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PZ Myers is a biologist and associate professor at the University of Minnesota, Morris.
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« 2000 years from now people will be making fun of us | Main | Pat Boone: officially declared a moron »
Category: Local
Posted on: February 4, 2007 10:47 AM, by PZ Myers
It took it's own sweet time about getting here, but it's finally winter in Morris.
Daytime high of -10°F, and it's supposed to drop down to -25°F tonight. This is definitely stay-inside-and-snuggle-under-a-quilt weather.
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Comments
Oh, this makes me not miss Minnesota quite so much. We're supposed to get "bitterly cold" here in Boston this week, but for Boston that doesn't even mean going below zero. I always tell native Bostonians that they really don't know cold here. Stay warm.
Posted by: MAJeff | February 4, 2007 10:54 AM
-10 now in Madison, WI... I am going to decide that there is no such thing as global warming only based on today.
Posted by: DrBadger | February 4, 2007 11:08 AM
Yep, it's miserable here too.
Rainy and grey and in the 60s.
Nance -- smug in FL (which is hard to do while ducking hurricanes and tornadoes :) )
Posted by: Nance Confer | February 4, 2007 11:09 AM
I moved back to Minnesota from Texas precisely because spring here is so much sweeter and glorious following our harsh winters. I don't really like being out in this cold, but once I re-acclimate each year it really isn't that bad; except when the f'ing car won't start.
But, I wasn't foolish enough to move to my hometown, Hallock, MN which features a forecast for tonight of -30F. That is a pain, figuratively as well as literally.
http://tuibguy.blog-city.com/whatcoldreallyis.htm
Posted by: Mike Haubrich | February 4, 2007 11:45 AM
Forecast here on the eastern shore of Maryland is also for "Bitter Cold". That means highs in the 20s. Heh.
There is a reason I don't live on the prairie any more.
Posted by: JP | February 4, 2007 11:56 AM
It especially sucks, because I'm one of the few Minnesotans totally reliant on public transit. Although, I've noticed the bus drivers are especially nice about waiting for people in this sort of weather.
Posted by: YuppiTuna | February 4, 2007 12:13 PM
"I always tell native Bostonians that they really don't know cold here."
As a native Bostonian (who, incidentally, can recognize an LED Mooninite) I agree. My girlfriend, who is from Chicago, always tells me about the Midwest's arctic winters and scorching summers. At any rate, I like the weather here in New England because it's more annoying than deadly.
Posted by: Ian Menzies | February 4, 2007 12:27 PM
Pish. Here in Alamosa, Colorado we've been getting low temps like that for some time now. We are blessed with higher highs, however. Our daily temperature swings are regularly between 40 and 50 degrees. According to Weather Underground, Friday's low was -26 and the high was +15. Yesterday's low/high was -22/+30. Balmy. Naturally, I went hiking.
Posted by: Eveningsun | February 4, 2007 12:29 PM
I've been back in Minnesota for 16 months and this is the first traditionally cold day I've seen. It's a slight relief. I know that global warming can't be seen in local temperature variations, but last winter was scary.
Posted by: John Emerson | February 4, 2007 12:51 PM
Still no winter over here.
Posted by: David Marjanović | February 4, 2007 1:05 PM
38 Celcius here today. Think I'll be staying indoors.
Posted by: Markk | February 4, 2007 2:12 PM
Down here in central Texas, winter is over, and the sun bathers are in the park across the street. The FSM must not want people to live in the upper plains. ;-)
Posted by: Russell | February 4, 2007 2:16 PM
Up here on the North Shore (of Lake Superior for you non-Minnesotans) it was -23 this morning (f), but now it is up to -7. After living in AZ the last three years it takes a little getting used to. Oh well, fill the woodstove with maple, mix a coffee and brandy, and watch everyone enjoying the sun in Miami - should be a good afternoon. At least my car started.
Posted by: ecostudent | February 4, 2007 3:54 PM
Careful, Dr. Myers. You're never going to make it to fearsome and sinister if you keep using words like "snuggle." And shouldn't you be using your quilts as fuel for barbecuing Christians?
