@werehatrack knowing several folks from the great state of WI, none of them would strip to their skivies to take their dog outside because the weather hit the freezing point. I guarantee @chienfou is correct.
That said, having spent the last week up there (w a -9 WC), I dont see any of them them getting too worked up at 32 F. Maybe a jacket, likely no gloves.
@chienfou@werehatrack
It’s “distilled water freezes”, not lake water- which has at least some salt [NaCl and others] and other solutes and suspended particulates that would lower the freezing point , not to mention that if it had an in-flow [e.g., tributary creek] or other causes of water movement, that would lower the temperature of its freezing point.
At my house, it’s 20 degrees F outside right now, and yet our koi pond has 3 large areas of open [unfrozen] water over the aerators [which is part of why we have them].
Mea culpa for your error.
@llangley@werehatrack When my kids played soccer, the high-school season was in the winter. There would be games during which the temps would be in the 40s. I (I kid you not) had a powered vest and gloves to allow me to survive the ordeal.
And I grew up in the frigid mountains of northern PA, where a rare balmy 30 degree day in January found us in shorts and a sweatshirt shooting hoops in the driveway…
@shahnm
I scored major points with my wife when I bought her a heated jacket. She must have a dozen pieces of outerwear - each tailored for about a six degree range!
@chienfou Precision in comfort control is a delicate art. Though as I get older, I find that overshooting is easy and generally just fine with me… Bring on the Gore-Tex!
@shahnm
I’m basically a t-shirt -> windbreaker -> leather jacket kind of guy. I have a couple of other pieces of outerwear which are more for level of dress up than for thermal comfort.
(Yes… I have lived in cold climates about half my life : St Louis, French Alps, Colorado, Minnesota, Wisconsin. Now central AL where the threat of one inch of snow just shut down schools for next 2 days. Oh and today, the new forecast is only half inch.)
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
in the southern states if there’s any snow or ice on the roads at all and you tell everybody the schools are open and businesses are open JustWatch the ensuing chaos happen
Nobody knows how to drive on it but they all think they do. How do you think that works out?
I’ve been on the road overnight in central Texas, where it’s sort of an ice sheet and I’m sort of crawling wrong at 10 miles an hour a lot of the time
Their fair number of people who think that because the stretch of the road was safe at 60 they can go 60 so they go right past me and then maybe 10 or 15 miles later I pass them because they are off on the side of the road, trying to get their vehicle back onto the road
be glad for the school closures
Last time I knew somebody personally get stuck and need a tow in this sort of weather in Texas. The wait time for the tow was about 48 hours.
it’s not so bad right now. The sun is out and the temp is a tiny bit above freezing.
but last night large portions of Austin were just an ice rink
Isn’t that the truth. The snow missed us (we were supposed to get an inch or less) but the freak out was high. Grocery store shelves were cleared as if the end of the world coming, much of the city closed… and we didn’t even get one flake of snow. Even today some stuff is still opening late due to the temperatures. How that affects anything I do not know since there was no rain, snow, sleet, hail nor armageddon.
Right now (7:15am) it is 16 degrees and yes some folks who are planning to drive their car on fumes or close to it may have a problem due to the tiny bit of water that floats in the gas tank will be frozen, and those who keep a case of water in their cars may have a crisis when it thaws if they don’t think to check to see if any of them cracked/split when the water expanded when it froze, and our water system that already has issues will probably have (actually there were some yesterday) some frozen pipes (as will some houses) so I won’t be surprised if we end up with a boil water notice but seriously people are acting like we have what is going on 1-3 hours south of us. SMH
Last time we had snow the city dumb asses didn’t hase the smarts to salt (the city has 3 salt truck which isn’t even close to enough when it actually snows once in a blue moon) the uphill highway off ramps that are immediately by 2 of the 4 hospitals so over 100 cars got stuck. AND SO DID THE SALT TRUCK by the time it finally came some hours later.
Two guys who worked at one of them spent an hour towing cars up the hill with their pickup truck (no idea how they kept getting up the hill). I live across the street from one hospital and one block down the street from another one. When I was going home from something and saw the backup on my exit ramp I took a round about way home and hoped to heaven I wouldn’t get rear ended at a stop sign.
