Really, the main thing I noticed was that the fabric of my parka took on a different texture, like crackable plastic. But it didn't crack, and I didn't break. Really, it's fine. It's nice. It's brisk. It's fun!
January 30, 2019
I went for a walk, and I survived. I wasn't even particularly cold. Let's back off on the weather drama, okay?
Really, the main thing I noticed was that the fabric of my parka took on a different texture, like crackable plastic. But it didn't crack, and I didn't break. Really, it's fine. It's nice. It's brisk. It's fun!
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
85 comments:
No Ann, not fun.
Ann! For the love of God...don't go out there!!!
Thank you. Since when did seasonally normal lows become the end of the world?
As long as there is not the slightest breeze, I like when the snow squeaks under your boots.
It got to be -24 here. Sorry. Not venturing out. Stayed home. And just because you found it enjoyable doesn't mean everyone else does.
There’s this newfangled invention called clothes. Perhaps you’ve heard of it?
Still cold air is generally tolerable. Moving cold air a problem. Really moving cold air a big problem.
And just because you found it enjoyable doesn't mean everyone else does.
And just because you don’t, doesn’t mean nobody else does.
They do wonders for keeping you warm
Cold porn.
Drudge looks positively cataclysmic...
New Drudge links to watch for in the next 3-4 hours
- Yeti spotted walking down miracle mile, Turned out to be very tall man in very white coat.
- Dog and cat found huddled together in basement. Mass hysteria.
- Man found eating feral cats in misunderstood message by group urging protection
- Snowplows idled cause polar vortex broke their plows!
- Divorced couple decide to remarry after huddling together for warmth!
When I worked in TV news the producers loved to hype cold weather to keep people in doors glued to their sets waiting for the all clear.And that still goes on I am sure. But depending on what part of Madison you walk in the wind chill can be quite different and I would be careful of generalizing just how cold it can be for some.
Wind at only 5mph is why it's okay.
It got down to -32F below in Fargo last night. Currently -20F below at noon here.
Dropping back down to -32F tonight. USPS mail delivery cancelled today. City/county offices closed. Three local colleges and universities closed, as are all the K-12 schools.
Hector International airport completely closed, as the runways are slick, and they cannot de-ice planes at these temps. 100's of flights commercial and freight cancelled.
Wheeeeeeee......!
I went out to get some kindling first thing this morning. It was nippy. Now it is a balmy –15.
I worry about the bluebirds. Since this summer we have had a bunch of bluebirds visiting our feeders every day. They don't usually winter this far north (NW Indiana). They're still alive today. I hope they make it through the night.
Chocolate Almond Swirl Kugelhopf in the oven a little later today will warm the kitchen up.
If you dress properly (lots of layers, minimal exposed skin) and assuming the wind isn't too bad, -10F is very tolerable. Now if the wind really picks up it's a different story. A good wind can cut through all but the most densely layered outfirs.
The people who over-winter(summer) in McMurdo Station in Antarctica would probably tell you that -10F is basically Maui.
Is this bait? It smells like bait.
I'll pass.
So says the woman who sleeps with the windows open and keeps her house in the 60’s.
For bike riders, it's a problem. A face mask fogs up your glasses, is problem 1. Problem 2 is that you have to breathe in and heat up to body temperature a lot of cold air, which requires a lot of oxygen; which in turn requires you to breathe yet more cold air. You can get behind the power curve on this.
You'll find that your speed drops way down, as most of your oxygen goes into heating up air and little is left over for muscles.
The answer is to ride very slowly. A heat exchanger would also solve it - incoming cold air heated by outgoing hot air - if you get one that doesn't make you rebreathe in a lot of air that you just breathed out.
I lived in cold climates for a while in my 20s: 2 years in the twin cities 5 in Madison. For sub-zero temps, I always felt that the difference between -5 and -25 was not how cold it felt in the instant, but how long I could stand being outside in the cold air. So, roughly, and for purposes of explanation, 30 minutes at -4 was about as cold as 10 minutes at -25.
I have a one-piece fur parka that I went for a walk in at -20 one day and it was too hot, except for hands. It idiotically doesn't have pockets that reach to the inside of the insulation.
Ignore the crazy woman who's been wandering around outside in the freezing cold weather and now encourages others to join in. It's dangerous out there. Shelter in (a warm) place!
