How cold have you been?

[RWebb]

-40 oF is pretty standard for Laramie, at least when I lived there - cold air masses infiltrate down from Canada, following the lowest lying parts of the terrain

Laramie is at 7,000 ft. (which is why the football stadium is called "death valley" - fun to watch the low-landers try to run). Thus, it is one of the last parts of the state to get those cold air masses.

The air feels completely still and when you breathe it is like millions of tiny needles stabbing deep into your lungs.

Later, when it warms up to -20 or so, the wind blows like a mutha -- and you can die a lot quicker.

I gave a paper on which condition was colder for various winter animals and some auto-correlation weather stuff on this once, but forget the details now.

Somewhere I have photos of the annual winter sunbathing student contest - they all put on swim suits and lie around on one of the statues at the UW campus commons - it's one day in winter each year.

[rcecale]

February, 1999...Fairbanks, Alaska. Working the flight line, launching fighters...yeah...it was this cold!!!



Randy

[Skytrooper]

I remember a backpacking/snowshoe trip in the Tetons in 1975. Our first nights camp was by Jenny Lake. When I awoke in the morning it was -22 F inside my tent. My breath had frozen to the ceiling and looked like arrowheads.

[masraum]

-10°F or so, several times in Misawa, Japan. Wind chills lower than that.

[pavulon]

1981, eastern South Dakota, put my Blazer in the ditch during a blizzard late at night. Walked about a half mile to call my parents. When I put the phone to my ear, it hurt so I felt my ear lobe...it had slush in it. Lost its skin the next day>>2nd degree frost bite. While not "cool" then, I'm a big fan of winter hats ever since.

[Shaun @ Tru6]

I've cut wood in -70 wind chill when living in MN. good times.

[Hugh R]

Shaun, how the heck are you?

[gr8fl4porsche]

Top of the upper lift at A-Basin right before they closed due to temps and wind.

They said it was -50.

[Shaun @ Tru6]

Originally Posted by Hugh R

Shaun, how the heck are you?

hey there Hugh, I'm doing OK, thanks. Some lingering stuff but happy to be here! Last 4 months have been something else, I'll you that.

[mikesride]

Where I grew up as a kid.....we didn't have to go outside for recess if it was colder than -60 C (-76 F). Now i worry about my kids being outside in -25 C. Times change.....

[red-beard]

1998/99 New Years trip to Sugar Bush VT, it was -25 F (-32C) while we were in the outdoor hot tubs. The foam in the hottub was frozen on the outer surface.

Jan 1995 - We had 2 full weeks at my house in Western Mass where it was below 0F (-18C) every night. We had one straight week of -25F or colder nights with one night -30F. I do not remember any wind. I do remember my car wouldn't start one of those nights and my wife was smug that hers did.

Sometime in the mid 1970's, we had some terrible blizzard in Eastern NY where the temp was -30F and with the windchill it was -60F. Exposed flesh would freeze in 30 seconds.

I've had friends who worked on the North Slope who have experienced much worse.

[9dreizig]

1983 Lebanon, NH,, -33 deg no windchill,, stuff stops moving at -30...

[craigster59]

Truth be told, I think the coldest I've ever been was back in '87. I was dating Elle MacPherson at the time and we were in Barbados for the SI swimsuit issue photo shoot. Things started flowing, she was off in the water with the photog. Well, to cut to the chase, when she came back she caught me in a cabana with Kathy Ireland.

It wasn't pretty and I deprived Elle the pleasure of my loins for 72 hours after the awkward situation. I regret it to this day.

[ckelly78z]

The big blizzard of 1978, we got 30" of snow in two days in NW Ohio and I think the temp was about -10F with hurricane force winds which drove the windchill to -50 or -60.

No kidding, the night before, it was rainy, calm and 45F, my Dad went to work at 10:00 PM and literally could not find his truck for 3 days after in the parking lot (near 0 visibilty and he said the whole parking lot looked like a field with lumps where the cars were). Only time I ever had to duck under the power lines to walk over the drifts.

[Joeaksa]

Worked for six months in Russia and the FSU.

We had -32 with 25 knots of wind at the airport one morning. It was not fun...

[Evans, Marv]

Not that cold, but my feet got pretty cold & bothered me for a few years afterwards. Another guy & I were in the Sierras during December of '73 gathering weather information. Spent almost 4 days in the first good show hiking sometimes in knee to hip deep snow. It was beautiful though. I have a picture of the other guy using a 4 ft. long icicle as a walking stick. We were on top of a place named Mather Pass late in the day where we were gathering data. It was dark on the way down but one of the most beautiful sights I've ever seen. We were walking into a 35 mph wind along the top of an esker, when the full moon came up over the crest of the Sierras and lit up the whole alpine basin. We would just stop every once in a while to take in the beauty.

[varmint]

there's a cold snap late january. goes from 0º to -30º and just hangs there for couple weeks. i remember much colder from growing up in the midwest. but big difference between being a little kid and staying home to watch cartoons and being an adult who has to go to work every day in that.

[speeder]

I've been in -60 windchill many, many times. And -100 windchill a few times. So has everyone who lives in Minnesota. Negative 25 or 30 not including windchill happens every winter there. After a cold snap when a warm front rolls in and it's +20 degrees, it feels like summer. I kid you not. Kids play outside for hours in anything above zero there.

The cold temp record for the U.S. is almost always set in Tower or Embarrass Minnesota. That's up north. A few years ago, it hit a disputed -60, (could not be verified), but -58 was verified. That is not including any windchill. People never shut off their vehicles. It showed a bar on the news, all the cars and trucks in the lot were running with the exhaust hugging the ground. It looked like the earth was a vacuum. Everyone has two sets of keys, you lock your car or truck and leave it running. Otherwise, they would never warm up.

[speeder]

I had a paper route when I was 11 and woke up at 5 am every day to do my route. I still to this day do not know HTF I did that. I'm pretty much a weather wuss now, living in SoCal for 30 years.

[aigel]

Originally Posted by vash

i want to change my answer. few years ago..we rode horses into the sierras to hunt. 7 days. we got so stinky!! we had to break a hole in the thin ice and jump in clutching a bottle of CAMP SUDS. you will invent cuss words!!

This is bs. You aren't going to die from not washing yourself as long as your mouth and hands stay reasonably clean. But you will die from hypothermia, heart attack or pneumonia you can catch from such strange cleansing activities. After 7 days everyone will smell the same - who cares. Take some more booze next time to make it over the smell in the tent.

I often think about 150+ years ago. I wonder if oral sex was terribly popular back then?

G