Althouse: Feels like -30°? Oh, I don't know...

February 7, 2021

Feels like -30°? Oh, I don't know...

... I was just out there at 4:30. Didn't even zip up my coat or put on a hat. It felt crisp and beautiful. I'd say I was out there for 4 minutes. I liked it!

38 comments:

gilbar said...: it's 19 below here, i'm looking forward to it getting up to zero this afternoon; 2/7/21, 5:17 AM
exhelodrvr1 said...: Not that cold? Pretty sure you're exhibiting white privilege!; 2/7/21, 5:19 AM
Marcus Bressler said...: After a brief cold snap (morning temps in 40s), it will be 81 here in Palm Beach County. Oh, the humanity!

THEOLDMAN; 2/7/21, 5:40 AM
tim maguire said...: “Feels like” is one of those tips and tricks used by weather forecasters to make themselves more relevant.; 2/7/21, 5:40 AM
stevew said...: You Wisconsinites are a hardy bunch, even the ones originally from warmer places.

We've got 23, feels like 18, right now. Seasonable and supposed to continue for the next week or so. It's rare for the temperature to go very low around here. And it's been a dry winter so far, that is unusual. I'm not complaining.; 2/7/21, 5:43 AM
Eric the Fruit Bat said...: Wednesday's Word-of-the-Day was "uitwaaien" which is "the Dutch practice of jogging or walking into the wind, especially in the winter, for the purpose of feeling invigorated while relieving stress and boosting one’s general health."

Sometimes the Word-of-the-Day kind of sucks.; 2/7/21, 5:53 AM
Fernandinande said...: "Feels like" can mean different things and so it's worth ignoring; other forecasters are calling those same temperature values the "wind chill", which refers to bare skin and is pretty meaningless if you're not naked.; 2/7/21, 6:01 AM
rhhardin said...: If there's a flagpole out there in that wind, its temperaturte is -3.

The -3 feels like -3 too. Wind chill is sort of specialized and used for news clickbait.

Most important, the thermal load on your lungs comes from -3, not from any wind. You have to heat each lungful of -3 air to body temperature. That sets your background aerobic load.; 2/7/21, 6:18 AM
rhhardin said...: Oh and the actual feel effect is mostly nose hair freezing and unfreezing starting somewhere around plus 5.; 2/7/21, 6:19 AM
mezzrow said...: 59 degrees and rainy in Duval this AM.

It's the best time of year to be here, really. It's very still but there's no glassiness on the cove this morning, just an overall greyness. Time for the rain hat and jacket.

Walkies!; 2/7/21, 6:21 AM
iowan2 said...: We are -8 this morning.
Yes. Without the wind I do actually like being out in subzero temps. But then I know I can seek relief at my whim. Growing up and doing livestock chores twice a day was a different matter. But even then, walking across the yard in the dark, below zero, no wind, was serene, until I couldn't feel my toes and fingers.; 2/7/21, 6:24 AM
iowan2 said...: Correction -16. My indoor outdoor atomic clock has its sensor underneath the eve. Its always a couple degrees warmer, but this morning its a full 8 degrees off.; 2/7/21, 6:31 AM
Lucien said...: Eric: S o the Dutch figured out that it’s pleasant to have the wind at your back on the homeward stretch of your walk, and tried to make it into a thing?; 2/7/21, 6:33 AM
David Begley said...: Ann is now a True Badger.; 2/7/21, 6:45 AM
Wince said...: "Seems like 30..."; 2/7/21, 6:54 AM
Browndog said...: The cold air is wonderful. I very much enjoy it. Mostly because in the back of your mind you know you can be in the 70's within minutes.; 2/7/21, 6:59 AM
Dan from Madison said...: Winter is actually super wonderful with no wind. When the wind kicks up, all bets are off, of course.

The weather guy on channel 15 just said that you might get frostbite if you go outside without bundling up. Thanks for that, dude.; 2/7/21, 7:13 AM
gilbar said...: iowan2 said...
Correction -16.

i was starting to Wonder when you'd moved to Missouri iowan2 :); 2/7/21, 7:22 AM
stlcdr said...: ‘Feels like’ is an almost meaningless number. It is only used to demonstrate ‘extreme’ weather.; 2/7/21, 7:33 AM
Rusty said...: -16 deg here at Chez Rusty, but it's a dry cold so it might seem colder. Lol.
iowan2 my receiver is under the hand rail overhang on my deck. I'm pretty sure it's correct.
Whens' the global warming gonna start?; 2/7/21, 7:37 AM
MOfarmer said...: you were outside for 4 minutes at 4:30? So you have an outhouse?; 2/7/21, 7:39 AM
Howard said...: What about wetbulb temperature, rhhardin? Is that fake too? I guess not because you can't fend off humidity with a windbreaker.; 2/7/21, 7:48 AM
Tommy Duncan said...: My small dogs did not enjoy the -17 weather here this morning.

