This is more like a Minnesota winter

It's -16°F (-26°C) out there, with 15-20mph winds…so we've got a windchill of about -40°. It's about time we had some bracing brisk weather around here.

Tags

More like this

Irony can be an effective persuasion tool. As pictured on the Drudge Report this morning with the headline: HEARING ON 'WARMING OF PLANET' CANCELED BECAUSE OF ICE STORM. The headline links to a Drudge posted press release, likely sent his way by staffers in the James Inhofe "Big Oil" wing of the…
my fiddle, trying to get atop a Beethoven Trio __________________________________________________________________ The last month or so I've been pondering what to photograph, as I walk around town, to convey the disturbing wierdness of the weather we've had these last months in Vermont. I live…
So for those of you getting ready for Snowpocalypse, as the mid-Atlantic faces, gasp - a whole foot of snow, I have to tell you something. I'm jealous. I mean really, really jealous. I want your snow. A general pattern of winter storms in my area (upstate NY) is that they come down from Canada…
When I was a kid I was what you might call a "climate nerd." I would be at a party my parents took me to and pour over atlases and maps, as well as descriptive books on climatology, just to pass the time. Though it was just a phase I have kept a lot of that knowledge with me, and I've found it…

That's for sure. Middle of Feb. and winter finally decides to make an appearence. Just wish I had more snow on the ground in St Paul.

By gravitybear (not verified) on 17 Feb 2006 #permalink

About the same down here in Missouri. It was 13 degrees (F) when I drove in to work this morning. My hope is that all of the chiggers that thought spring had arrived will be frozen and will not pester me this summer as I stumble through the woods.

Man, that must be rough. We're looking at a high of 78F today in Tampa. Too bad...I was hoping to be able to walk to class without breaking a sweat!

Did you omit the (unnecessary) scale from the -40� deliberately?

Now this is much more like it! Just the weather for going out for a brisk walk. Feeling the hairs in my nostrils freezing solid with the first breath and any exposed skin giving painful warnings of incipient frostbite. What I don't understand is the wimpish weather service giving out these wind chill advisories.

By Ian H Spedding (not verified) on 17 Feb 2006 #permalink

Its cold here in central wisconsin too. Yesterday we recieved what has to be the most snow we've had all winter. And the temp is down in the single digits; negative with the wind chill. "The cold, it bites the bones". Wonderful weather. Finally, winter is getting going, two months late.

By Discordo-Pastafarian (not verified) on 17 Feb 2006 #permalink

We've got the wind, the cold, and the SNOW here in the SE part of the state. It actually looks like Minnesota in February. The Mississippi River is at last freezing over (about a month and a half late).

My high school earth science teacher had us sing "Minus 40 is minus 40 the whole world around." Of course this had no connection to reality for us as residents of Houston, Texas, but it did stick with me.

By Melanie Reap (not verified) on 17 Feb 2006 #permalink

PZ, how in the hell do you get college students to come to class in weather that cold?! You must be a great teacher!

We've had plenty of snow since early December. Although it's been warmer than usual, it hasn't risen above freezing long enough to do a substantial thaw. I'm always surprised at how bare it is farther east when I drive to Minneapolis.

Alas, I don't think the students come to class because they love me. I'm teaching at 8AM, they're hardly awake, but they know they need to learn the stuff or they'll fail.
It helps that it's a small campus, too -- not far to walk. You can also get to the science building via underground tunnels from the student center.

Right now, it's 69.2((F), 20.7(C)). It's supposed to get into the middle 70s, today, then start cooling off, again. I hate warm weather in Winter.

We finally got some snow here, in Madison, WI, for the first time this year. While we don't have as cool an air mass as PZ does it is deliciously fresh at 10 F (-3 C). I love winter when it snows.

I think all electric cars will have a hard time catching on in Minnesota. Where will they get the power to heat the car and drive at the same time?

Yeah, I can relate, out here in the San Francisco Bay Area, they're saying it might freeze tonight... :-)

(Actually, they're saying we might have a fluke snowfall here. It hasn't snowed here since 1976.)

By george cauldron (not verified) on 17 Feb 2006 #permalink

Uff da! You might need a jacket.

By Dr. Squid (not verified) on 17 Feb 2006 #permalink

I know, it was soooo refreshing to have my eyeballs almost freeze as I walked the 30 yards across the parking lot to the grocery store this morning.

Nonetheless, these are the days I appreciate the human habitrails known as the St. Paul Skyway system.

By MNObserver (not verified) on 17 Feb 2006 #permalink

Last week here in So. Cal. the highs were the mid eighties. The highs have cooled down to a more seasonably correct mid seventies this week though.

By Troy Britain (not verified) on 17 Feb 2006 #permalink

Hey Troy, I'll have you know that Pasadena got down to a frigid 39°F last night.........

By Andy Groves (not verified) on 17 Feb 2006 #permalink

I am so envious! Here in Northern NJ we were blessed with a huge, wonderful snowfall on Sunday (Mother Nature gave me a superb birthday present), but now the grass is almost totally bare. Cross-country skiing was good for two days, goodish for one, then--phffft!--gone.

Alas, alack.

So, if I were to move with the intent of having a good snowy winter, where should I go? (Canada thinks I'm too old to be a good candidate for immigration.)

Suggestions welcome.

Some years ago, I and two associates, all So. Cal. residents, were in Cambridge (England) on a fool's errand in January. We had no transportation, pretty much walked everywhere.

One vicious morning, with the wind blowing in off the North Sea, dressed in everything we owned, we were walking up the tow path beside the Cam, trying to detect sensation in our fingers and toes, when we met one of our local contacts coming the other way. He was wearing a topcoat, scarf, and no hat. His damn pink Limey cheeks were radiating cheer as he waved and chirped out, "Lovely morning! Bracing, what?"

So we threw him in the river.

My advice to you, Buster, is watch what you say.

By D. Rifkind (not verified) on 17 Feb 2006 #permalink

Winter weather like that is sure fun when you're warm and well fed. Not so much if you're hungry and have got to live in it. Feathers and fur are great insulation, but -40 just isn't fun for anything; they endure it or die. For all it's problems (and there's whole bunch) it's still good to be a human being in the 21st Century.

For all its problems (and there's whole bunch) it's still good to be a human being in the 21st Century.

Plenty of people lived in Minnesota and even, dare I say it, Manitoba long before the advent of insulation, modern heating, cars, or Gore-tex. And the climate was even worse for much of that time. As to how they survived this for thousands of years, I couldn't imagine.

By george cauldron (not verified) on 17 Feb 2006 #permalink

It stayed in the 40s all day here in Austin, TX. That's pretty brisk for us. Nice to have at least a little winter weather, though.

Here the temperature is 26 C/79 F, as usual, and humidity is about 90%. I have no idea when it last snowed here, but I widely suspect it was at latest thousands of years ago.

Bitter cold is something that you don't appreciate until you miss it. But people around here have been complaining that it's not safe to drive cars on the lakes.

I think that wind-chill calculations are underestimated. Minus 3 with wind seems considerably worse than minus 15 without.

During their Russian campaign, the Mongols launched some of their attacks during the winter. The same winter than defeated the Swedes, French, and Germans helped the Mongols. (Everything is relative: in hardiness, French < Russians < Mongols.)