How Cold Did It Get?

Another current thread got me remembering. This was January 1989. McGrath, Alaska. Actual temperature -75F. With wind chill at 50 mph on a snowmachine? Who knows...

Following the extended stay of the Siberian high-pressure system, which chased the mercury ball almost into oblivion in the lower recesses of the thermometer, I remember a quite jovial discussion in which everyone attempted to outdo one another in a “how cold was it?” contest.

A friend from Fairbanks said he knew it was cold when his horse farted and the warm, moist gasses formed a dense fog, completely enveloping the horse for two hours.

Another friend from up on the Yukon attempted his best one-upmanship by reporting that he knew it was really cold when he watched a chickadee that was perched on a branch drop a turd. A vapor trail, akin to that of a high-flying jet, followed the micro-turd all the way to the ground, and said contrail hung there in the still air for several minutes.

Not to be outdone, I added my own “how-cold-was-it” story.

My dog was admittedly a house pet. She was secondarily a tremendous hunter, but for most of the year, she was simply my companion and friend. Thus, as any other close friend, she was afforded the luxury of staying in the house during cold periods. However, despite (maybe because of) her extremely high intelligence level, she’d do her business outside rather than in a household toilet. Even at sixty or seventy below, the urge to excrete by-products of digestion continues.

As with any other dog of similar breed, she was the proud owner of long tendrils of hair growing from the region of her private parts. On one particularly cold morning, she asked to go outside. When that blast of Arctic air met her at the door, she decided it was probably prudent to make a quick job of it and barely got off the porch before she squatted and began her business. The warm urine hitting the negative-seventy-degree ice flash-froze almost as it hit, encasing several strands of delicately positioned hair. When finished, she tried to come out of her squat and attain normal dog stature, but was unable to do so. Seems she was caught in her own puddle-trap. If a dog is capable of looking forlorn, she, then and there, epitomized the definition of the word.


Jack

Now that is cold, My parents and brother lived in Alaska for about 6 years they said sometimes your spit would freeze before it hit the ground. My mother was a nurse in Nome she said a few of the nurses would walk to work, a couple blocks away and would get mild frostbite where their faces were exposed.

LOL ! Was Cocina the same dog that would bring you a beer from the refer ? Or was that Doug's dog ?

You might also tell us about TONY KNOWLES !!



My coldest story from that time was stoking the wood stove until the top became incandescent. Just for fun I spit on the red spot. I was amazed to see it freeze rather than sizzle !

I believe that was the winter we had the wildest northern light's anyone ever saw here. The sky turned a deep crimson blood red all night. It was freaky.

That sounds like time for a trim of fur to make things easier

-60 in areas here today. Only -24 here, trying to warm up a wee bit, but not doing very well.

I see you have weather moving in again along that niche corridor on the divide next to you, Jack. I bet that range helps to guide weather over the ridge and down into your side. It does that here too.

Dang!!!

I'm not gonna complain about teens here.

Yeah Ken, Kosina was the dog. She was also the one trained to open the fridge, grab a can out of the bottom shelf, don't shake it up, and deliver it to hand. Problem was, she never got the idea to close the fridge. I always had to get up and close the door.

It was a different dog, Piper (black Labrador), that responded immediately to the command "Tony Knowles!" You see, that dog spent pretty much every day with me in the airplane. Going places and working in the wintertime in a SuperCub, the pit stops were necessarily short, lest the engine would cool too much and be impossible to start. Thus, my dogs had a command (to which they responded immediately), to do their business and hop back into the airplane. The command to wink a steamer (NOW!) was the name "Tony Knowles!" At the time, he was our esteemed governor, and I thought an appropriate "command" for my dogs.Only problem was, back in those days, I had a television, and the dog would sometimes hear the command from the TV news.

white17, you made me laugh out loud. .... Spitting on a red-hot stove, only to watch the spittle freeze rather than sizzle. That's like walking backwards when peeing, cause the urine was freezing back up towards you, and you really didn't want it backing up all the way home!

Jack

I walk like that all the time


"Tony Knowles " was certainly an appropriate command !

I had a dog that liked opera but I never realized Piper watched TV. I can see where that could be problematic !

Imagine the commands one could have for various necessary smelly jobs , out of the White House today ?

I recall that cold January when we were living in North Pole. It was so cold that there was frost on the nail heads in the sheet rock inside the house. My furnace just about put me in the poor house - lol.

Reminds me of a photo I stole somewhere (prolly from you).

I think that was taken outside the Fairbanks penal colony

LOL! LOL! X386!

Don't forget, also, that lagomorphs are known coprophagists.

Chewy at these temperatures

UGH

-50 this morning, I always have a good pile of books put up for these days. Reading " Undaunted courage " by Stephen Ambrose right now, read his WW2 series last winter.........looking forward to reading his series on the Revolutionary war eventually.