Of course a ton of kids here were hoping it would snow here. They would have had a blast.
@f00l@Kidsandliz@shahnm
Yeah I never really understood the grocery thing. I have enough food in my house at any given time to last at least 3+ weeks probably. After that some meals might be a bit weird.
@chienfou@f00l@Kidsandliz Ditto that. I wonder if it’s some petty human psychology that leads people to hoard whatever they can, to make sure that the other guy doesn’t have something that they don’t… Maybe it’s a vestigial primal survival instinct or something. Or maybe lots of people just kinda suck…
The game became known as the Ice Bowl because of the brutally cold conditions. The game-time temperature at Lambeau Field was about −15 °F (−26 °C), with an average wind chill around −48 °F (−44 °C); under the revised National Weather Service wind chill index implemented in 2001, the average wind chill would have been −36 °F (−38 °C).[32] Lambeau Field’s turf-heating system malfunctioned, and when the tarpaulin was removed from the field before the game, it left moisture on the field. The field began to freeze gradually in the extreme cold, leaving an icy surface that became worse as more and more of the field fell into the shadow of the stadium.[33] The heating system, made by General Electric, cost $80,000 and was bought from the nephew of George Halas, George S. Halas.[citation needed] On the sidelines before the game, some Dallas players believed that Lombardi had purposely removed power to the heating coils.[34] The heating system would eventually be given the moniker Lombardi’s Folly.[35] The prior convention to prevent the football field from icing up was to cover the field with hay.[36]
The Wisconsin State University–La Crosse (now the University of Wisconsin–La Crosse) Marching Chiefs band was scheduled to perform the pre-game and half-time shows. However, during warm-ups in the brutal cold, the woodwind instruments froze and would not play; the mouthpieces of brass instruments got stuck to the players’ lips; and seven members of the band were transported to local hospitals for hypothermia. The band’s further performances were canceled for the day. Packer linebacker Dave Robinson recalled that the field did not get really bad until the second half, saying that since the halftime show was canceled there was no traffic on the field for an extended period to keep the surface crust broken up. During the game, an elderly spectator in the stands died from exposure.[37]
Prior to the game, many of the Green Bay players were unable to start their cars in the freezing weather, forcing them to make alternate travel arrangements to make it to the stadium on time. Linebacker Dave Robinson had to flag down a random passing motorist for a ride. The officials for the game found they did not have sufficient clothing for the cold, and had to make an early trip to a sporting goods store for earmuffs, heavy gloves, and thermal underwear.[38] Packers quarterback Bart Starr attended an early church service with his father, who had visited for the game, and as Starr later said, “It was so cold that neither of us talked about it. Nobody wanted to bring it up.”
The officials were unable to use their whistles after the opening kick-off. As referee Norm Schachter blew his metal whistle to signal the start of play, it froze to his lips. As he attempted to free the whistle from his lips, the skin ripped off and his lips began to bleed. The conditions were so hostile that instead of forming a scab, the blood simply froze to his lip. For the rest of the game, the officials used voice commands and calls to end plays and officiate the game. Nothing was immune from the cold; at one point during the game, CBS commentator Frank Gifford remarked, “I’m going to take a bite of my coffee,” as it too had frozen in the mug.[39]
Lombardi amc Landry had completely diff coaching styles but they supposedly respected and liked each other.
Gifford’s booth performance and Don Meredith’s interview af there game were influential in seeing the two of them hired to pair up in the booth with Howard Cosell for the Monday Night Football ABC shows.
I was watching this game on tv that day. From the relative warmth of Texas.
No complete telecast copy exists. NFL films was not, at the time, the archiving beast it later became.
@aetris@f00l@Kyeh@shahnm My wife grew up in eastern South Dakota. I read this to her, substituting S.D. for Wisconsin - she just nodded for the first 8 or 9, then laughed out loud at the rest.
@f00l When I lived up north my kid had a soccer game once in April where we had to shovel snow off the soccer field. No one thought anything of it (other than not wanting to shovel). Many of us brought sleeping bags to sit in and some for the kids to do that too. Unpleasant but reasonably normal.
