40 below is pretty cool
May 31, 2012 6:42 AM Subscribe
Minus 40 degrees is the same temperature in both Celsius and Fahrenheit. It is also the temperature where skin freezes, and the point where water is completely frozen (and mercury too). Strangely, it's also the average temperature of the record lows for all 50 United States, though normal in Alaska.
I thought the -40 average for all 50 states couldn't possibly be correct. But here's a list of record lows by state.
They are all much colder than I would have guessed.
-2 in Florida
-70 in Montana
posted by jjj606 at 6:55 AM on May 31, 2012
They are all much colder than I would have guessed.
-2 in Florida
-70 in Montana
posted by jjj606 at 6:55 AM on May 31, 2012
I went out the fetch the mail without a coat ("it's just a second!") in -45 once. I don't think I'll do that again.
posted by DU at 7:09 AM on May 31, 2012 [1 favorite]
posted by DU at 7:09 AM on May 31, 2012 [1 favorite]
"I find the rule of fives to be more and more apparent the harder I look."
posted by fiercecupcake at 7:15 AM on May 31, 2012 [3 favorites]
posted by fiercecupcake at 7:15 AM on May 31, 2012 [3 favorites]
The last winter we spent in Michigan had lows of -40F (without windchill). I recall it being painful to stay out for any length of time over a few minutes. It was like the state was saying goodbye.
posted by blurker at 7:23 AM on May 31, 2012
posted by blurker at 7:23 AM on May 31, 2012
And I always find it fascinating as I sip my drink at 10.000m sitting in +25C of a climate controlled airplane that just 10cm on the other side of that bulkhead it's -65C.
And then the engineer in me starts thinking about material stresses of such a differential and what the engines and hydraulics must be able to withstand and I just end up asking for another drink.
posted by three blind mice at 7:30 AM on May 31, 2012 [8 favorites]
And then the engineer in me starts thinking about material stresses of such a differential and what the engines and hydraulics must be able to withstand and I just end up asking for another drink.
posted by three blind mice at 7:30 AM on May 31, 2012 [8 favorites]
Obviously -40 is the trendiest of the low temperatures, i.e. the point at which the different meanings of the word "cool" are in perfect equilibrium. Scientists call this the "Fonzie Point".
posted by the quidnunc kid at 7:37 AM on May 31, 2012 [15 favorites]
posted by the quidnunc kid at 7:37 AM on May 31, 2012 [15 favorites]
-70 in Montana
Ho. Lee. Shit. I grew up in Ottawa, and I know for a fact I've felt temperatures below -30C on a number of occasions walking to school in the mornings. It is so cold your eyes water and the tears freeze your eyelashes together It takes about 15-20 minutes before you can feel the skin on your legs again after you get inside, and if your hair wasn't completely dry because you didn't give yourself enough time getting ready it would freeze solid in chunks resembling what happens when you use too much mousse. I also remember that you could see the moisture from your breath crystallize on the outside of your scarf, which would stiffen around the contours of your face.
-70 though? I don't understand how anyone would even survive that.
posted by Hoopo at 7:47 AM on May 31, 2012
Ho. Lee. Shit. I grew up in Ottawa, and I know for a fact I've felt temperatures below -30C on a number of occasions walking to school in the mornings. It is so cold your eyes water and the tears freeze your eyelashes together It takes about 15-20 minutes before you can feel the skin on your legs again after you get inside, and if your hair wasn't completely dry because you didn't give yourself enough time getting ready it would freeze solid in chunks resembling what happens when you use too much mousse. I also remember that you could see the moisture from your breath crystallize on the outside of your scarf, which would stiffen around the contours of your face.
-70 though? I don't understand how anyone would even survive that.
posted by Hoopo at 7:47 AM on May 31, 2012
My wife and I went to the Harbin snow and ice festival one year for western New Year. It was 30 below Fahrenheit and yet for some stupid reason we decided to go outside. Yeah, I know, ice sculptures with pretty colored lights and stuff. It was fucking cold folks. Despite the copius layers of Chinese long underwear, it was fun for about five minutes and then we wanted to die.
Later that same January I traveled across Xinjiang via train and bus. By chance Xinjiang happened to be going through its coldest winter on record. We had to switch from a nice warm train to a sleeper bus somewhere in the mountains at dusk one evening. Again, despite the copius use of long underwear, more than worn in Harbin, it was fucking awful, much worse than it had been at the festival. The line to get bus tickets, like most lines in China, was long, so long it went out the door of the tiny ticket office so we waited in the cold with a group of smiling, lightly dressed Uighurs (though they did have some strategicly placed fur trimmings to their hats, boots and coats, more on that later). By the time we got inside, my Harbin hat was stupid looking, but keeping me alive. Unfortunately, my thin Beijing gloves were doing nothing for my hands. While my companion bought the tickets I warmed them by putting them on the steam pipe (Note: I said steam pipe and I meant steam pipe, not hot water radiator). This did little to thaw them.