This weather is hard on machinery, pets, livestock and people. But the people can at least dress for it.

There will soon be an extra foot of ice for the fishermen to drive on.; 2/7/21, 8:48 AM
mikee said...: Here in central Texas, my two dogs are getting old, and know that sitting at the back door barking 5 times per minute, at random intervals, is the best way to get back inside where it is warm. I'd admire their intelligence, except their barking is very annoying. Also, I'd prefer them to finish with all their micturation and defecation needs before wanting back inside. But the carpet right under the piano is preferred on cold or rainy days to the windy, wet tall grass of the back yard.; 2/7/21, 8:54 AM
Harsh Pencil said...: Poison experts refuse to talk in terms of substance being poisonous or not. The correctly insist that you can only talk about whether a substance/dose combination is poisonous or not.

Same with the cold. All depends on how long you are out there.

It's -17F here. Today I plan to spend a good amount of time (5 minutes or so) outdoors in only my bathing suit (following sauna sessions). Feels great.; 2/7/21, 9:07 AM
John henry said...: In Michigan at the moment. Temp is 11 degrees.

I'm trying to decide if I am hungry enough to go get breakfast.

83 at home.

Maybe if I click my heels 3 times and say "there's no place like home, there's no place like home..."

Nope. Didn't work

John Henry; 2/7/21, 9:13 AM
tcrosse said...: For my sins, I spent several years on the Firth of Clyde in Scotland. The winter weather there was a damp cold that went straight to the bone. No clothing known to man could keep it out, least of all a US Navy uniform. Still, the coldest I remember ever being was standing on an el platform on the south side of Chicago one breezy January night. This in spite of living 40 years in Minnesota.; 2/7/21, 9:26 AM
Unknown said...: I don’t think I’d like it to be that cold for days or weeks on end, but I do miss those insanely cold upper midwest cold days. It gets cold here in Central-West New England, but not Minnesota cold.; 2/7/21, 9:36 AM
who-knew said...: -11 below when I took the dog out this morning. And the bum wouldn't pee, had to sniff every available snowbank until, eventually, he found one that need to be wet. I was cold, but I was still in my pajamas. We went for a walk yesterday when it was a toasty warm 6 and it was OK when we weren't walking into the wind. I must not be Dutch.; 2/7/21, 9:45 AM
Joe Smith said...: 4 minutes and you liked it?

Have we met?; 2/7/21, 9:46 AM
Josephbleau said...: “What about wetbulb temperature, rhhardin? Is that fake too? I guess not because you can't fend off humidity with a windbreaker.”

If you don’t walk around soaking wet you don’t have to worry, because you become the dry bulb.; 2/7/21, 11:02 AM
Clyde said...: Thank Gaea that Biden* and his motley crew are going to save you from the scourge of global warming so you’ll continue to be able to enjoy your subzero mornings.; 2/7/21, 11:32 AM
rhhardin said...: Spring is coming. My 20w solar panel in the side yard, after charging and holding the basement 12v battery at 14.72 volts, rises to 24.2 volts under that reduced load with a MPPT controller. So the sun is rising in the sky.; 2/7/21, 11:34 AM
tim in vermont said...: I once had to fiddle with the engine on my 73 VW Beetle to get it started when the temp was -27 in the mountains of New Hampshire. I managed it, but I will tell you, -27 is cold even with no wind.

+5 is cold with a slight breeze. -10 is fine with no breeze. I don’t know about the precision of those “feels like” numbers, but they are not made up out of whole cloth.; 2/7/21, 2:13 PM
Mike of Snoqualmie said...: It's 45-deg F in Bellevue, WA. The forecast for the rest of the week is much colder with snow for Wednesday thru Saturday, with 3-in. for Friday. Our new home site will be getting much more snow.

I have a log buyer coming Wednesday morning to look at our maple trees. His company mills specialty woods for music instruments. Our maple trees have interesting patterns that he may be interested in.; 2/7/21, 3:28 PM
n.n said...: Anthermia?; 2/7/21, 3:33 PM
MadisonMan said...: This is the kind of extended cold snap that makes me wonder which of my perennials might not make it -- although they are all buried under a foot of snow, so that should protect them to some degree.; 2/7/21, 3:45 PM
tim d said...: ah, the perennial "i live in wisconsin and i went outside and it was cold but i liked it."

what courage. so transgressive. truly inspiring.; 2/8/21, 4:14 PM