It doesn’t have to be as cold as 40°F for an English car to fail starting. Sure, Lucas introduced the intermittent wipers, but they also introduced the intermittent lights, intermittent alternator, and intermittent starters to the world too! Also they showed that electricity isn’t conducted through wire but through the smoke in the wires. If it leaks out, then it fails.
I remember one of my employees when I lived in Stevens Point who was a rugby player participating in a tournament in January when they had to blow the snow off the frozen field to play. It was pretty brutal.
@chienfou cripes we were about 45 miles from Glacier National Park one spring and needed to shovel the snow off the stupid soccer field for a kid soccer tournament. I hated soccer and the team ended up in the finals so we couldn’t even take off when they lost and go to Glacier before we had to go home.
Yeah SA is full of palm trees, and it doesn’t often have hard freezes
I don’t think this will be a hard freeze. I imagine that it won’t stay under freezing for more than 24 hours at a time, but the nights will be below freezing for about a week.
I don’t actually live in San Antonio. I’m in the DFW area. I’m just down here at the moment.
OK, I know I’m a wimpy Southerner and I’m just moaning because I’m not used to it and I have not adapted
I guess I’m still a northerner (Yankee) at heart even though I’ve been in the South more than half my life. We eventually got about an inch of snow yesterday with temps around 25. When the cats finally went out to see what was going on they were romping all over the place trying to figure out what this crap was on the ground. I went outside to take pics for about 10 minutes at which point my wife came out to ask what I was doing outside in a t-shirt… as always, YMMV.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
I worked one winter in NW Ontario and we had no electricity as generators stopped working at 5 below, no running water as we had to dig through 8 feet of ice to get water), heat by wood so needed to bring in the wood to thaw before we threw it on the fire as if we threw the wood from outside on the fire it would put it out, and had to use outhouses where we’d draw straws as to whom got to knock over the frozen pyramid that would be created.
At night it was 40-60 below. During the day 20 below was typical. I was home for christmas (snow belt city) and was shoveling the snow for my parents. It was 5 above and felt positively tropical. My jacket was unzipped, no had on (but had ear muffs so they wouldn’t be frostbitten) and people passing by thought I was nuts.
Of course when I grew up there after the winter on the first day it was about 50 we’d run outside in t-shirts and no jacket because in comparison to the winter it felt so warm. Of course in the fall we’d be wearing a jacket and complaining at that temperature.
The heat you are acclimated to makes all the difference and it takes a couple of weeks do acclimate to a really different temperature range than you are used to. Years ago when I used to take juvenile delinquents canoeing across the state of Florida we had no A/C at base camp. When staff would come down from Maine they’d fight over who got to sleep in the walk in cooler. We, who were used to the temps and humidity, tried to convince them that if they just suffered for a couple of weeks and had a fan blow on them at night then they’d get used to it faster and it wouldn’t feel as bad. Usually they didn’t believe us.
Some say the world will end in fire,
Some say in ice.
From what I’ve tasted of desire
I hold with those who favor fire.
But if it had to perish twice,
I think I know enough of hate
To say that for destruction ice
Is also great
And would suffice.
There are strange things done in the midnight sun
By the men who moil for gold;
The Arctic trails have their secret tales
That would make your blood run cold;
The Northern Lights have seen queer sights,
But the queerest they ever did see
Was that night on the marge of Lake Lebarge
I cremated Sam McGee.
Now Sam McGee was from Tennessee, where the cotton blooms and blows.
Why he left his home in the South to roam 'round the Pole, God only knows.
He was always cold, but the land of gold seemed to hold him like a spell;
Though he’d often say in his homely way that “he’d sooner live in hell.”
On a Christmas Day we were mushing our way over the Dawson trail.
Talk of your cold! through the parka’s fold it stabbed like a driven nail.
If our eyes we’d close, then the lashes froze till sometimes we couldn’t see;
It wasn’t much fun, but the only one to whimper was Sam McGee.
And that very night, as we lay packed tight in our robes beneath the snow,
And the dogs were fed, and the stars o’erhead were dancing heel and toe,
He turned to me, and “Cap,” says he, “I’ll cash in this trip, I guess;
And if I do, I’m asking that you won’t refuse my last request.”
