How cold does it have to be before people have to stay home/indoors?

Le Jacquelope

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30 below zero? How can you go to work in that weather without putting on your Starship Troopers[tm] climate controlled power armor? You mean cars can actually start in that kind of cold?! WTF?

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090115/ap_on_re_us/winter_weather/print

Bone-chilling temperatures settle over East
By JOHN CURRAN, Associated Press Writer John Curran, Associated Press Writer 1 hr 7 mins ago

MONTPELIER, Vt. – Northeasterners got socked Thursday with the same subzero temperatures — more than 30 below zero in some spots — that brought teeth-chattering misery to the nation's midsection for much of the week.

"This is Vermont," said Bradley Reed, fire captain in St. Johnsbury, where it was 18 below early Thursday. "Sometimes, it's worse than this. We take it for what it is and hope and pray we get the warmer weather soon."

The bitter cold stretched from Montana to Maine and as far south as North Carolina, driving people to pile on layers upon layers if they had to go out, and keeping some children home from school to avoid the low temperatures.

In northern Maine, a low of 38 below zero was recorded at Depot Mountain in a sparsely populated area near the border with Canada, and it was 32 below in Fort Kent.

It was cold enough to shut down Vermont's Bolton Valley ski resort and the Big Rock ski area in Mars Hill, Maine. But for many, it was business as usual, although perhaps at a slower pace.

"You pretty much have to grin and bear it. We've been cold before," said Justin Dubois, manager of Quigley's Building Supply in Fort Kent, Maine. "In all honesty, 30 below doesn't seem a lot different from 20 below. They're both very cold."

Asked what Floridians might think of the extreme cold, he responded, "You have to understand that we don't have hurricanes and tornadoes — but we do get 200 inches of snow and cold weather."

In Michigan, the temperature in Pellston, in the northern Lower Peninsula, dropped to 25 below zero overnight, while in upstate New York, low temperatures Thursday morning included 2 in Buffalo and 25 below zero in Massena. New York City, where light snow fell overnight, saw lows in the teens.

The extreme cold was especially hard for outdoor workers like Allen Lockrow, who was up before dawn to deliver food and supplies to restaurants around Albany, N.Y.

"You wear a lot of clothes, a T-shirt, four layers of sweat shirts, a fleece and a coat," Lockrow said as he made a delivery at an Albany mall. He also wore two pairs of socks under his work boots and ear muffs under his hat.

The air temperature was 29 degrees below zero in Glenwood, Minn., on Thursday morning, with the wind chill making it a staggering 54 degrees below zero. It was 20 degrees below zero at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport, with a wind chill of 37 below.

The town of Clinton, Iowa, was that state's frigid spot overnight at 27 below zero. It hit 15 below zero early Thursday in Des Moines, the coldest there since 1996, said Craig Cogil of the National Weather Service.

Across the region, schools in hundreds of communities were closing or starting late because of the bitter cold. Akron, Ohio, was one of the cities were schools were closed all day.

In southwest Ohio, Butler County reopened its former jail as an emergency shelter, with room for about 40 people to have a blanket, meal and shower, said Lt. Nick Fischer of the sheriff's office.

The frigid conditions caused complications for highway managers because road salt doesn't melt ice in subzero temperatures.

"Once we get into minus 10, minus 20, in some cases we have to go to just straight sand, a light dusting of sand, on the highway to get some grit, provide some traction," said Mike Flick a transportation worker in Pamelia, N.Y.

The Indiana State Police banned some large trucks from the Indiana Toll Road because of hazardous weather conditions. On Wednesday, two people died in a 20-vehicle pileup in near-blizzard conditions on the Toll Road, and a third person died in a highway crash in Gary. There were also at least three crash fatalities in Ohio.

The cold was pushing southward, where even northern Georgia and Kentucky could see single-digit lows by Friday, with zero possible at Lexington, Ky., the weather service warned. Kentucky hasn't been that cold since December 2004.

In Cleveland, where it was snowing and 10 degrees at lunchtime Wednesday, Terry Gill, 23, was bundled up with four layers of clothes. He had a secret for staying warm.

"I just try not to think about it," Gill said while waiting for a bus in a shelter surrounded by piles of snow from nearly 17 inches that have fallen in one week. "I mean, it's cold. That's Cleveland weather."

___

Associated Press writers David Sharp in Portland, Maine, and James Hannah in Dayton, Ohio, contributed to this report.

___

On the Net:

Weather Service warnings: http://*******.com/yfjlyf

(This version CORRECTS location of Maine ski resort)
 
20 or even 30 below is bearable. As long as it's not too windy. That's when it starts to suck.
 
30 below zero? How can you go to work in that weather without putting on your Starship Troopers[tm] climate controlled power armor? You mean cars can actually start in that kind of cold?! WTF?

Funny you ask that, my car didn't start yesterday, the battery was dead. So for your car to start in that kind of weather you need a good battery. And in the north, they plug engine heater during the night so the oil doesn't freeze up. And that's it. Works pretty fine.