Luckily a couple of locals took pity on us and gave us a lift in their farm truck to the bus station. I fell asleep quickly as day fell into night and I was rocked in my tiny, filthy sleeper-bus cot. At some random pee-break stop in god-knows-where, East Turkestan, I awoke to find that the moisture from my body had frozen my outermost jacket to the window. It was then that we realized that all the Uighurs had taken the central row of beds. It was then also that we realized that traditional Uighur winter clothes, though they look like tailored leather clothes on the outside, they are really animal (goat mainly) skins, fur-on turned inside out with the outsides tanned and dyed to look like ordinary, modern-like leather clothing. Also, they are just more used to it than most out-of-shape, corn-syrup-fattened American ex-pats.
posted by The 10th Regiment of Foot at 7:49 AM on May 31, 2012 [7 favorites]
Later that same January I traveled across Xinjiang via train and bus. By chance Xinjiang happened to be going through its coldest winter on record. We had to switch from a nice warm train to a sleeper bus somewhere in the mountains at dusk one evening. Again, despite the copius use of long underwear, more than worn in Harbin, it was fucking awful, much worse than it had been at the festival. The line to get bus tickets, like most lines in China, was long, so long it went out the door of the tiny ticket office so we waited in the cold with a group of smiling, lightly dressed Uighurs (though they did have some strategicly placed fur trimmings to their hats, boots and coats, more on that later). By the time we got inside, my Harbin hat was stupid looking, but keeping me alive. Unfortunately, my thin Beijing gloves were doing nothing for my hands. While my companion bought the tickets I warmed them by putting them on the steam pipe (Note: I said steam pipe and I meant steam pipe, not hot water radiator). This did little to thaw them.
Luckily a couple of locals took pity on us and gave us a lift in their farm truck to the bus station. I fell asleep quickly as day fell into night and I was rocked in my tiny, filthy sleeper-bus cot. At some random pee-break stop in god-knows-where, East Turkestan, I awoke to find that the moisture from my body had frozen my outermost jacket to the window. It was then that we realized that all the Uighurs had taken the central row of beds. It was then also that we realized that traditional Uighur winter clothes, though they look like tailored leather clothes on the outside, they are really animal (goat mainly) skins, fur-on turned inside out with the outsides tanned and dyed to look like ordinary, modern-like leather clothing. Also, they are just more used to it than most out-of-shape, corn-syrup-fattened American ex-pats.
posted by The 10th Regiment of Foot at 7:49 AM on May 31, 2012 [7 favorites]
And I always find it fascinating as I sip my drink at 10.000m sitting in +25C of a climate controlled airplane that just 10cm on the other side of that bulkhead it's -65C.
Which is why Nightmare at 20,000 Feet is really a tragic account of a poor creature dying of exposure as he's desperately trying to draw attention to his predicament. Poor bastard even tried to eat the damn plane just to get some, any, nourishment.
posted by Foci for Analysis at 7:50 AM on May 31, 2012 [13 favorites]
Which is why Nightmare at 20,000 Feet is really a tragic account of a poor creature dying of exposure as he's desperately trying to draw attention to his predicament. Poor bastard even tried to eat the damn plane just to get some, any, nourishment.
posted by Foci for Analysis at 7:50 AM on May 31, 2012 [13 favorites]
So what defines water "completely" freezing, as opposed to 32F or zero C at which it solidifies and zero K at which molecular motion pretty much stops?
posted by trackofalljades at 7:53 AM on May 31, 2012
posted by trackofalljades at 7:53 AM on May 31, 2012
I remember reading some lighthearted material about Winnipeg, where all the stores are underground so that people don't have to go outside, and summer is defined as "the absence of winter." And there are no school snow days, because if they had them they'd never get any schooling in. In 1996 the Jets couldn't stand it anymore and moved to Phoenix.
posted by Melismata at 8:02 AM on May 31, 2012
posted by Melismata at 8:02 AM on May 31, 2012
North Dakota Bumper Sticker — "40 below keeps the riff raff out." Can't find a link but you can trust me.
posted by Glomar response at 8:07 AM on May 31, 2012 [2 favorites]
posted by Glomar response at 8:07 AM on May 31, 2012 [2 favorites]
-40 is also the only fixed point for the linear function which converts Celcius to Fahrenheit.
posted by RonButNotStupid at 8:09 AM on May 31, 2012
posted by RonButNotStupid at 8:09 AM on May 31, 2012
My username feels so out of place all of a sudden.
(Melting point of silicon.)
/makes metric gang signs
posted by Celsius1414 at 8:25 AM on May 31, 2012 [6 favorites]
(Melting point of silicon.)