Well, he seemed so low that I couldn’t say no; then he says with a sort of moan:
“It’s the cursèd cold, and it’s got right hold till I’m chilled clean through to the bone.
Yet 'tain’t being dead—it’s my awful dread of the icy grave that pains;
So I want you to swear that, foul or fair, you’ll cremate my last remains.”
A pal’s last need is a thing to heed, so I swore I would not fail;
And we started on at the streak of dawn; but God! he looked ghastly pale.
He crouched on the sleigh, and he raved all day of his home in Tennessee;
And before nightfall a corpse was all that was left of Sam McGee.
There wasn’t a breath in that land of death, and I hurried, horror-driven,
With a corpse half hid that I couldn’t get rid, because of a promise given;
It was lashed to the sleigh, and it seemed to say: “You may tax your brawn and brains,
But you promised true, and it’s up to you to cremate those last remains.”
Now a promise made is a debt unpaid, and the trail has its own stern code.
In the days to come, though my lips were dumb, in my heart how I cursed that load.
In the long, long night, by the lone firelight, while the huskies, round in a ring,
Howled out their woes to the homeless snows— O God! how I loathed the thing.
And every day that quiet clay seemed to heavy and heavier grow;
And on I went, though the dogs were spent and the grub was getting low;
The trail was bad, and I felt half mad, but I swore I would not give in;
And I’d often sing to the hateful thing, and it hearkened with a grin.
Till I came to the marge of Lake Lebarge, and a derelict there lay;
It was jammed in the ice, but I saw in a trice it was called the “Alice May.”
And I looked at it, and I thought a bit, and I looked at my frozen chum;
Then “Here,” said I, with a sudden cry, “is my cre-ma-tor-eum.”
Some planks I tore from the cabin floor, and I lit the boiler fire;
Some coal I found that was lying around, and I heaped the fuel higher;
The flames just soared, and the furnace roared—such a blaze you seldom see;
And I burrowed a hole in the glowing coal, and I stuffed in Sam McGee.
Then I made a hike, for I didn’t like to hear him sizzle so;
And the heavens scowled, and the huskies howled, and the wind began to blow.
It was icy cold, but the hot sweat rolled down my cheeks, and I don’t know why;
And the greasy smoke in an inky cloak went streaking down the sky.
I do not know how long in the snow I wrestled with grisly fear;
But the stars came out and they danced about ere again I ventured near;
I was sick with dread, but I bravely said: “I’ll just take a peep inside.
I guess he’s cooked, and it’s time I looked”; … then the door I opened wide.
And there sat Sam, looking cool and calm, in the heart of the furnace roar;
And he wore a smile you could see a mile, and he said: “Please close that door.
It’s fine in here, but I greatly fear you’ll let in the cold and storm—
Since I left Plumtree, down in Tennessee, it’s the first time I’ve been warm.”
@chienfou@Kyeh they will be ok. As long as they can go deep enough to avoid the freeze. My dad has a koi pond in his back yard and when it gets super cold they go deep and move slow.
@Kyeh@tinamarie1974
Exactly. Since there is constantly running water it doesn’t freeze solid across the top. Also they shouldn’t be fed if water temp is below 55⁰f or so. Digestion slows down too much and they risk having it decay before it digests.
It’s true
Shaddup now or I’ll cast icicles at you
“Cold is relative.”
You talking about my mother-in-law?
@phendrick
/youtube “mother in law”
Dogs, not docks, in item 4 (32F)
@werehatrack
Nope. Before the water freezes is when you should take your floating dock out of the lake.
@werehatrack knowing several folks from the great state of WI, none of them would strip to their skivies to take their dog outside because the weather hit the freezing point. I guarantee @chienfou is correct.
That said, having spent the last week up there (w a -9 WC), I dont see any of them them getting too worked up at 32 F. Maybe a jacket, likely no gloves.
@chienfou @werehatrack
It’s “distilled water freezes”, not lake water- which has at least some salt [NaCl and others] and other solutes and suspended particulates that would lower the freezing point , not to mention that if it had an in-flow [e.g., tributary creek] or other causes of water movement, that would lower the temperature of its freezing point.
