I've officially been the coldest that I've ever been

[thewayne]

Three weeks ago, we had a pretty good storm hit. I had to go to Las Cruces on Friday, and as I passed the wood train trestle just down from Cloudcroft the thermometer in my car said it was 3 degrees F outside.

I thought that was pretty darn cold, and I was smart enough not to get out of my car there.

Tonight I was doing Apollo spotting at the observatory.

It was 15 degrees F.

The wind was gusting at 20 MPH.

The wind chill factor made it an effective -2 F.

Definitely gotta get better gloves and boots.

Comments

[vaudy.livejournal.com]

Pshaw! A few weeks ago I had to get up at 3am and go out in the -30F windchill to start my car, so the engine wouldn't get too cold overnight to start in the morning. (I learned my lesson with this car last year.)

Merry Christmas!

[hafoc.livejournal.com]

Back before I got a Real Job, I was on a crew doing a kind of survey work in the woods. We were under orders to work half of a Saturday on a day that turned out to be 30 below zero f. But the trucks wouldn't start, so we went back to bed. Incidentally, by that afternoon (which we'd arranged to have off; mighty white of the boss to let us have half a day off per week) the temperature had risen to 40 above. Biggest temperature swing I've ever experienced in one day.

We did work out all day a couple of times when the temperature was -10. It's actually pretty nice; it never gets that cold around here except on brilliantly sunny days, and the sun is warming. Plus such days are calm. No problem lighting a lunch fire to warm up at noon. All in all, it was much more pleasant than working at 20 or even 30 degrees on a damp, cloudy day. We all got horrible sunburns, though.

[hafoc.livejournal.com]

oh, yeah, by the way, I'm talking dry-bulb temperature, none of this wind chill or heat index mumbo-jumbo. That's just ridiculous. "It's 40 out but with the wind it feels like it's thirty below below zero." Bullpuckey. 40 degrees with a wind feels like 40 degrees. 30 below feels like 30 below. Wind and wet affect how fast your coat soaks and starts to sap your body heat and kill you, but that's another matter, and fairly easily countered, assuming you have the jack to get good outdoor clothing.