/makes metric gang signs
posted by Celsius1414 at 8:25 AM on May 31, 2012 [6 favorites]
I felt 40 below once, visiting Montreal. We were waiting in line to get into a movie, and I remember I could feel the warmth being pulled from the bottom of my feet by the sidewalk (no wind, thank god).
I did the math and made the same realization "hey, it's the same °F or °C". But it's not really because of the math. 40 below is the point where you just stop caring whether or not it's Fahrenheit or Centigrade.
posted by benito.strauss at 8:31 AM on May 31, 2012 [1 favorite]
I did the math and made the same realization "hey, it's the same °F or °C". But it's not really because of the math. 40 below is the point where you just stop caring whether or not it's Fahrenheit or Centigrade.
posted by benito.strauss at 8:31 AM on May 31, 2012 [1 favorite]
I remember reading some lighthearted material about Winnipeg, where all the stores are underground so that people don't have to go outside, and summer is defined as "the absence of winter."
If the implication here is that it never gets truly warm in Winnipeg, you've never been to Winnipeg during its short, swampy summer. Hot by Canadian prairie standards, extremely humid, mosquito swarms of biblical proportions as a matter of course. I was once chased indoors at midday on a Winnipeg summer day by the relentless mosquito attacks through a layer of Deep Woods Off.
Ferociously cold winters, short sweltering pestilential summers - Winnipeg's got its charms, but its weather is maybe the worst of any large city in North America.
Also, for the record, the day my wife and I got married in Canmore, Alberta, the reported high was -34C. This was unseasonably cold for southern Alberta - the chairlifts at nearby Sunshine Village couldn't open till midday the next day because they needed the sun to thaw them a bit first - but to this day we can't convince many of our Ontario friends it wasn't the norm. Only the skiers have ever come back to visit in winter.
posted by gompa at 8:33 AM on May 31, 2012
If the implication here is that it never gets truly warm in Winnipeg, you've never been to Winnipeg during its short, swampy summer. Hot by Canadian prairie standards, extremely humid, mosquito swarms of biblical proportions as a matter of course. I was once chased indoors at midday on a Winnipeg summer day by the relentless mosquito attacks through a layer of Deep Woods Off.
Ferociously cold winters, short sweltering pestilential summers - Winnipeg's got its charms, but its weather is maybe the worst of any large city in North America.
Also, for the record, the day my wife and I got married in Canmore, Alberta, the reported high was -34C. This was unseasonably cold for southern Alberta - the chairlifts at nearby Sunshine Village couldn't open till midday the next day because they needed the sun to thaw them a bit first - but to this day we can't convince many of our Ontario friends it wasn't the norm. Only the skiers have ever come back to visit in winter.
posted by gompa at 8:33 AM on May 31, 2012
Oh, and the "stores are underground" thing: Winnipeg's actually only got a very small underground network of tunnels linking office and retail buildings. Like Calgary - whose Plus-15 network inspired the excellent Gary Burns movie waydowntown, in which a handful of cubicle drones make a bet to see who can go the longest without stepping outside - Winnipeg's larger enclosed passage network is an elevated "skyway" system, one storey above ground.
Underground tunnels (sometimes lined with shops like a mall concourse, but not quite in an "all the stores are underground" sort of way) are quite common in the central business districts of big Canadian cities. I believe the most extensive one is Montreal's.
posted by gompa at 8:39 AM on May 31, 2012 [1 favorite]
Underground tunnels (sometimes lined with shops like a mall concourse, but not quite in an "all the stores are underground" sort of way) are quite common in the central business districts of big Canadian cities. I believe the most extensive one is Montreal's.
posted by gompa at 8:39 AM on May 31, 2012 [1 favorite]
Lil Polar Bear says to his father, "What kind of bear am I?"
Father answers, " A polar bear."
2 days later, the Lil Polar Bear says to his father, "What kind of bear am I?"
Father answers, " A polar bear."
Next day, Lil Polar Bear says, "Really Dad, what kind of bear am I?"
Father asks Lil Polar Bear, "Why do you keep asking me."
Lil Polar say, "Bbbecause, I'm Ccccooolld."
posted by noaccident at 8:43 AM on May 31, 2012 [6 favorites]
Father answers, " A polar bear."
2 days later, the Lil Polar Bear says to his father, "What kind of bear am I?"
Father answers, " A polar bear."
Next day, Lil Polar Bear says, "Really Dad, what kind of bear am I?"
Father asks Lil Polar Bear, "Why do you keep asking me."
Lil Polar say, "Bbbecause, I'm Ccccooolld."
posted by noaccident at 8:43 AM on May 31, 2012 [6 favorites]
I've spent plenty of time on Alaska's North Slope in winter, where -60 ambient is not unheard of. At that temperature it hurts a white guy to breathe. Getting to your car or going out for a smoke becomes an epic adventure.
