide method.
I remember talking to a guy in Umiat, Alaska about the hardships and physical changes in items brought on by the extreme conditions encountered during their winters. A garden hose would snap in half when you tried to pick it up, etc. Seems like an incredible amout of preparation went into completing even the simplist of chores.
The thing I took away from the conversation was that it was no place for a lazy or stupid person.
It’s -44C outside right now, without wind chill. There’s a consultant from Saskatchewan in the office with us this week, and he’s impressed. He’s seen cold before, but this…this is different. This is Cold With Intent To Kill. It just sort of sits there, just outside your parka, radiating menace. “Hey. You’re warm. You don’t belong here.”
If you can get your vehicle started, the seats are frozen and the cable to your block heater just might crumble in your hands as you attempt to wind it up. Until friction warms the tires, they’re square. Well, okay, not square, but one heckuva flat spot and it feels like they’re square. Some vehicles never even quite get warm, even with a grill cover.
If you cannot get your vehicle started, you can join the rest of us on city transit, where it can take up to two hours to get to your destination. And likely, the buses will be late as they creep through the ice fog on slick streets. Visibility is approximately twenty metres - you see, the river hadn’t frozen over yet, and this cold is just sucking moisture out of the river. Humidity of 80% or better is fairly rare, especially in the winter.
Touching any kind of metal for even a few seconds can give you a nasty burn. People with propane heat are having a heckuva time, since their tanks are gelling. (Some goob a couple years ago tried to solve this with a tiger torch, with the predictable result. He survived, though his mobile home did not.)
We’re mostly used to it. Doesn’t mean we don’t start whining about day three or four, though. Day seven or eight, things start to get strange…
Heheh…saying of -44C (which was what I woke up to today as well) that it’s a dry cold is sort of like saying “At least he landed on the grass instead of the sidewalk” of the guy who fell out the 70th floor window.
He wouldn’t have been if he was back home, where Key Lake hit -52C.
I’m just proud that one day far in the future, when greenhouse gases have turned the earth into a giant sauna, that I’ll be able to tell my grandkids that their grandpa once walked twenty minutes to university in -49C weather. Without jet packs or particle transporters.
On the other hand, here in London it’s just above freezing, we’ve had snow in drifts of up to three inches and yet we’ve closed half our airports and schools, and half the country is taking the opportunity not to turn up to work. It’s pathetic, it really is :).
What makes it really tragic is that my snowmanwall is melting…
I don’t know what the temperature is exactly, but the pump in my well froze a couple of weeks ago, so I don’t have running water. I’m suffering I tell you. The night after the pump froze the furnace had enough and quit working, I don’t think I have ever been as cold as I was when I woke up the next morning.
At least you realize it’s pathetic. Yesterday, when I OP’d the OP*, I heard some Weather Channel talking heads going on about how it was -1F in Minneapolis. There are times in your life when the phrase “Whoopty-shit” springs unbidden to chapped lip, and that’s one of them. I’m sure any Minnesotan here would agree with me.
I’m one of those guys y’all hate. I become whiney if the temps dip below the mid-30s. Earlier this week the lows were in the 20s F and I was downright miserable. The few times in my life when I’ve experienced single-digit temps I was sure I’d freeze to death. I can’t even comprehend the kind of extreme cold you are talking about.
Regarding frozen propane tanks, I think I read about people putting a 100w light bulb in an enclosure under the tank. I guess the heat generated by the bulb is enough to keep the tank from freezing.
Doesn’t mean we don’t start whining about day three or four, though. Day seven or eight, things start to get strange…
Whoop, don’t want my tongue to freeze now…