"Really, it's fine. It's nice. It's brisk. It's fun!"
A version of Stockholm Syndrome on display.
Oh,OK then.
"Global warming, of course, hasn’t gone anywhere. Scientists say this week’s so-called polar vortex is affecting the United States because a sudden jolt of warm air in the Arctic last month moved part of the icy air mass south.
“Where the polar vortex goes, so goes the cold air,” Judah Cohen, a winter storm expert for Atmospheric and Environmental Research, told the Associated Press. There’s only so much cold air to go around, and some climatologists suspect that global warming is actually contributing to instability in the jet stream, which has brought extreme winter weather to the continental United States in the last decade."
https://www.yahoo.com/news/trump-sounding-off-climate-change-loses-argument-actual-climatologists-government-ones-212948898.html
How cold does it have to be before snow squeaks when you walk on it?
go out tonight about midnight in slacks and shirtsleeves; and take a quick walk around the block... i double dog dare you!!
Caligula said... How cold does it have to be before snow squeaks when you walk on it?
WAY warmer than it is this afternoon in west union (it's up to -21 here)
I do remember once walking my dog when it was a straight up -26, he didn’t like it very much, lifting one foot, then another, and got his business over quickly, and my cheeks hurt for a nearly a day after. But when I was much younger, I remember working on my car to get it to start when it was -28 in New Hampshire, and I never felt any ill effects. And I got the car started and headed off to work. Snowflakes today don’t understand these stories. But it was even worse with my dad, who walked 10 miles each day to school in freezing cold and it was uphill both ways.
Ditto, from Michigan.
What a lot of hysteria, over a 48-hour cold snap.
The biggest and most inexplicable disruption I have heard of is the closure of local banks. Why would banks close?!? They are all safely indoors. And all sorts of small business people need to do time-critical things like payroll.
Good post, Althouse.
Blogger Caligula said...
How cold does it have to be before snow squeaks when you walk on it?
Right around 0F. Another method to tell if its below zero is “do your nose hairs freeze?"
Molly said... how long I could stand being outside in the cold air. So, roughly, and for purposes of explanation, 30 minutes at -4 was about as cold as 10 minutes at -25.
yes! if you bundle up so you have no exposed skin; the first 5 minutes you're like: this is nothing. Five more minutes and you realize your bones are cold
Yep, it's the wind that hurts. Did my 2 minutes of hate outside this morning when actual temp was -25 and the "Feels like" temp was -53. Iphone said there was a 17 mph breeze from the west. Didn't feel any colder than -44 IMO.
The dachshund lasted only long enough to pee and drop a turd that froze before it hit the ground (and there's not much clearance from point to point). The springer spaniel lasted a minute longer after rolling in the snow. Tougher for them than me, layered up. Way warmer now though. Up to -17 and "feels like" -43. Same 17 mph wind. Time for my home-on-Wednesday noontime constitutional stroll outside.
Ann, I love that you are such a contrarian.
Think positive. No mosquitoes. 😄
Agree. Here in Chicago it was -23 and my car started right up. Long gone are the days of cracking the hood, removing the air filter, spraying starter fluid into the carburetor and then turning the key to see the car catch on as the flames erupt!
Blogger HoodlumDoodlum said...
Is this bait? It smells like bait.
I'll pass.
"The best bait looks and smells good enough to eat.” - Ernest Hemingway
BUT no men in shorts.
I too went for a walk ... two of them, actually. Take away the wind and it was beautiful, sun shining, sky bluer than Hillary Clinton on Election night. I’m so sick of leaders spewing caution at us. I just saw the Indy mayor —where it’s a terrifying minus 5 at the moment — giving a grave lecture.
Get on YouTube and search “Crazy Framer.” You’ll find a young Canadian framing a house by himself in-10, and colder weather.
Toxic masculinity which I endorse.
This post is making me homesick. I guess I will go hit some golf balls.
When it is -40F you can definitely feel it, especially if you are standing still as the cold works up through your boots.
Ann died outside and a demon possessed her body and is trying to lure others to their doom.
Only possible explanation.
I'm sweltering in place.
It's 2 where I am. Sunny and beautiful and you have to be out for a while before you even notice it's unusually cold.
Are we all agreed that "wind chill" is just another excuse for meteorologists to get on the front page?
"I’m so sick of leaders spewing caution at us."