Eskimo guys will go out in light coats and sneakers, however.
posted by spitbull at 8:46 AM on May 31, 2012
Eskimo guys will go out in light coats and sneakers, however.
posted by spitbull at 8:46 AM on May 31, 2012
-40 is also the temperature at which tin turns from a malleable and very serviceable metal into an amorphous gray power-- occasioning great consternation at a certain tin-roofed cathedral during a cold snap in Europe, I've read, but I haven't been able to run down a reference.
posted by jamjam at 8:47 AM on May 31, 2012
posted by jamjam at 8:47 AM on May 31, 2012
It hit -50F last winter (which is apparently the temperature where it's acceptable to talk about how cold it is) and so, because I could, I went in the hot tub, which lives in an unheated (as in, it has open screen windows) sunroom. The interesting thing about hot tubbing at -50 is that it's so cold that the steam rising from the 103F hot tub condenses and falls as snow. The whole room was covered in this very fine snow, which sublimated away a few days later.
I walk about a mile to work all winter (because we are too cheap to pay for two parking passes, so we only have one car that works in the winter), and really, it's not so bad, as long as you're walking. Part of the problem is staying warm enough while not overheating. When it's really cold (e.g., -40), I wear: mukluks, flannel-lined jeans, a shirt, bib snow overalls, a fleece, a down coat, big mittens (not gloves!), a hat, a neck gaiter. Sometimes I have to unzip the coat. When it's a little warmer I've got an awesome snow skirt.
They don't let the kids go out to recess if it's below -20F. The first three weeks of January this winter were hard, because the kids got to go outside only one day during that period. So everyone was pretty stir crazy.
posted by leahwrenn at 9:05 AM on May 31, 2012 [5 favorites]
I walk about a mile to work all winter (because we are too cheap to pay for two parking passes, so we only have one car that works in the winter), and really, it's not so bad, as long as you're walking. Part of the problem is staying warm enough while not overheating. When it's really cold (e.g., -40), I wear: mukluks, flannel-lined jeans, a shirt, bib snow overalls, a fleece, a down coat, big mittens (not gloves!), a hat, a neck gaiter. Sometimes I have to unzip the coat. When it's a little warmer I've got an awesome snow skirt.
They don't let the kids go out to recess if it's below -20F. The first three weeks of January this winter were hard, because the kids got to go outside only one day during that period. So everyone was pretty stir crazy.
posted by leahwrenn at 9:05 AM on May 31, 2012 [5 favorites]
Coldest I have ever felt was -42c (-43.6f) but it was -54c (-65.2f) with the windchill. In Banff, Alberta. That was the day I broke out the full face mask and goggles for the walk to work. Its always a good sign when you can huck boiling water out the window and watch it freeze before it hits the ground.
jamjam: tin pest
posted by Pink Fuzzy Bunny at 9:22 AM on May 31, 2012 [1 favorite]
jamjam: tin pest
posted by Pink Fuzzy Bunny at 9:22 AM on May 31, 2012 [1 favorite]
I can hear my father now: "We don't call that cold in Québec!"
posted by Kabanos at 9:31 AM on May 31, 2012 [1 favorite]
posted by Kabanos at 9:31 AM on May 31, 2012 [1 favorite]
It is so cold your eyes water and the tears freeze your eyelashes together
Yeah, I always wonder if contact lenses can freeze to your eyeballs in that kind of weather. That would be unpleasant.
posted by elizardbits at 9:54 AM on May 31, 2012
Yeah, I always wonder if contact lenses can freeze to your eyeballs in that kind of weather. That would be unpleasant.
posted by elizardbits at 9:54 AM on May 31, 2012
I was in the USSR (Leningrad and Moscow) in January, 1987 and it got down to -40 there. There was this little old lady on our tour bus who kept looking out the window and crying out "Where are the children? Where are the children? They're in CAMPS is where!" We could not convince her that they were probably inside, but probably not in our hotel lobby, the tourist parts of the Kremlin, or Lenin's tomb.
posted by mph at 9:59 AM on May 31, 2012 [1 favorite]
posted by mph at 9:59 AM on May 31, 2012 [1 favorite]
I don't like the "plus or minus few degrees" in the article.
posted by francesca too at 10:01 AM on May 31, 2012
posted by francesca too at 10:01 AM on May 31, 2012
Coldest I've experienced was -27 with a -75 windchill.
posted by Ironmouth at 10:14 AM on May 31, 2012
posted by Ironmouth at 10:14 AM on May 31, 2012
So what defines water "completely" freezing, as opposed to32F or zero C at which it solidifies
Well, the first link actually answers that:
>Microscopic drops of water can stay unfrozen down to around minus forty, seventy-two degrees colder than what we all know to be freezing for big water. This means that even clouds and fog are made of tiny ice crystals at this frigid temperature, but can actually be made up of drops of water at temperatures well below freezing.