Posted by: STH | February 4, 2007 3:56 PM
Damn righ it's about time. -3 currently in Milwaukee, and feels like -20. Ahhhhh, finally some Wisconsin winter. Tomorrow with that broiling hot high of -2!
Posted by: Callandor | February 4, 2007 7:40 PM
Thank you! Sitting inside in Minneapolis this weekend, I was wondering how long I would have to wait for the requisite "it's really cold here" post.
Posted by: Sonja | February 4, 2007 8:03 PM
Here in N California a couple weeks ago we we had the worst freeze in over a decade, with billions of dollars in agricultural losses. Today -- 70F and sunny.
Nice to see things are sorting themselves out into their natural order...
Posted by: idlemind![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/nav-commenters.gif)
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February 4, 2007 8:20 PM
Aaah! Bracing! The only slight problem is the wife insisting I wear long johns on the walk into work just because it's -20 or some such ridiculous figure.
Posted by: Ian H Spedding FCD | February 4, 2007 8:32 PM
I did go outside barefoot for 2 seconds today. It's a family tradition.
Posted by: John Emerson | February 4, 2007 9:00 PM
Ian - Your wife is right. She probably doesn't want you to get frostbite on any body parts.
Posted by: Paguroidea | February 4, 2007 9:19 PM
Stay warm, dude...
Posted by: Bob | February 5, 2007 12:21 AM
What immediately catches my eye is the use of the Fahrenheit scale. I don't get it: why would anyone use it? It doesn't make any sense that I can see (or google). At least the Celsius scale reflects phenomena (the freezing and boiling points of fresh water at sea level) that have practical significance for us, making it not nearly as arbitrary. Why does the US persist in keeping this and other archaic and impractical units of measurement?
Perplexedly,
Martin
Posted by: Martin Christensen | February 5, 2007 6:36 AM
At 40 below it's all the same, dude.
Posted by: John Emerson | February 5, 2007 7:31 AM
It is now 24C where I live, with the occasional thunderstorm showing up to keep the trend of way-above-average-monthly-rainfall that jas been going on since November.
Posted by: Greco | February 5, 2007 8:17 AM
Here in Ohio it's up to -1F.
Problem is, it was so warm in early January that various plants thought it was Spring. I look at those poor daffodils and roses and crocus...
Posted by: khan | February 5, 2007 11:07 AM
180 degrees (a half-circle) between freezing and boiling at normal atmospheric pressure, with zero set at the freezing point of saltwater (well, or at least someone's idea of the freezing point of saltwater) -- how does Fahrenheit make any less sense than Celsius? They're both pretty arbitrary.
We should at least be using a temperature scale based on absolute zero, with degrees based on some more universal phenomenon than phase changes in dihydrogen monoxide under a pressure specific to our particular planetary conditions.
Next thing you'll be on about that decidedly anthropocentric metric system and casting aspersions on the more logically-based English system, what with its use of power-of-two relationships or numbers with useful common factors like twelve. A six-fingered extraterrestrial would take one look at your ten-based system and see how its claims to logic are a tissue of lies.
Posted by: idlemind | February 5, 2007 11:15 AM
Over here in Murika, we use Fahrenheit and the English measuring system because Metric is fer Commienazis.
...Also, it would take at least 18 months for the documentation to be converted, and then another decade for the TFMs to begin to recognize the signs had changed. Perhaps a decade later, maybe they'd begin to be able to read the metric system. It's really too much work just to make the idiots feel even stupider..
What really cheeses me off is the local weather-drones creaming themselves over unseasonable warmth. It's winter. It's supposed to be cold. Snow is(was?) normal and, dare I say, desirable, you dolts! They won't be happy until we have winter highs of 80F.
Posted by: stogoe | February 5, 2007 1:28 PM
Martin Christensen: You may have noticed that Americans are fond of illogical traditions: religion, football, ... so a weird system of units is no big deal ...
idlemind: Actually, I think the °F zero was the lowest temperature that F. could find.
Posted by: Keith Douglas | February 7, 2007 1:57 PM