OT: When did Chicago move to Frostbite Falls?

I spent about half of the day today outside at camp. The sun was out today, the winds were not too severe, and I was prepared for the weather so it was actually nice out There are about 50 people including 11 to 18 year olds camping out tonight, where the predicted low overnight is -10 Fahrenheit and the high tomorrow is 9 F. I've been there and done that, so I'm sitting here in my nice warm house!

-3 Fahrenheit is about minus 19.5 Celsius. It was minus 20 here on Friday morning.

Sorry Ray, I can't handle that much exposure to the cold anymore. I'm feeling cold sitting here in my apartment, with the furnace running all the time set to 68.

I like the Bob and Doug rule better going the other way.

wrote in news:naGdnXRNqMudTA_anZ2dnUVZ snipped-for-privacy@comcast.com:

Forty below is the same in both Fahrenheit and Centigrade.

USA Today had a little map showing how Arctic air is knifing its way down, causing this freeze-out. Apparently it's slightly unsusual, having to do with a certain weather pattern shifting more south than it usually does.

I guess we're lucky. We only got down to +5F this morning.

When I went for a walk yesterday the temperature dropped (during the walk) from +25 to +10. I was wondering why my hands were so cold inside my mitts until I got home and looked at the thermometer.

The coldest I've ever seen it here is -22F, about four years ago.

We got down to -20 with wind chills to -70 in 1994. My 1980 Toyota, though parked outside, would still start, but I had to let the gearbox warm up a bit before it would shift nicely, and had to let the oil in the crankcase warm up a bit. The hydraulic fluid in the clutch and brakes were a little stiff, too. But considering the car was 14 years old and had 190,000 or so miles on it at the time. . . .

I'm getting old too. I used to spend the entire weekend out in those temps - all day outside, followed by nights in tents. This time, I spent some time in the warming shelter to check on the people who came in to warm up (make sure there were no signs of hypothermia, frostbite, etc.) and we cooked dinner in a cabin because it's nice to have dinner that isn't re-frozen on your plate. When the activities for the day were done, I got in my car, set the bun warmers on high, and headed home for a warm night!

Getting old beats the alternative: You know, the permanent deep freeze!

Jeff

OT: When did Chicago move to Frostbite Falls?

When Global Warming kicked in Full Force...

LOL! No arguments from me on that one!

So you're trying to tell me that AlGoreSoreLoserMan is Wrr Wrrrr Wrrrrrrr.

Quite correct! Nobody looks forward to a dirt nap...or being a "jack in the box".

Never heard of that one.

I will probably be a pile of ashes. What do I care? I will be dead when they put me into the furnace.

They can scatter their ashes, flush them, plant them in the garden - I don't really care. I did mean their ashes - once I die, my body legally belongs to someone else.

Jeff

wrote in news:9eqdnVw9veLp7Q7anZ2dnUVZ snipped-for-privacy@comcast.com:

My mother-in-law was telling me today about one time just before they left Alberta, where it regularly gets to -40 in the winter.

The year was 1971 or 1972. She was trying to go somewhere in their Mazda (year and model unknown now). The kids were in the back and it was forty below.

She could not steer.

The manual steering box oil was so thick she could not turn the steering wheel.

She had to sit there, engine idling, for maybe 20 minutes before engine heat warmed up the oil sufficient that she could turn the steering wheel so as to to guide the car.

I have never personally experienced cold that extreme.