At -40, even very small pure water droplets will freeze, basically. Supercooled water can remain liquid, but not below -40.
posted by Listener at 10:22 AM on May 31, 2012 [1 favorite]
Well, the first link actually answers that:
>Microscopic drops of water can stay unfrozen down to around minus forty, seventy-two degrees colder than what we all know to be freezing for big water. This means that even clouds and fog are made of tiny ice crystals at this frigid temperature, but can actually be made up of drops of water at temperatures well below freezing.
At -40, even very small pure water droplets will freeze, basically. Supercooled water can remain liquid, but not below -40.
posted by Listener at 10:22 AM on May 31, 2012 [1 favorite]
RonButNotStupid: "-40 is also the only fixed point for the linear function which converts Celcius to Fahrenheit."
That's the first sentence in this FPP.
posted by IAmBroom at 10:31 AM on May 31, 2012 [1 favorite]
That's the first sentence in this FPP.
posted by IAmBroom at 10:31 AM on May 31, 2012 [1 favorite]
Forty below -- you might never feel it but at least now you.
But at least now I what? Wait dont freeze to death yet man, just tell me what!!
posted by Busmick at 10:35 AM on May 31, 2012
But at least now I what? Wait dont freeze to death yet man, just tell me what!!
posted by Busmick at 10:35 AM on May 31, 2012
I lived in Minneapolis for 7 years. I remember laughing when my Minnesota friends would claim that the "damp" cold on the east or west coasts feels colder (as if a +40 F damp day feels colder than a -25 F dry day). All I can tell you is that I have experienced many 40 degree rainy days during winter where I live and never once, when I inhaled, did it feel like razor blades were being shoved up my nostrils.
Having lived on the coast of England for seven years, I can confirm that the cold of a damp winter feels like you're being skinned alive. Both dry and damp cold are bad in different way, but when I think razor-blade-up-the-nostrils vs. skinned alive, I think dry comes out as slightly preferable for me.
And, I will take a -40 Minnesota winter day over a 100+ degree, 90%+ humidity Texas day ANYTIME.
posted by triggerfinger at 11:03 AM on May 31, 2012 [3 favorites]
Having lived on the coast of England for seven years, I can confirm that the cold of a damp winter feels like you're being skinned alive. Both dry and damp cold are bad in different way, but when I think razor-blade-up-the-nostrils vs. skinned alive, I think dry comes out as slightly preferable for me.
And, I will take a -40 Minnesota winter day over a 100+ degree, 90%+ humidity Texas day ANYTIME.
posted by triggerfinger at 11:03 AM on May 31, 2012 [3 favorites]
IAmBroom: "That's the first sentence in this FPP."
Sorry. I didn't think the first sentence in this FPP said anything about why -40 is the same in both Celcius and Fahrenheit (the link just says it's 'where the two scales cross'), or included anything relating to the mathematical significance of this bit of meteorological trivia, and I just thought it was worth noting.
posted by RonButNotStupid at 11:04 AM on May 31, 2012
Sorry. I didn't think the first sentence in this FPP said anything about why -40 is the same in both Celcius and Fahrenheit (the link just says it's 'where the two scales cross'), or included anything relating to the mathematical significance of this bit of meteorological trivia, and I just thought it was worth noting.
posted by RonButNotStupid at 11:04 AM on May 31, 2012
At about -30F, it gets dangerous to simply breathe without wrapping something around your head so the air gets a tiny bit warmed up before you inhale it: fun fact -- you can get frostbiten inside your lungs! Wheee!
I spent a year and a half in northern Greenland: Thule AB, about 795 miles from the North Pole, where we got winter temps below -60 for more than a month. During one four-day storm, with the temperature hovering near -55 and winds in the 65-75 mph range, we were confined to the barracks because even things like pickup trucks were having a hard time not getting blown around --- the weather could best be described as 'gawdawful', and that's the only place I've ever lived where nobody cared what the damn windchill was.
posted by easily confused at 11:13 AM on May 31, 2012
I spent a year and a half in northern Greenland: Thule AB, about 795 miles from the North Pole, where we got winter temps below -60 for more than a month. During one four-day storm, with the temperature hovering near -55 and winds in the 65-75 mph range, we were confined to the barracks because even things like pickup trucks were having a hard time not getting blown around --- the weather could best be described as 'gawdawful', and that's the only place I've ever lived where nobody cared what the damn windchill was.
posted by easily confused at 11:13 AM on May 31, 2012
This is one of those things that you Just Know when you grow up in Grand Forks, North Dakota.
My parents moved there from Kentucky. That must've been quite a shock.
posted by flaterik at 11:21 AM on May 31, 2012
My parents moved there from Kentucky. That must've been quite a shock.
posted by flaterik at 11:21 AM on May 31, 2012
elizardbits: " Yeah, I always wonder if contact lenses can freeze to your eyeballs in that kind of weather. That would be unpleasant."