At my house, it’s 20 degrees F outside right now, and yet our koi pond has 3 large areas of open [unfrozen] water over the aerators [which is part of why we have them].
Mea culpa for your error.
@PhysAssist
Which error was that?
BTW… You forgot to factor in altitude if you are gonna be picky…
#1 is true. Heater is on.
#5 is NOT true. We don’t go out when it’s 20°
@llangley TBH, somewhere between 50 and 60 is where thermal underwear and gloves come into play…
@llangley @shahnm At 40F, parkas if you have them.
@llangley @werehatrack When my kids played soccer, the high-school season was in the winter. There would be games during which the temps would be in the 40s. I (I kid you not) had a powered vest and gloves to allow me to survive the ordeal.
And I grew up in the frigid mountains of northern PA, where a rare balmy 30 degree day in January found us in shorts and a sweatshirt shooting hoops in the driveway…
@shahnm
I scored major points with my wife when I bought her a heated jacket. She must have a dozen pieces of outerwear - each tailored for about a six degree range!
@chienfou Precision in comfort control is a delicate art. Though as I get older, I find that overshooting is easy and generally just fine with me… Bring on the Gore-Tex!
@shahnm
I’m basically a t-shirt -> windbreaker -> leather jacket kind of guy. I have a couple of other pieces of outerwear which are more for level of dress up than for thermal comfort.
(Yes… I have lived in cold climates about half my life : St Louis, French Alps, Colorado, Minnesota, Wisconsin. Now central AL where the threat of one inch of snow just shut down schools for next 2 days. Oh and today, the new forecast is only half inch.)
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
@chienfou @shahnm
in the southern states if there’s any snow or ice on the roads at all and you tell everybody the schools are open and businesses are open JustWatch the ensuing chaos happen
Nobody knows how to drive on it but they all think they do. How do you think that works out?
I’ve been on the road overnight in central Texas, where it’s sort of an ice sheet and I’m sort of crawling wrong at 10 miles an hour a lot of the time
Their fair number of people who think that because the stretch of the road was safe at 60 they can go 60 so they go right past me and then maybe 10 or 15 miles later I pass them because they are off on the side of the road, trying to get their vehicle back onto the road
be glad for the school closures
Last time I knew somebody personally get stuck and need a tow in this sort of weather in Texas. The wait time for the tow was about 48 hours.
it’s not so bad right now. The sun is out and the temp is a tiny bit above freezing.
but last night large portions of Austin were just an ice rink
@chienfou I just saw a photo of snow on the beach …
@chienfou @f00l @shahnm
Isn’t that the truth. The snow missed us (we were supposed to get an inch or less) but the freak out was high. Grocery store shelves were cleared as if the end of the world coming, much of the city closed… and we didn’t even get one flake of snow. Even today some stuff is still opening late due to the temperatures. How that affects anything I do not know since there was no rain, snow, sleet, hail nor armageddon.
Right now (7:15am) it is 16 degrees and yes some folks who are planning to drive their car on fumes or close to it may have a problem due to the tiny bit of water that floats in the gas tank will be frozen, and those who keep a case of water in their cars may have a crisis when it thaws if they don’t think to check to see if any of them cracked/split when the water expanded when it froze, and our water system that already has issues will probably have (actually there were some yesterday) some frozen pipes (as will some houses) so I won’t be surprised if we end up with a boil water notice but seriously people are acting like we have what is going on 1-3 hours south of us. SMH
Last time we had snow the city dumb asses didn’t hase the smarts to salt (the city has 3 salt truck which isn’t even close to enough when it actually snows once in a blue moon) the uphill highway off ramps that are immediately by 2 of the 4 hospitals so over 100 cars got stuck. AND SO DID THE SALT TRUCK by the time it finally came some hours later.
Two guys who worked at one of them spent an hour towing cars up the hill with their pickup truck (no idea how they kept getting up the hill). I live across the street from one hospital and one block down the street from another one. When I was going home from something and saw the backup on my exit ramp I took a round about way home and hoped to heaven I wouldn’t get rear ended at a stop sign.