They have to for certain old people and those who have limited mobility who might not want to disrupt the routine. Already have stories in WI of elderly people who fell in the garage or driveway and froze to death. Ignoring Ma Nature and doing your own thing is fine until it's not. Closing malls, banks, schools, etc. discourages the vulnerable from venturing out. Mayors gotta mayor, and this actually has a basis in safety.
"Think positive. No mosquitoes."
I'm interested in the reduction in the spread of the ash borer.
no bikini selfies, Ann.
the exposure isnt to die for.
"I do remember once walking my dog when it was a straight up -26, he didn’t like it very much, lifting one foot, then another..."
We went and got Zeus. He had his red booties on. I don't think he liked them too much, but I didn't get the impression he was cold.
It’s supposed to be 43 on Sunday here in the Detroit area.
I may go to the driving range and hit some golf balls.
Ann Althouse said... I'm interested in the reduction in the spread of the ash borer.
There's all sorts of nasty plant nastys that can't handle sub-zero temps. *IF* global warming was a real thing, one of the HUGE problems would be what would happen to iowa's corn production. Fortunately, seems like (as per usual) GOD loves Iowa, because GOD LOVES Corn
Blogger David Begley said..."So says the woman who sleeps with the windows open and keeps her house in the 60’s."
What temperature do you keep your house at, Dave?
Windchill is bad on exposed skin, but has absolutely NO EFFECT on adequately covered skin. And people can easily dress for -16 F and colder weather.
I'm interested in the reduction in the spread of the ash borer.
Exactly what a demon would say.
"Really, it's fine. It's nice. It's brisk. It's fun!"
Yes, it is. Though there is the potential for problems (pipes, cars). Part of the fun, in fact, is managing the challenge.
aesthetically, we keep our house in the mid-80's, cuz we think it's cool.
Here in LA, the television news are gearing up for Stormwatch 2019. They tend to get carried away when it rains.
Cold winters certainly put a stop to certain invasive insects spreading too far north. I live in upstate NY. A few years back we had an unusually warm winter and the following fall my house was inundated with Chinese stink bugs. I personally killed about a dozen of them between the months of October and December of that year. The next couple winters were considerably colder and as a result this past fall I saw and killed exactly one solitary stick bug.
It's really good news for fruit orchards though since those stink bugs are nightmares for them.
I recall if you dressed for it the cold was quite tolerable until about -20. Then your nose and airway start to freeze up and the car gets crabby- tires go out of round, starters seize up, batteries fail.
I went for a walk, and I survived. I wasn't even particularly cold. Let's back off on the weather drama, okay?
Walden, the short version.
It was the dry indoor air what I couldn't stand. The wood stove becomes a beef dehydrator.
Walden, the short version.
Crabby Thoreau.
Here in LA, the television news are gearing up for Stormwatch 2019. They tend to get carried away when it rains.
Our next weather report will be in four days
-Harris, LA Story
Don't look, Ann. Don't look.
https://twitter.com/tminsberg/status/1090358650827403269?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1090358650827403269&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.si.com%2Fextra-mustard%2F2019%2F01%2F30%2Fwednesday-hot-clicks-lebron-james-anthony-davis-fake-instagram-comment-espn
USPS mail delivery cancelled today. City/county offices closed. Three local colleges and universities closed, as are all the K-12 schools.
Let's see: government workers, government workers, government workers, government workers, and government workers.
Propane starts to gel a little below -40 and stops flowing at -44 (which is its boiling point). SE Minnesota will have lows tonight in the -32 range tonight. It was -30 last night. Our homes and buildings are not engineered to Alaskan standards.
All the leaves are brown (all the leaves are brown)
And the sky is grey (and the sky is grey)
I've been for a walk (I've been for a walk)
On a winter's day (on a winter's day)
Better you than me, sister. It's cold here in Florida, by our standards. I couldn't even survive in what you folks have up there.
The Ohio governor says be careful going outside with a small child.
Going for the women's hysteria market.
All the leaves are brown (all the leaves are brown)
And the sky is grey (and the sky is grey)
I've been for a walk (I've been for a walk)
On a winter's day (on a winter's day)
That would be a Mutual Metaphor if it weren't just repeats.
