This weather is awful!! 2008-2021

[audreyh1]

OMG - how do the pheasants survive in North Dakota?!?!

 

[grasshopper]

One thing I noticed in moving from the Bay Area to the east is acclimation. Because there aren't extremes in temperature changes between day and night, you gradually adjust to the cold and it just doesn't seem that cold unless it's windy. It the summer, I love not needing a sweater or jacket at night. The insects were awful last summer though.

In The Bay Area, the temperature can swing a lot in the summer because of the fog. I remember a cousin's wedding in Palo Alto where it was 90 degrees and the reception was in a restaurant on the hills between 280 and the ocean where it was foggy and 55 degrees. The guys in the suits were fine but I froze in my summer dress!

I'm looking forward to our first snow of the season this weekend.


Sent from my iPhone using Early Retirement Forum

Reminds me of school days on the peninsula, leave San Mateo in the evening wearing a t-shirt on my motor scooter. Stop at the top of Skyline Drive and put on a wool jacket for the trip to Half Moon Bay and the ocean.

 

[Nodak]

Where I worked I had about a 200 yard walk from the parking lot to the building. I used to judge how cold it was by the amount of frost on my mustache when I got to the building.

 

[W2R]

Today's high is predicted to be only +59F, and right now it is a frigid +47F. That probably sounds tropical to our northerners! Before I go outside, I am going to put on a nice warm sweatshirt and sweatpants ( = cold weather retiree wear). Also when I go outside I plan to wear my winter coat over my sweats. Brrrrrr...

I guess I'm fully acclimated to Southern temperatures by now. F has been wearing a warm winter coat, knit cap, and gloves when we go outside. At least I don't need the hat or gloves yet.

 

[eytonxav]

Pretty much normal 2x4 stud walls with lots of insulation in walls and roof with double pane windows. My balanced billing natural gas heating averages about $35 per month year around for a 900 square foot house. One of the advantages of the extreme cold is that we only get maybe 30 inches of snow all winter but it doesn't melt until spring. Whatever snow is on the ground at Thanksgiving will be there until spring. The coldest winter I remember was 1978-1979 we had more than 90 consecutive days of below zero temperatures.

Gee, I was expecting 2x6 walls, foam insulation, and triple pane windows. Except for being built on slabs, our houses in North Texas probably have similar construction, but for us its defending against the heat. Any way, I bet your outerwear is more robust than mine

 

[MichaelB]

Today's high is predicted to be only +59F, and right now it is a frigid +47F. That probably sounds tropical to our northerners! Before I go outside, I am going to put on a nice warm sweatshirt and sweatpants ( = cold weather retiree wear). Also when I go outside I plan to wear my winter coat over my sweats. Brrrrrr...

I guess I'm fully acclimated to Southern temperatures by now. F has been wearing a warm winter coat, knit cap, and gloves when we go outside. At least I don't need the hat or gloves yet.

I feel your pain - literally. Down here in S Florida it's about the same temp. I feel badly for those folks from the frigid northlands that booked a week in the sun and are stuck with this chilly weather.

 

[Nodak]

Gee, I was expecting 2x6 walls, foam insulation, and triple pane windows. Except for being built on slabs, our houses in North Texas probably have similar construction, but for us its defending against the heat. Any way, I bet your outerwear is more robust than mine

A few of the newer houses here are built on slabs with heat in the floor. Most of the houses have basements. A lot of the newer ones are going to ground resource heat pumps for heating and cooling.

Most days for outerware its just a wool jacket with a couple of layers under that. The survival kit in my car has mukluks, parka, space blanket, several regular blankets, sleeping bag, and a portable radio that is powered by a spring wound up by a crank, that then drives a small generator. Batteries do not do very well in extreme cold. Here's the radio I use; it also has an LED light that plugs into it.. There is also what is called a Dakota heater. It's an aluminum foil baking pan full of wax and about 20 candle wicks in it. You can burn that for short periods but a downwind window has to be opened a little. The rule is if you are stuck in a storm DO NOT LEAVE THE CAR. Your life can literally depend on the condition of your car.