You have now guaranteed that I will never wear contacts with that image in my head. (Don't feel bad -- it was a pretty safe bet already.)
The only thing about being outside when it's that super cold is that you really feel alive. But as I describe it that way I realize you feel that way because it feels so much like death around you.
posted by MCMikeNamara at 11:36 AM on May 31, 2012
You have now guaranteed that I will never wear contacts with that image in my head. (Don't feel bad -- it was a pretty safe bet already.)
The only thing about being outside when it's that super cold is that you really feel alive. But as I describe it that way I realize you feel that way because it feels so much like death around you.
posted by MCMikeNamara at 11:36 AM on May 31, 2012
Having grown up in Vancouver, BC, it was quite the experience to have lived in Iowa for 4 years - +40oC in the Summer and -40oC in the Winter.
I had long hair for about three of those years; my ponytail would freeze solid, parallel to the ground, between walking from my house to class on some of the colder windy Winter mornings.
posted by porpoise at 11:39 AM on May 31, 2012
I had long hair for about three of those years; my ponytail would freeze solid, parallel to the ground, between walking from my house to class on some of the colder windy Winter mornings.
posted by porpoise at 11:39 AM on May 31, 2012
It's interesting that the record highs are a lot less spread out than the record lows. (Every state has reached 100, even Alaska and Hawaii; the all-time US record is 134 in California.)
posted by madcaptenor at 11:49 AM on May 31, 2012
posted by madcaptenor at 11:49 AM on May 31, 2012
I'm with triggerfinger - dry cold is better.. I'd always pick, say, -10F over 20F and damp.. Down to about -20 I don't even really notice it and I wouldn't call -40 really that unbearable. One thing that struck me, though, when I went from walking everywhere in the freezing cold (college) and became a commuter: I'd rather walk in the deep cold than sit on a cold car seat not moving much in the cold.
posted by mbatch at 2:33 PM on May 31, 2012
posted by mbatch at 2:33 PM on May 31, 2012
I find stuff about cold fascinating, as an Aussie who has only been in something so tame as snow once (!). Coldest I've ever been was about -8 centrigrade, which is cold, but pretty okay. Stories about real cold thrill me.
(don't talk to me about heat, though. I can tell you all about heat)
posted by smoke at 4:32 PM on May 31, 2012
(don't talk to me about heat, though. I can tell you all about heat)
posted by smoke at 4:32 PM on May 31, 2012
I find stuff about cold fascinating, as an Aussie who has only been in something so tame as snow once (!). Coldest I've ever been was about -8 centrigrade, which is cold, but pretty okay. Stories about real cold thrill me.
(don't talk to me about heat, though. I can tell you all about heat)
Reminds me of a really stupid team building/leadership exercise I did once. In the scenario it was really cold outside (like -40!) but your car or whatever had broken down. As a group, we all decided to set off for elsewhere. Skipping over the other details, the apparent point was that this was a really bad decision, we'd all die of exposure. How the F*** were a bunch of Aussies supposed to know that? Stupid. Like asking poms whether they should leave their car in the desert.
posted by wilful at 5:17 PM on May 31, 2012
-40 (without windchill) was the standard 'yeah, it's pretty cold now' demarcation in my far north BC hometown back in the day. It would get there every year when I was young, and the daily low temps would hit that point for a week or two, generally. These days, apparently, not so much.
Something wonderful and magical happens to the air when the temps get down that low. All the moisture freezes out, and the purity of it and the blue of the sky during the brief period when the sun is fully up -- particularly in small towns where there's little to no air pollution to start with -- is glorious. The snow, too, becomes this powdery, crystalline substance that just... floats.
I miss -40.
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 5:28 PM on May 31, 2012 [3 favorites]
Something wonderful and magical happens to the air when the temps get down that low. All the moisture freezes out, and the purity of it and the blue of the sky during the brief period when the sun is fully up -- particularly in small towns where there's little to no air pollution to start with -- is glorious. The snow, too, becomes this powdery, crystalline substance that just... floats.
I miss -40.
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 5:28 PM on May 31, 2012 [3 favorites]
I really should say 'I miss 40 below' because that's what we called it, never '-40'.
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 6:06 PM on May 31, 2012 [2 favorites]
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 6:06 PM on May 31, 2012 [2 favorites]
stravros - !! You nailed in words the alien-ness I couldn't describe about being in extreme cold.
I read a lot of silver and golden age sci-fi when I was growing up, but Arthur C. Clarke was one of my greatest favorites because he would try to explain how it would feel to be entering different environments in the solar system, say plumbing the depths of Jupiter's titanically abysmal atmosphere or to stand on one of the frozen moons of Saturn. Being in extreme cold and having the atmosphere change so much from what I expect as normal was crazy. Not only does light have noticeably different properties, I loved the juxtaposition of the sound muffling qualities of snow mixed with the sharp bark of acute sounds through dehydrated arctic air.
