How cold is too cold?

[Marshwheeling]

Weatherman says the high next Monday will be 10 below zero.

That's the high.....

.

The weather widget on my iphone is saying -8° and -26° for Sunday, then -11° and -20° on Monday. That's not too cold, but it might be too cold for my septic.

It has given me no trouble since I insulated it a few years ago, but the line is only a couple of feet deep, and the snow cover is a bit skimpy. I have never had to plug in the heat cord I put in, but this may be the year.

 

[CBus660R]

I'll chime in here. Grew up 1/4 mile from Lake Erie just west of Cleveland. I love temps in the teens and I'm good down to about 0*F. Once it dips below 0* then I try to stay inside. The worst experience dealing with cold was my freshman year of college when it was -20* and the wind chill was -60*. I tried walking to class in that, made it to the bridge over the highway that acted like a wind tunnel and turned back towards the dorm and didn't go back outside other than to go to the cafeteria for the 3 days it was like that.

 

[Robotech]

I'll go ahead and quote this again, since it is wonderfully written and closely reflects my sentiments. Thanks so much, Robotech, for taking the time to post your experience.

Regards,
Andy

Thank you for the compliment, Andy.

I do a lot of writing, but sometimes one of the Muses of poetry wanders by to demand that I order the words just a little differently or in a lyric style to get the emotion and feelings across more clearly.

I suspect this time it was Euterpe again, rather than Erato, though usually it may be her visits inspiring my musical compositions. (Yes, I compose music as well, along with a number of other different creative things. I just wish I could figure out how to get paid for them. )

A true story may simply be stated facts, but to communicate the actual 'feelings' of the moment, to move the reader's heart... That requires something more.

Rob

 

[geoff40]

Your tax dollars fund a weather observatory on top of Mount Washington in northern NH. 5 scientists up there 24/7. Google it, current conditions are always available. Those 5 are at the mercy of God often enough, might as well be on the moon at times. A snow cat brings fresh crews, food, mail,,etc., when weather permits. As I post this the wind chill up there is close to 50 below. If the temp and wind does what they are forecasting tonight, 80-100 below wind chills are likely. It isn't uncommon to see January and February wind chills up there of 115-120 below zero. That's too cold for me, I'll stay here where I have a nice, tropical 4 degrees right now.

 

[Jst1mr]

Expecting -35F this weekend...

I am in a notoriously cold spot in NW WI, right near where the WI record low of -55 was set in 1996. What do you do when its that cold? Robotech said it so well, but forgot a few that I will add, though not so artistically worded:

• you skim your ice fishing hole a LOT, because it freezes shut so quickly.
• you remember what a hard, wooden bench feels like when you jump in your vehicle in the morning.
• you enjoy the frst 15 miles or so on the road with flat spots on your tires shaking all your "loose parts".
• you have the opportunity to fabricate totally new curse words and bellow at the gods that have directed your snowblower plume directly back into your face. (Hope the neighbor kids were inside).
• you can perform studies to see how fast you can freeze your hands solid while extricating a chain that the snowblower found lurking mysteriously in a snowbank and decided to wind up around every rotating part.
• Like ogres and onions, you must have layers - until everyone is pretty much indistinguishable and everybody looks like a hand grenade.
• And, of course, every once in a while just let your feet go, and take a good hard fall just for the pure slapstick joy of it (don't forget to look for those expensive mitts that flew off before you slink away...)

But, like Robotech said, there's the good stuff, too.

 

[Lost Lake]

The weather widget on my iphone is saying -8° and -26° for Sunday, then -11° and -20° on Monday. That's not too cold, but it might be too cold for my septic.

It has given me no trouble since I insulated it a few years ago, but the line is only a couple of feet deep, and the snow cover is a bit skimpy. I have never had to plug in the heat cord I put in, but this may be the year.

Now they're saying a high of -14!

I have septic systems problems too when it's that cold. The tank pumps uphill and the drain back will freeze when it's really cold.

I should have blankets on the lid today through Tuesday..

.

 

[Franklin]

Hea guys, keep that cold up north, its starting to get COLD here now in Tenn, I see the forcast for Minnesota and Wisconsin could see -60 wind chill......THATS COLD!

 

[Sven]

MINNESOTA TEMPERATURE CONVERSION CHART

60 degrees F: Southern Californians shiver uncontrollably. People in Minnesota sunbathe.

50 F: New Yorkers try to turn on the heat. People in Minnesota plant gardens.

40 F: Italian & English cars won't start. People in Minnesota drive with the windows down.

32 F: Distilled water freezes. The water at Lake Bemidji in Minnesota starts getting cooler.

20 F: Floridians don coats, thermal underwear, gloves, wool hats. People in Minnesota throw on a flannel shirt, buttons open.

15 F: New York City landlords finally turn up the heat. People in
Minnesota have the last cookout before it gets cold.

0 F: All the people in Miami die. Minnesotans close the windows.

10 below zero: Californians escape en masse to Mexico. Girl Scouts in Minnesota sell cookies door to door.(In fact, they're selling them right now!!)

25 below zero: Las Vegas disintegrates. People in Minnesota rummage
around the attic to find some winter coats.

40 below zero: Washington DC runs out of hot air. People in Minnesota let the dogs sleep indoors.

100 below zero: Santa Claus abandons the North Pole. Some Minnesotans are frustrated when they can't start their cars.

460 below zero (absolute zero on the Kelvin Scale): All atomic motion stops. People in Minnesota start saying . . . "Cold 'nuff for ya?"

500 below zero: Hell freezes over. In Minnesota, VIKINGS win the Super Bowl!!

 

[RedWings05]

52 degrees is where i get grumpy

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[SavageSmoker]

I live in MN. The next couple of days we will see temps of -25 with wind chills of up to -60. I plan on smoking some ribs (outside) and catching up on the latest "global warming" buzz...

 

[Viss]

-9 is predicted for the high on Monday here. We've had a lot of single digit highs this winter.

I will be in the garage at the reloading bench, some extreme cold days I'll empty the safe, and clean and oil quite a few.

It's funny how at the beginning of winter the first few days in the twenties and your chilled to the bone. Wednesday it got up to 20 deg. and I spent the better part of the day outside, it felt downright balmy.

 

[Frank46]

Back in '65 while waiting orders for my ship they stuck us in one of the WWII "H" wooden barracks buildings. You could hear the ice cracking on the lake. What heat that was generated in those miserable buildings just about vanished in -20 degree temps. When reporting to sickbay on arrival the doc told me I had frostbite on my ears. Looked like I had terminal dandruff. I ended up working in the engineroom. At least the heat felt good. I always ended up opening up the three main steam stops alpha,bravo &charley. Oh what fun. Frank