"Incidentally, when you do get cases of Professor Richards' Disparity Action in a pure form, I think they can be classed as Mutual Metaphor and not as Metaphor. The most promising candidates are the refrains of ballads:
She leaned her back against a thorn
(Fine flowers in the valley)
And there she has her young child born
(And the green leaves they grow rarely).
The effect of the contrast is not simple; perhaps it says "Life went on, and in a way this seems a cruel indifference to her suffering, but it lets us put the tragedy in its place, as we do when we sing about it for pleasure." And you might say that the birth of the child and the growth of the plants are treated as both natural, so that in a remote way they are compared. But the flowers in the valley and the girl on the hill are both meant to be really there; she will illuminate them as soon as they her. The likeness, I think, comes in if at all as a faint Mutual Metaphor, so that there is no need to call the thing a Metaphor as such even when further meanings are extracted from it."
Wm. Empson, _The Structure of Complex Words_, p.347-348
The polar bears at Vilas sure must be happy. I'll bet they're hanging out having cokes...
Blogger tim in vermont said...
"And just because you found it enjoyable doesn't mean everyone else does.
And just because you don’t, doesn’t mean nobody else does."
Good. You go out and play. I'll watch from the window. What is there that's entertaining outside at -20 deg.?
Let's back off on the weather drama, okay?
Not a prayer! Besides, I just came in from outside, and the combination of much warmer temperatures than yours (+28) with strong winds and blowing snow is just miserable.
“It got down to -32F below in Fargo last night. Currently -20F below at noon here.“
In law’s parents live there. Think their wood chipper froze out back.
Think their wood chipper froze out back.
Oh ya?
Curious George wrote:
USPS mail delivery cancelled today. City/county offices closed. Three local colleges and universities closed, as are all the K-12 schools.
Let's see: government workers, government workers, government workers, government workers, and government workers.
**********************
Yeah, well I work for the City of Chicago and we are at work today but I cannot find an open restaurant or bank branch within a decent walk. Private sector, private sector, private sector.
Don't go hating on govt workers, they are just people like you, trying to get by. Hate on the pols if you wish, many of them deserve it.
Note - Sunny and 5 mph wind. Many years ago I remember -21, sunny, little wind and good shoes actually was pleasant. Last night filling gas tank, 10 Degrees,overcast and 20 mph wind not nearly as much fun.
"For bike riders, it's a problem."
If you're biking when its below 32 degrees, the problems involved exceed the joy in biking. I take a bus or drive.
Also, people don't expect anyone to bike when its super-cold and they're often dealing with visibility issues due to fogged up windows.
Yes, lets cut out the drama till it get 50 below:
Fifty degrees below zero stood for a bite of frost that hurt and that must be guarded against by the use of mittens, ear-flaps, warm moccasins, and thick socks. Fifty degrees below zero was to him just precisely fifty degrees below zero. That there should be anything more to it than that was a thought that never entered his head.
Blogger chuck said...
When it is -40F you can definitely feel it, especially if you are standing still as the cold works up through your boots.
What about when it’s -40C? It’s a trick question, you can just write -40!
DON’T TELL ME IT’S NOT COLD WHERE YOU’RE AT, ALTHOUSE!!
According to a CNN report they’ve had to suspend beer deliveries in the upper Midwest because the beer is freezing inside the kegs. No beer?!?!?
(Hat tip to Dave Barry)
Oh Yea said...
Note - Sunny and 5 mph wind. Many years ago I remember -21, sunny, little wind
Oh, didn't i mention? Last night here in West Union it was -27, with a 14mph wind; earlier it was on -23, but with 20mph wind
dead calm now; thanx GOD!
Cold winters certainly put a stop to certain invasive insects spreading too far north. I live in upstate NY. A few years back we had an unusually warm winter and the following fall my house was inundated with Chinese stink bugs.
I can attest to this. Two, warmer-than-normal summers - and milder winters - in the Puget Sound region and I've had those things near the windows and doors as they're trying to enter and exit at the start of the seasons. And we've never had them before. At all. Not even one.
With that said, I'll take the warmer, drier summers and deal with what comes.
In Chicago. I had to do errands and was outside several times. I have a good coat. It was no big deal. However, waiting for a bus or train would be no good.
Bought a half-gallon of milk along with a 50 pound bag of sunflower seeds so they wouldn’t think I was the kind of idiot who went out in the cold to buy birdseed.
Post a Comment