Of course a ton of kids here were hoping it would snow here. They would have had a blast.
@f00l @Kidsandliz @shahnm
Yeah I never really understood the grocery thing. I have enough food in my house at any given time to last at least 3+ weeks probably. After that some meals might be a bit weird.
@chienfou @f00l @Kidsandliz Ditto that. I wonder if it’s some petty human psychology that leads people to hoard whatever they can, to make sure that the other guy doesn’t have something that they don’t… Maybe it’s a vestigial primal survival instinct or something. Or maybe lots of people just kinda suck…
Speaking about Wisconsin in winter?
From Wikipedia
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/1967_NFL_Championship_Game
@f00l
@f00l
@f00l
@f00l
Coldest game ever played in the NFL btw.
On many “greatest sports games in history”lists.
V competitive game.
Lombardi amc Landry had completely diff coaching styles but they supposedly respected and liked each other.
Gifford’s booth performance and Don Meredith’s interview af there game were influential in seeing the two of them hired to pair up in the booth with Howard Cosell for the Monday Night Football ABC shows.
I was watching this game on tv that day. From the relative warmth of Texas.
No complete telecast copy exists. NFL films was not, at the time, the archiving beast it later became.
@f00l
Just reading that was painful.
@Kyeh
Wisconsin. They’re nuts.
@f00l @Kyeh - In Alberta, these jokes are phrased in terms of Edmonton.
@aetris @f00l @Kyeh Guess it’s all relative…
@aetris @f00l @Kyeh @shahnm My wife grew up in eastern South Dakota. I read this to her, substituting S.D. for Wisconsin - she just nodded for the first 8 or 9, then laughed out loud at the rest.
@f00l @Kyeh
Exactly!
@f00l When I lived up north my kid had a soccer game once in April where we had to shovel snow off the soccer field. No one thought anything of it (other than not wanting to shovel). Many of us brought sleeping bags to sit in and some for the kids to do that too. Unpleasant but reasonably normal.
It doesn’t have to be as cold as 40°F for an English car to fail starting. Sure, Lucas introduced the intermittent wipers, but they also introduced the intermittent lights, intermittent alternator, and intermittent starters to the world too! Also they showed that electricity isn’t conducted through wire but through the smoke in the wires. If it leaks out, then it fails.
/image replacement smoke
@narfcake Lucas, the Prince of Darkness. They had the only electrics that made Marelli and the Soviet stuff look good.
@shahnm Then in Wisconsin in winter you can leave your batteries out?
@Kyeh Technically I suppose so, if you’re the sort of 'Sconsinite who has “outdoor cats”…
I remember one of my employees when I lived in Stevens Point who was a rugby player participating in a tournament in January when they had to blow the snow off the frozen field to play. It was pretty brutal.
@chienfou cripes we were about 45 miles from Glacier National Park one spring and needed to shovel the snow off the stupid soccer field for a kid soccer tournament. I hated soccer and the team ended up in the finals so we couldn’t even take off when they lost and go to Glacier before we had to go home.
Geeza Louisa!
OK, I know I’m a wimpy Southerner and I’m just moaning because I’m not used to it and I have not adapted
But just outside and my teeth hurt. And nice frozen breeze
So there.
@f00l lol
Wc here is -4. I just spent about 10 min outside w you know who so he could find “the perfect spot”. I cant feel my face.
Um, isn’t that EXTREMELY cold for SA?
@f00l If it even got that cold, we would think hell had frozen over (except up in the high mountains, like Mammoth, then it is allowed)
@tinamarie1974
Yeah SA is full of palm trees, and it doesn’t often have hard freezes
I don’t think this will be a hard freeze. I imagine that it won’t stay under freezing for more than 24 hours at a time, but the nights will be below freezing for about a week.
I don’t actually live in San Antonio. I’m in the DFW area. I’m just down here at the moment.
Both places are witch’s tit level cold.
@Cerridwyn
Then Stay Put.
Why suffer?