Oh, also - I cannot wrap my mind around the fact that trees can explode in extreme temperatures*. Trees. Explode.
*especially if previous temperatures have fluctuated in the moderate range
posted by porpoise at 9:15 PM on May 31, 2012
I read a lot of silver and golden age sci-fi when I was growing up, but Arthur C. Clarke was one of my greatest favorites because he would try to explain how it would feel to be entering different environments in the solar system, say plumbing the depths of Jupiter's titanically abysmal atmosphere or to stand on one of the frozen moons of Saturn. Being in extreme cold and having the atmosphere change so much from what I expect as normal was crazy. Not only does light have noticeably different properties, I loved the juxtaposition of the sound muffling qualities of snow mixed with the sharp bark of acute sounds through dehydrated arctic air.
Oh, also - I cannot wrap my mind around the fact that trees can explode in extreme temperatures*. Trees. Explode.
*especially if previous temperatures have fluctuated in the moderate range
posted by porpoise at 9:15 PM on May 31, 2012
Something wonderful and magical happens to the air when the temps get down that low. All the moisture freezes out, and the purity of it and the blue of the sky during the brief period when the sun is fully up -- particularly in small towns where there's little to no air pollution to start with -- is glorious. The snow, too, becomes this powdery, crystalline substance that just... floats
Absolutely. When it's that cold and the sun is so bright with the bright blue sky.....that's what makes me love the winter so much, despite the fact that I'm not a huge fan of being cold. It's just magical.
An unbearable Texas day might have a temperature of 105 degrees and a dew point of 80 degrees. That means the relative humidity is only 46%. For the relative humidity to be 90% while the air temperature is 105 would require a dew point of 101. A dew point that high has never been recorded, anywhere I believe.
I thought about dew point vs. humidity while I was typing that but I just wanted to finish my comment without having to go look up the logistics. But you're right, and up until a few years ago I guess I didn't realize there was a difference. From wikipedia:
posted by triggerfinger at 11:02 PM on May 31, 2012
Absolutely. When it's that cold and the sun is so bright with the bright blue sky.....that's what makes me love the winter so much, despite the fact that I'm not a huge fan of being cold. It's just magical.
An unbearable Texas day might have a temperature of 105 degrees and a dew point of 80 degrees. That means the relative humidity is only 46%. For the relative humidity to be 90% while the air temperature is 105 would require a dew point of 101. A dew point that high has never been recorded, anywhere I believe.
I thought about dew point vs. humidity while I was typing that but I just wanted to finish my comment without having to go look up the logistics. But you're right, and up until a few years ago I guess I didn't realize there was a difference. From wikipedia:
The dew point is a water-to-air saturation temperature. The dew point is associated with relative humidity. A high relative humidity indicates that the dew point is closer to the current air temperature. Relative humidity of 100% indicates the dew point is equal to the current temperature and that the air is maximally saturated with water. When the dew point remains constant and temperature increases, relative humidity decreases.Interesting. But regardless of actual numbers, we in the midwest get it as bad with the summer heat and humidity as we do with the cold. And while we don't have anything near the levels that Texas (and other states) experience, when it's 100 degrees outside with high humidity, it is wretched. It can be so hard to cool down when it's hot but it's pretty easy to warm up when it's cold.
posted by triggerfinger at 11:02 PM on May 31, 2012
Also (and I never knew this until I just googled up the details, but written by Gaye Delorme and performed in the version we all know if we're (probably northern and western) Canadian and a certain age by Garry Lee and the Showdown), so it's true Canadiana:
Well it's forty below
And I don't give a fuck
Got a heater in my truck
And I'm off to the rodeo
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 11:06 PM on May 31, 2012
Well it's forty below
And I don't give a fuck
Got a heater in my truck
And I'm off to the rodeo
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 11:06 PM on May 31, 2012
Wow, everyone is crazy. Seattle winters get about as cold as I ever want to live in. Google tells me that is a low of 20 Fake degrees, or -6 Celsius. I think I'd say that below 50/10 I am pretty damn cold.
posted by jacalata at 12:47 AM on June 1, 2012
posted by jacalata at 12:47 AM on June 1, 2012
One of the biggest culture shock things I had when moving from Grand Forks to Los Angeles was weather reporting.
Forty below is well past what it takes to kill someone who doesn't have protection, and when you grow up with weather like that every year, you just are used to the outside being a place that can cause you to cease to live without any human intervention.
