At minus 40 degrees below Zero, Fahrenheit and Centigrade are the same. In other words -40F = -40 C.
sabfish wrote:
I have you all beat. I went to school for a few years in Alamosa, CO (7200' above sea level). Before global warming, it was often one of the coldest places in the nation. One night my car broke down when it was -36 (acutal temp, not wind chill). Fortunately someone stopped and gave us a ride to town.
You didn't say whether that was deg F or C, but it doesn't make much difference at that temperature anyway because it is so close to the crossover point of -40 degrees, where the number is the same whether reported in deg F or C.
Having spent most of my life in coastal California where snow or icy roads are front page news, I had to go to the mountains, or at least the foothills, for snow. On the other hand, triple-digit (Fahrenheit) temperatures were not that uncommon in the Central Valley during the summer. That changed a few years ago when I moved to Virginia and I encountered my first white Christmas in my memory, and I was a couple of years past traditional retirement age then. That was the year I met my first and lowest measured outside temperature of 14 deg F, but I was inside the house at the time. That Christmas was also the first and only time (so far) that I couldn't get into my car because the trunk and doors were frozen shut.
Northern Montana I think in the late seventies with more than a month below zero—cumulative chill
NDMarks wrote:
This will sound funny to most of you, but the coldest I ever "felt" was 75 degrees in Thailand in the summer. It had been 110 or more for several weeks and our bodies were accustomed to it when all of a sudden it dropped to 75. Our bodies took awhile to readjust.
During my two years stationed in sight of the beach in Vietnam, we had a couple of spells where the nights dropped into the 60s for a day or two. You would have thought it was Antarctica in winter from the reactions of the locals and guys who had been there long enough to acclimate.
Minus 40 degrees [still air temperature] Celsius & Fahrenheit (that is where they are both the same).
On the Sukunka River in British Columbia, Canada.
Dawson Creek —> Chetwynd, South on 29 to turnoff to road along the Sukunka River, past Sukunka Falls.
Bitter cold! Had to have engine oil heaters or run synthetic oil. Or both. Definitely battery heaters.
BassmanBruce wrote:
For me it was early January 1980ish, -29°f with wind chill -59°f.
Lansing, Mich.
How about You?
Endure? -51⁰ back in 1983. Today? -40⁰ at sunrise. Tomorrow? Supposed to be about the same!
dustie
Loc: Nose to the grindstone
robertjerl wrote:
Mid 60's in Western Kentucky, -8°F on the thermometer on the enclosed porch of the farm house, so it was colder than that. A pretty stiff wind blowing, at least 20 mph. News/weather on TV said -20 windchill with 10mph wind. No clouds and over 12" of snow on the ground....
Add blowing snow, that has not crusted on top to keep it in place, and that's another added level of hardship to endure. For those who have not experienced the encounter, it's probably difficult to imagine the stinging, stabbing sensation of delicate little snowflakes being driven into contact with cheeks, lips, nose, eyelids, the edge of an ear that has peeked out from under protective cover...any skin parts that are not inside cover.
Under 12-15 mph wind and above 12°F to 15°F temp, it's not too dramatic, but over those wind speeds and below those temps, it's possible to wonder, sometimes, if all the skin layers are going to be abraided away.
Consecutive days and weeks of working in those environments can lead to an odd sensation of somehow being an element of the environment, distinct from and separated from associations with human comforts, like the body and mind have been taken through a transparent divider, into a nearby but dissimilar dimension. Maybe that is a different level or realm of consciousness that prevents the effects of the ambient environment from driving the mind into functional insanity.
dustie
Loc: Nose to the grindstone
robertjerl wrote:
During my two years stationed in sight of the beach in Vietnam, we had a couple of spells where the nights dropped into the 60s for a day or two. You would have thought it was Antarctica in winter from the reactions of the locals and guys who had been there long enough to acclimate.
Jakarta, January 1995. Early one morning, security guards all bundled up, stomping their numb feet; it was 70 degrees F...
Eielson AFB, Fairbanks, AK, 1962: -65 actual temp!
-30f in Lapland in February but thankfully it was a very still morning, no wind.
The Winter of 1970. Fort Greely, Alaska. Field exercises with the US Army based out of Fort Wainwright, AK. Temperature reached -60 degrees (add wind on top of it). The TV station in Fairbanks sent a crew down to cover the exercises. They couldn't film it because the lubricant within their cameras became so thick that they wouldn't function. Along with sleeping in a tent at -20, that was it. Never complained about being cold again.
Nosaj
Loc: Sarasota, Florida
-54, including slight wind chill, in Hill, NH., around 1977.
AND we are all waiting for someone who has been to McMurdo Station to check in . . . .
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