@f00l we would
save they actually think we might burn again.
so hell freezing over wouldn’t necessarily be a bad thing - short term
(I live in So Cal if anyone doesn’t get the reference)
@Cerridwyn
Yeah California hasn’t been behaving much like a perfect place to live lately just based on climate grounds
I so hope you all don’t get more bad fires
@f00l I dont thonk DFW has been much better, wasnt there a snow issue last week?
Try to stay warm
@tinamarie1974
Snow 2 weeks ago and also incoming in Min or Tues.
@f00l @tinamarie1974 nah, my tits are quite warm thank you
@Cerridwyn @f00l @tinamarie1974
I guess I’m still a northerner (Yankee) at heart even though I’ve been in the South more than half my life. We eventually got about an inch of snow yesterday with temps around 25. When the cats finally went out to see what was going on they were romping all over the place trying to figure out what this crap was on the ground. I went outside to take pics for about 10 minutes at which point my wife came out to ask what I was doing outside in a t-shirt… as always, YMMV.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
I worked one winter in NW Ontario and we had no electricity as generators stopped working at 5 below, no running water as we had to dig through 8 feet of ice to get water), heat by wood so needed to bring in the wood to thaw before we threw it on the fire as if we threw the wood from outside on the fire it would put it out, and had to use outhouses where we’d draw straws as to whom got to knock over the frozen pyramid that would be created.
At night it was 40-60 below. During the day 20 below was typical. I was home for christmas (snow belt city) and was shoveling the snow for my parents. It was 5 above and felt positively tropical. My jacket was unzipped, no had on (but had ear muffs so they wouldn’t be frostbitten) and people passing by thought I was nuts.
Of course when I grew up there after the winter on the first day it was about 50 we’d run outside in t-shirts and no jacket because in comparison to the winter it felt so warm. Of course in the fall we’d be wearing a jacket and complaining at that temperature.
The heat you are acclimated to makes all the difference and it takes a couple of weeks do acclimate to a really different temperature range than you are used to. Years ago when I used to take juvenile delinquents canoeing across the state of Florida we had no A/C at base camp. When staff would come down from Maine they’d fight over who got to sleep in the walk in cooler. We, who were used to the temps and humidity, tried to convince them that if they just suffered for a couple of weeks and had a fan blow on them at night then they’d get used to it faster and it wouldn’t feel as bad. Usually they didn’t believe us.
So who in Texas and Florida got snow? I also saw that New Orleans got 4"?
@Kyeh
There was a snow belt from Waco South to San Antonio at least and surrounding area areas
Currently it’s sunny and above freezing so most of it’s gone unless it’s in the shade
Austin turned into a ice sheet last night, but it’s probably much better now
@f00l I just saw footage of cops in Houston having an impromptu snowball fight!
@Kyeh This morning it said on our local news that along the coast they got 7.5"-8".
@Kidsandliz Incredible!
this morning it said 4 degrees but “feels like 10” lol
I went to pick my dishes out of the sink. But they were stuck.
They were frozen to the sides of the sink. Apparently I left the faucet dripping. Because it was stuck in mid-drip.
Fire and Ice
BY Robert Frost
Some say the world will end in fire,
Some say in ice.
From what I’ve tasted of desire
I hold with those who favor fire.
But if it had to perish twice,
I think I know enough of hate
To say that for destruction ice
Is also great
And would suffice.
Seems like it’s going to be both …
@Kyeh
The Cremation of Sam McGee
By Robert W. Service
There are strange things done in the midnight sun
By the men who moil for gold;
The Arctic trails have their secret tales
That would make your blood run cold;
The Northern Lights have seen queer sights,
But the queerest they ever did see
Was that night on the marge of Lake Lebarge
I cremated Sam McGee.
Now Sam McGee was from Tennessee, where the cotton blooms and blows.
Why he left his home in the South to roam 'round the Pole, God only knows.
He was always cold, but the land of gold seemed to hold him like a spell;
Though he’d often say in his homely way that “he’d sooner live in hell.”
On a Christmas Day we were mushing our way over the Dawson trail.
Talk of your cold! through the parka’s fold it stabbed like a driven nail.
If our eyes we’d close, then the lashes froze till sometimes we couldn’t see;
It wasn’t much fun, but the only one to whimper was Sam McGee.