Then I went to college, and when it rained I heard people on TV doing on-site reporting of.... it being wet. Not literally-zero-visibility and if-you-stray-too-much-people-will-look-for-your-body-by-poking-the-snow-with-sticks-later weather, but.... just it was wet. Being reported breathlessly. Much harder to deal with than traffic and smog and the rest of LA, honestly.
posted by flaterik at 12:59 AM on June 1, 2012
Forty below is well past what it takes to kill someone who doesn't have protection, and when you grow up with weather like that every year, you just are used to the outside being a place that can cause you to cease to live without any human intervention.
Then I went to college, and when it rained I heard people on TV doing on-site reporting of.... it being wet. Not literally-zero-visibility and if-you-stray-too-much-people-will-look-for-your-body-by-poking-the-snow-with-sticks-later weather, but.... just it was wet. Being reported breathlessly. Much harder to deal with than traffic and smog and the rest of LA, honestly.
posted by flaterik at 12:59 AM on June 1, 2012
I suppose it says a lot about me that I'm pissed that there are other places in the lower-48 who've had it colder as a record.
I'm from Duluth, and I love the cold, dammit. I moved here during the Chicago Heat Wave of 1995--when they were piling up bodies in the backs of refrigerator trucks--and never looked back.
Most Duluthians get kind of thrilled when it gets that cold. We like it. And there's nothing that can get a line at the grocery store rolling their eyes than someone who complains about it. I mean, really. There are no jobs here. If you don't like the weather, there's a whole lot of country for you to live in.
Also, I never put away my long johns in the summer. It's snowed here every month but July, historically speaking.
posted by RedEmma at 8:06 AM on June 1, 2012
I'm from Duluth, and I love the cold, dammit. I moved here during the Chicago Heat Wave of 1995--when they were piling up bodies in the backs of refrigerator trucks--and never looked back.
Most Duluthians get kind of thrilled when it gets that cold. We like it. And there's nothing that can get a line at the grocery store rolling their eyes than someone who complains about it. I mean, really. There are no jobs here. If you don't like the weather, there's a whole lot of country for you to live in.
Also, I never put away my long johns in the summer. It's snowed here every month but July, historically speaking.
posted by RedEmma at 8:06 AM on June 1, 2012
I know people like to throw those numbers around to emphasize how uncomfortable it can be in hot humid places, but the actual numbers associated with extreme levels of discomfort are not those numbers.
You can say whatever you want about the actual numbers but it doesn't change the fact that summer heat in many parts of the US makes you feel like a firey turd slithering through Satan's butthole.
posted by elizardbits at 2:36 PM on June 2, 2012 [1 favorite]
You can say whatever you want about the actual numbers but it doesn't change the fact that summer heat in many parts of the US makes you feel like a firey turd slithering through Satan's butthole.
posted by elizardbits at 2:36 PM on June 2, 2012 [1 favorite]
^An unbearable Texas day might have a temperature of 105 degrees and a dew point of 80 degrees. That means the relative humidity is only 46%. For the relative humidity to be 90% while the air temperature is 105 would require a dew point of 101. A dew point that high has never been recorded, anywhere I believe.
posted by Seymour Zamboni
Very interesting, Seymour Zamboni.
I've seen a few discussions of reasons why our body temperatures are around 100F, one of the most recent that it had to be at least that high to confer resistance to certain fungi, and a favorite of mine that there is a subtle critical point of water right around 100F.
No one has mentioned dew points that I can recall, but your comment is making me think perhaps someone should.
If the dew point is above your body temperature, you can't cool yourself at all by evaporation, which is a very powerful mode of cooling indeed, and-- far worse-- every breath you take will heat you up very strongly because water will condense in your lungs and on your mucus membranes (not to mention your skin), depositing the latent heat of vaporization of that water there, which is more than twice as much heat as it would take to heat the same amount of water from 32F to 212F, and that could cause runaway catastrophic rises in body temperature.
So it's probably a good idea to have a body temperature above the maximum dew point you're likely to encounter.
posted by jamjam at 4:02 PM on June 2, 2012 [3 favorites]
posted by Seymour Zamboni
Very interesting, Seymour Zamboni.
I've seen a few discussions of reasons why our body temperatures are around 100F, one of the most recent that it had to be at least that high to confer resistance to certain fungi, and a favorite of mine that there is a subtle critical point of water right around 100F.
No one has mentioned dew points that I can recall, but your comment is making me think perhaps someone should.
If the dew point is above your body temperature, you can't cool yourself at all by evaporation, which is a very powerful mode of cooling indeed, and-- far worse-- every breath you take will heat you up very strongly because water will condense in your lungs and on your mucus membranes (not to mention your skin), depositing the latent heat of vaporization of that water there, which is more than twice as much heat as it would take to heat the same amount of water from 32F to 212F, and that could cause runaway catastrophic rises in body temperature.
So it's probably a good idea to have a body temperature above the maximum dew point you're likely to encounter.
posted by jamjam at 4:02 PM on June 2, 2012 [3 favorites]
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