20 or even 30 below is bearable. As long as it's not too windy. That's when it starts to suck.

Yep and no need of an armor. You kind of get use to the cold. But what you don't do is stop moving :D Or forgot your scarf like me and have the strange feeling that your lungs are freezing up.:rolleyes:

They, sometime when it's very cold, warn poeple to stay inside if they have heart or lung disease.
 
It depends on what you are used to.

My dentists are Finns. They laugh at we weak effete southerners who worry about a few patches of ice on the roads.

They wanted to take a visiting Finnish family to a local children's zoo.

It was partially closed "because of icy paths". The air temperature was about -3C.

"What icy paths? they asked.

As well known season ticket holders they were allowed in anyway.

They didn't fall or slip.

Og
 
I've gone out to get the Sunday paper from the neighborhood store when the temp as around 25 below zero and the wind chill was about 80 below. Bearded at the time, when I got back inside my entire beard was iced over. I'd held the paper in front of my face for protection against the wind and I was well dressed for the weather.

But it was pretty flipping cold. :D
 
It depends on what you are used to.

My dentists are Finns. They laugh at we weak effete southerners who worry about a few patches of ice on the roads.

They wanted to take a visiting Finnish family to a local children's zoo.

It was partially closed "because of icy paths". The air temperature was about -3C.

"What icy paths? they asked.

As well known season ticket holders they were allowed in anyway.

They didn't fall or slip.

Og
Oh God, then California's coldest temperatures must be bikini time for them. :eek:
 
The coldest plaxce I have ever ben was Duluth Muni Airport, MN, but there were colder places farther inland and farther north. In the winter, thirty below was cold but not particularly cold. :eek:

California does have cold weather but not where I live and have lived. Up in the mountains it gets to below zero, but that's not all that bad, compared to some other places.
 
The coldest plaxce I have ever ben was Duluth Muni Airport, MN, but there were colder places farther inland and farther north. In the winter, thirty below was cold but not particularly cold. :eek:

California does have cold weather but not where I live and have lived. Up in the mountains it gets to below zero, but that's not all that bad, compared to some other places.
 
Does califorrnia have cold temperatures?
I sincerely doubt anywhere in the Sierra Nevada gets to 30 below. I know Minnesota is notorious for temperatures near that point. :eek:

Oh well, at least fuel lines and human blood doesn't freeze right off at that temperature.
 
Depends on the person and what they are used to I suppose.

Growing up I lived in several places that went well below -20F. You dealt with it and if you were dressed for it you weren't overly uncomfortable. (Depending on conditions of course. For some strange reason I found it to be more than uncomfortable walking behind a snow blower in -15F with anice wind blowing into my face.)

Then I moved to Cape Cod and froze my ass off in temps above zero. It didn't help that the wind was always blowing and the humidity was rarely below 60%. I dealt with it as did most of us.

Now I live in southern Florida and have been here for roughly 8 years. When the temps get below 60° I feel it. If and when I deal with temps below freezing this Cat suffers.

Cat
 
Does califorrnia have cold temperatures?
Not in Sunny Southern CA. The Sun god is kind and smiles on us year round. In fact, after battling and winning against the wet demon of winter who was summoned in by heretics who shall remain nameless and got our temperatures down to a chilling 40 degrees--the Sun god has returned us to a dry and balmy 80 degrees.

We're back to wearing shorts, teeshirts and sandals. All those silly warm jackets, sweaters, hats, boots, umbrellas and the rest have been tucked back away in the furthest reaches of the closet.
 
80 degrees in Los Angeles in January? My God, Yahoo says it's 76 degrees there right now and the sun has got to be close to retiring.

I bet y'all will be cooking in the summer.
 
It's supposed to go down to 7 F tonight.

I need to remind the Weather God that this is Alabama, ffs. It's not supposed to get that cold here - we don't own coats. :mad:
 
It was 1 when I left for school this morning and a balmy 12 degrees when I got home. Of course this was also the day when one of the furnaces in the classroom building decided to die.
 
20 or even 30 below is bearable. As long as it's not too windy. That's when it starts to suck.

Well it's windy. We're under a wind chill warning till noon tomorrow, and experienced wind chills of more than 20 below ourselves. At ORD, the warmest they got was 7 below. At my house, 8 below. At the lake, zero. And so on...and the wind just makes it ridiculous.
 
80 degrees in Los Angeles in January? My God, Yahoo says it's 76 degrees there right now and the sun has got to be close to retiring.
We beat out some record for past January Temperatures at 85 this week (can't recall which day). Luckily the heat wave seems to be cooling down a bit. Temps are going to start to go down to the 60's.

Any colder than that and it's time to go indoors ;)
 
Years ago in north Idaho it got to -30 on a fairly regular basis. Lake Pend Orielle would freeze up, looking like miles of frothy white shaving cream. The good thing about the cold was the fact that the sun would be out, a rare occurrance in a pacific northwest winter.

We heated our tiny cabin with an airtight wood stove. (Airtight meaning it had a vent you could set to control the air intake.) We would load it with a pine log and a birch log, hoping the combination would burn all night. Most of the time it did.