 

[Nodak]

OMG - how do the pheasants survive in North Dakota?!?!

Pheasants are a rare bird in this part of the state, there have been attempts to introduce them here but with the cold, foxes, wolves, coyotes, hawks, and bald and golden eagles the don't survive very long. In the western parts of the state the climate is much milder so they are all over the place. The Red River Valley where I am was once the bottom of glacial lake Agassiz. It's flat as a table top and only about 900 feet above sea level. It's a low spot where the cold settles in and stays.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_River_Valley

 

[audreyh1]

Pheasants are a rare bird in this part of the state, there have been attempts to introduce them here but with the cold, foxes, wolves, coyotes and bald and golden eagles the don't survive very long. In the western parts of the state the climate is much milder so they are all over the place. The Red River Valley where I am was once the bottom of glacial lake Agassiz. It's flat as a table top and only about 900 feet above sea level. It's a low spot where the cold settles in and stays.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_River_Valley

OK - that explains it. Because when we traveled across ND following the Missouri river, we saw huge numbers of them. But now I see we only traveled the western half of the state. I had concluded that pheasant hunting must be one of the draws for ND residents - but there sure weren't many people living in the state!

 

[Nodak]

OK - that explains it. Because when we traveled across ND following the Missouri river, we saw huge numbers of them. But now I see we only traveled the western half of the state. I had concluded that pheasant hunting must be one of the draws for ND residents - but there sure weren't many people living in the state!

I have many friends that head to the western part of the state to hunt pheasants every year.

 

[Walt34]

The rule is if you are stuck in a storm DO NOT LEAVE THE CAR. Your life can literally depend on the condition of your car.

Back in the '70's I remember hearing that at their police academy Alaska State Police recruits had a week or more of class time on auto maintenance and repair and carried a substantial amount of tools and spare parts. As you know, it is a survival issue in those conditions.

As for here, winter has arrived. The forecast now is for anywhere between one and 20 inches of snow on Friday/Saturday depending on how it develops. A few are saying perhaps a storm of "historic" proportions. Oh joy. And we are right in the middle of the path:

 

[aja8888]

My avatar is a photo I took of an oil well 20 miles south of Stanley, ND in Whiting Petroleum's field at around -25 F one morning. That was a trip where I never say -8 F for the week. I have a special parka for those places.

 

[Nodak]

Back in the '70's I remember hearing that at their police academy Alaska State Police recruits had a week or more of class time on auto maintenance and repair and carried a substantial amount of tools and spare parts. As you know, it is a survival issue in those conditions.

As for here, winter has arrived. The forecast now is for anywhere between one and 20 inches of snow on Friday/Saturday depending on how it develops. A few are saying perhaps a storm of "historic" proportions. Oh joy. And we are right in the middle of the path:

If things there are like here the grocery stores will be full of people getting ready for the storm. Stay warm.

 

[Walt34]

If things there are like here the grocery stores will be full of people getting ready for the storm. Stay warm.

I noticed the store was more crowded than usual today so I'm glad I made the grocery run today. It'll be crazy by Thursday afternoon and a madhouse Friday morning.

 

[harley]

I feel your pain - literally. Down here in S Florida it's about the same temp. I feel badly for those folks from the frigid northlands that booked a week in the sun and are stuck with this chilly weather.

We're heading off Thursday to Orlando to spend some time (through Monday) with DD and DGD. DD's coaching at a gymnastics competition there, so we'll hang out with DGD at the parks and DD when she's not working. Since she lives a few miles from Walt -

As for here, winter has arrived. The forecast now is for anywhere between one and 20 inches of snow on Friday/Saturday depending on how it develops. A few are saying perhaps a storm of "historic" proportions. Oh joy. And we are right in the middle of the path:

I suspect they'll be fine with the temps in the high 50s - low 70s. DD is hoping the snow will linger and they'll be trapped in FL for an extra day or so.