And that very night, as we lay packed tight in our robes beneath the snow,
And the dogs were fed, and the stars o’erhead were dancing heel and toe,
He turned to me, and “Cap,” says he, “I’ll cash in this trip, I guess;
And if I do, I’m asking that you won’t refuse my last request.”
Well, he seemed so low that I couldn’t say no; then he says with a sort of moan:
“It’s the cursèd cold, and it’s got right hold till I’m chilled clean through to the bone.
Yet 'tain’t being dead—it’s my awful dread of the icy grave that pains;
So I want you to swear that, foul or fair, you’ll cremate my last remains.”
A pal’s last need is a thing to heed, so I swore I would not fail;
And we started on at the streak of dawn; but God! he looked ghastly pale.
He crouched on the sleigh, and he raved all day of his home in Tennessee;
And before nightfall a corpse was all that was left of Sam McGee.
There wasn’t a breath in that land of death, and I hurried, horror-driven,
With a corpse half hid that I couldn’t get rid, because of a promise given;
It was lashed to the sleigh, and it seemed to say: “You may tax your brawn and brains,
But you promised true, and it’s up to you to cremate those last remains.”
Now a promise made is a debt unpaid, and the trail has its own stern code.
In the days to come, though my lips were dumb, in my heart how I cursed that load.
In the long, long night, by the lone firelight, while the huskies, round in a ring,
Howled out their woes to the homeless snows— O God! how I loathed the thing.
And every day that quiet clay seemed to heavy and heavier grow;
And on I went, though the dogs were spent and the grub was getting low;
The trail was bad, and I felt half mad, but I swore I would not give in;
And I’d often sing to the hateful thing, and it hearkened with a grin.
Till I came to the marge of Lake Lebarge, and a derelict there lay;
It was jammed in the ice, but I saw in a trice it was called the “Alice May.”
And I looked at it, and I thought a bit, and I looked at my frozen chum;
Then “Here,” said I, with a sudden cry, “is my cre-ma-tor-eum.”
Some planks I tore from the cabin floor, and I lit the boiler fire;
Some coal I found that was lying around, and I heaped the fuel higher;
The flames just soared, and the furnace roared—such a blaze you seldom see;
And I burrowed a hole in the glowing coal, and I stuffed in Sam McGee.
Then I made a hike, for I didn’t like to hear him sizzle so;
And the heavens scowled, and the huskies howled, and the wind began to blow.
It was icy cold, but the hot sweat rolled down my cheeks, and I don’t know why;
And the greasy smoke in an inky cloak went streaking down the sky.
I do not know how long in the snow I wrestled with grisly fear;
But the stars came out and they danced about ere again I ventured near;
I was sick with dread, but I bravely said: “I’ll just take a peep inside.
I guess he’s cooked, and it’s time I looked”; … then the door I opened wide.
And there sat Sam, looking cool and calm, in the heart of the furnace roar;
And he wore a smile you could see a mile, and he said: “Please close that door.
It’s fine in here, but I greatly fear you’ll let in the cold and storm—
Since I left Plumtree, down in Tennessee, it’s the first time I’ve been warm.”
Dear God, when I said I wanted to feel 25 again, I didn’t mean the temperature…
@OnionSoup This morning you could feel 16 again if you lived here. The younger the better. Right?
@Kidsandliz @OnionSoup
Good thing you don’t use Centigrade to record your temperature!!
@chienfou @Kidsandliz actually… Most of the time I feel old… I must be using Kelvin scale.
Fish are a bit sluggish today!
That blue floating thermometer says the water temp is about 35…
@chienfou Poor things!
@chienfou @Kyeh they will be ok. As long as they can go deep enough to avoid the freeze. My dad has a koi pond in his back yard and when it gets super cold they go deep and move slow.
@Kyeh @tinamarie1974
Exactly. Since there is constantly running water it doesn’t freeze solid across the top. Also they shouldn’t be fed if water temp is below 55⁰f or so. Digestion slows down too much and they risk having it decay before it digests.
@chienfou @tinamarie1974 I see! I never knew that!