One evening I washed my longjohns and hung them up over the stove so I could be clean for the next day's work. Come morning, the cabin was freezing. I climbed down the ladder from our sleeping loft and found my longjohns frozen stiff. The fire had gone out before they even had a chance to dry. Ooops.

When I milked the goats in the morning, I'd rinse out the pail and drop a paper towel in it so I could wipe off Gertrude's udder. On our first -30 morning, by the time I'd walked across the yard to the goat pen, (about 20 seconds) the paper towel had frozen to the wet bucket.

Our bantam chickens preferred roosting in the trees, even though I provided them with a heated hen house. We lost several of them to the cold. Idiots!

-30 weather always reminds me of that Jack London short story 'To Build a Fire'. Read that and then reflect on how easy we have it these days.
 
This was the rules for not attending our high school in Colorado because of weather.

There had to be at least one of two things for school to be canceled, otherwise you trekked you ass there or the bus finally makes it to you if you live out of town. But it would make it to you, it was very rare for them not to find a way to make you get in that school!

The rules...

1. -45F to have school canceled
2. 6ft snow fall
 
80 degrees in Los Angeles in January? My God, Yahoo says it's 76 degrees there right now and the sun has got to be close to retiring.

I bet y'all will be cooking in the summer.

I'm sittin in LA now and it topped at 85 degrees today. It was still 75 at 11 pm.
 
On Wednesday it was 42 degrees centigrade here in Sydney. Todays 26 seems quite cool in contrast.
 
As some of you know, I drive a truck for a day job. On Wednesday we had very heavy snowfall and dropping temperatures all day. The people who run our office got nervous and went home early, afraid they couldn't get home if they stayed all day. However, they didn't have second thoughts about leaving me out on the truck doing pick-ups alone after my assistant got hurt slipping off the back bumper of the truck and had to go to the ER.

This morning it is extremely cold. I haven't looked at the numbers. Don't need to. Fucking cold sums it up. I am prepared for another day out on the truck, likely by myself again. Carrying refrigerators up an icy ramp. Should be fun.

You do get used to icy weather, though. The other day, in the middle of a slide on an icy road, I grabbed my coffee out of the cup holder and took a drink while talking to my wife. She was kind of freaking out on me. Apparently the slide was worse than I thought, but I just sipped some coffee and corrected it. That's just what you have to do when you live in places like WItch's Tit, Indiana.
 
I'm 4 degrees south of the arctic circle and we just came out of a month long run of -35c (-31f) and lower.

My car will start in as low as -30c (-22f) without assistance, but it's hard on the engine. Block heaters are not only to keep the oil liquid, but reduces the time needed to get the heat up in the cabin.

Tires feel funny at these temps. Like the are made of solid rubber - no flex at all. The transmission and power steering are slow to respond as well - until it gets warmed up.

There is never wind here once it drops below -30c (-22f) so it's almost never a windchill issue. I got my first frost bite ever this year on my way home from the bus stop. Stupid really, I had a hole in my glove that I had been ignoring. Got home and touched my face with the now frozen tip and actually heard the ice crystals rubbing together. Hurts like hell and I'll lose some skin but it'll be fine.

The people I admire are the guys with outdoor jobs. I see them all day in cold weather gear working like it's summer.

You learn not to take a deep breath and don't run. The Innuit claim that you can frost burn your lungs. I'm inclined to believe them too.

Joggers and cyclists generally stop around -20c (-4f)

Salt does not work as a de-iceing compound. The normal road treatment is stone chips. As a result, 1 in 10 cars does not have a broken windshield.

Double socks and a real appreciation for wool as an insulator.

On night at -38c (-36f) with a full moon and no wind with the northern lights raging overhead and listening to a wolf howling it's no longer cold - it's storybook stuff.

Jack London and Farley Mowat are my homeboys at that point.


The flip side of this is that I don't do well with temps above 25c (77f). The AC gets turned on and stays on for the summer. We get +35c (95f) in the summer and after acclimating to winter here it is like living in hell. Southern US, you may now make fun of me for that. :D
 
On night at -38c (-36f) with a full moon and no wind with the northern lights raging overhead and listening to a wolf howling it's no longer cold - it's storybook stuff.
Cool! Uh--as in neat-o!

The flip side of this is that I don't do well with temps above 25c (77f). The AC gets turned on and stays on for the summer. We get +35c (95f) in the summer and after acclimating to winter here it is like living in hell. Southern US, you may now make fun of me for that.
With Jack London and Farley Mowat as your homeboys? No way! I don't get on the wrong side of anyone who hangs with wolves and sled dogs.

One question: I recently watched a documentary where they explained that the Innuit knew--and I assume still know--that the best thing to wear is caribou skins as caribou fur is uniquely good at keeping a person warm while also keeping them dry and insulated inside rather than sweating. Wool apparently makes people sweat and, being made as it is, a wool sweater can therefore get damp and freeze in such temps. So, um, shouldn't you be wearing caribou fur boots rather than a double layer of wool socks? :confused:
 
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