 

[Nodak]

As a few have said it's getting accustomed to the cold. We used to have USAF personnel arrive in early fall and they would be wearing parkas in September. We had to get them to realize that they would never adapt to cold that way. We had one poor fellow that was native Hawaiian and had spent most of his career in Hawaii and Texas. He was sent to Cavalier AFS in January. I wasn't sure he was going to survive; I don't think he took his parka off until spring.

 

[Meadbh]

As a few have said it's getting accustomed to the cold. We used to have USAF personnel arrive in early fall and they would be wearing parkas in September. We had to get them to realize that they would never adapt to cold that way. We had one poor fellow that was native Hawaiian and had spent most of his career in Hawaii and Texas. He was sent to Cavalier AFS in January. I wasn't sure he was going to survive; I don't think he took his parka off until spring.

In Winnipeg I worked with many trainees from Saudi Arabia. One lady arrived during a relatively cool summer and asked me (in July) if it was always this cold. She was shivering at the time. I tried to break it to her gently. She bought a fur coat that winter!

 

[NW-Bound]

As a kid, I ran across the short story "To Build a Fire" by Jack London. It was about survival in the Yukon, but as a kid I did not know where that was. As an adult, I bought a book that was a collection of stories by Jack London, and rediscovered this fascinating and scary story among all other very readable stories.

 

[grasshopper]

Finally getting some bragging weather in SE Arizona, its been low 50's for 2 weeks, rest of this week through the weekend high 60's low 70's.

 

[braumeister]

In Winnipeg I worked with many trainees from Saudi Arabia. One lady arrived during a relatively cool summer and asked me (in July) if it was always this cold. She was shivering at the time. I tried to break it to her gently. She bought a fur coat that winter!

I remember living in Rio de Janeiro. I would take the bus to w*rk in the morning and marvel at all the folks I saw wearing down jackets and even parkas when the temperature got down to single digits (C) or the mid 40s (F). I was usually wearing just a heavy shirt or maybe a light sweater in those temps.

 

[Nodak]

saw this on facebook

 

[samclem]

Back in the '70's I remember hearing that at their police academy Alaska State Police recruits had a week or more of class time on auto maintenance and repair and carried a substantial amount of tools and spare parts. As you know, it is a survival issue in those conditions.

I was out yesterday night working in an unheated airplane hangar, it was about 5 deg F and I was the only soul on the airfield. I decided to pack up and realized that my small radiant heater had almost run out of propane. Well, the car was quite cold by then, cranked slowly, didn't start. Now I'm starting to get concerned. Decided to re-light the heater--nope, it was too cold now for my butane lighter to function. Fingers starting to ache and not work real well. Ruh - roh. I tried the car again and it started. Woo-hoo! My cell phone, my only way to get help, was also cold, I'm sure those batteries would also quit at some temp. It wouldn't have been life threatening: There was a heated storage room in an outbuilding I could have broken into, and I could have built a fire (or lit the heater) using the cigarette lighter in the car to start some paper aflame. But it reminded me to not take for granted that everything will work, to think things through . . . and have some old-fashioned matches on hand. Lots of ways to get in trouble in the cold when just one or two things go wrong--and 5 deg F is not >really< cold.

 

[Nodak]

The British press was claiming that cell phone batteries could explode in extreme cold. They were calling -25 C extreme cold. I doubt that; most batteries will just cease functioning as it gets colder.

For anyone running Windows 10 there is an app that is remarkably accurate in their predictions of storm tracks. MeteoEarth is worth a look it shows a 7 day track of storms.

 

[Calico]

saw this on facebook

After seeing this pic, I'm going to stop complaining about the cats taking up half the bed - it could be worse! I wouldn't want to clean this guy's litter pan!

 

[braumeister]

I could have built a fire (or lit the heater) using the cigarette lighter in the car to start some paper aflame.

Wow! There still are such things? I can't even remember the last time I saw one of those in a car. They've been just "power outlets" for so long, and even if you had one left over from the old days it wouldn't work in a modern car's outlet.