My dad had a tall tale. His grandfather was polar bear hunting with a muzzleloader and had torn the possible bag on ice and only had the one round ball in his rifle. He surprised a bear and shot and wounded it. When he went to reload he found he didn't have any more bullets,the bear charged, and he started to cry in fear. The tear drops froze before they hit the ground and he grabbed a handful and dropped them down the barrel. When the powder ignited it melted the tears as they traveled down the barrel and when they hit the cold air they froze into a ice ball and he hit the bear in the eye. It died from water on the brain!

I don't know what to do first.....laugh, or smack ya...

UGH ! That is so bad I actually laughed !

So cold had to turn wife over twice to get her started

-11 when I got up today.

Dropped 4 degrees since this morning. That bodes fun for tonight... - 18

I love this weather...

Not that cold here, although I did see a dog stuck to a fire hydrant.

Zim

Which body part, Zim ??

Great read Gulo !

I did go ice fishing in Northern NH ( Pittsburg)... It was -45 on the thermometer at the bait shop.

Not a stich of wind

It's cold when you drill a hole and steam comes out...and your eyelashes stick together
..

-4 on Friday night. It snowed yesterday, but not enough to see it on the ground. Tomorrow its snowing 2-4 inches.

Found this in my truck.... a few years back

At least it didn’t explode

No mess at all.

24 below now and according to the weather 31 below tonight good wind to worried about the cattle and water tank heaters.

1964 living in Jackson CO WI we had 53 below on the coldest day, but very little wind. We had a couple days where the high was 30 below with wind. Back in 64 we did not have windchill factors. That year our corn silage silo froze all the way across. Used a grub hoe to chop it out, bring it in the barn a day ahead so it would thaw out to feed to the cows. It was a good way to build up some upper body strength. We kept the milking units in the barn after cleaning them up so the pulsators would work when we milked. That was a long cold winter for sure.

Bryce

It's a heat wave ! It was -35, now risen up to -30.

It is as clear and gorgeous as can be. Sounds are crisp to the ears. Had to take the pic without gloves as my iPad won't accept a gloved finger. For just a few seconds that was fine. Didn't want my ipad to freeze up either.

My rabbits want to come inside ! Can't blame them. They sit up on their hind legs and look into the door glass.

Stay safe and warm, everyone.

Its 43 here right now but is supposed to drop to 3 by 10 o clock tonight with a windchill of -20 ..... I am debating if I should plug the truck in or not lol

40 degree F drop in 1/2 hr in Cheyenne:

The polar cold front shattered the previous one-hour temperature drop record in Cheyenne, Wyoming, on Wednesday, with temperatures plummeting from 43 degrees to 3 degrees between 1:05 p.m. and 1:35 p.m., the National Weather Service in Cheyenne said. The previous record was a 37-degree drop in one hour.

You couldn't have stayed out for very long, Crowheart ! I can do that for a minute or two , that's it. With no wind.

Michael, those block heaters are a miracle for me. I plug my truck into one a couple hours before departure. They sure do help. Along with synthetic oil...

Drasselt, I saw that on news . Man that was a drop. It dropped here too in a matter of a few hours yesterday afternoon into evening, but nothing as fast as it did in WY. No wonder there's plenty of spots for the Dutton's Train Station ...

-20 at 8 AM outside of Idaho Falls. You people up in Alaska bragging about having this kind of weather can have it lol. Maybe when you reach an elderly age like me when the circulation in your body decreases it won’t be much fun anymore.

It feels good. Everyone needs a challenge! Besides............You're a youngster compared to me. Of course I have lived a monastic life so that helps

-38 here this morning.

See this on the memes page but fits here too.

That's a good one !

Oh man you look like you're having such fun !

On the cold days riding, I would feel the heat from the horse rising even despite the gear. It was always a challenge keeping my toes warm enough . I suppose half taps over the stirrups would have helped .

A total face covering would feel even better!

Be safe !

Figured I would do a little yard work today....

Moosetrot

That’s what I had at daylight. My buddy s couple miles had -40!!

Sharon, how do you keep horse warm in the extreme cold. When I lived back in PA, we were required to have enclosed stalls for horses.

A customer called wanting his cylinder cup leathers replaced for the water well in his bull pasture he picked a date before they planned on dumping the bulls in there .
It was -48 below in town I wore my normal Carhartt artic coat and bibs and White pac's .
I got out to the well site set up the derrick and brought out a stack of chore gloves about 2' tall each time I broke apart a pipe joint and the water started spraying it would hit my coat frozen and fall off .
I went through all those gloves as they would freeze to the controls for the winch and the pipe wrenches what fun .

I also have fed livestock in sub zero temps then worked yard backing for a livestock auction yard and fed the livestock 5 days of the week .
Great times had by all in those days !

Grandpa, where I’ve been, there wasn’t laws about this, per say, just practical things folks do according to the environment.

Here, people provide anything from full stalls in nice barns, to basic three sided buildings in open pastures, faced to protect from the prevailing wind.

Those with expensive show horses will have them in barns and adjoining stalls. With turn out time in pasture.

I found it to be easier on them in cold northern climates than down south in the humid stifling heat. With no break from flies and parasites. Enclosed stalls were like gold in areas of hurricanes, when many looked for block and concrete rebar stalls to rent for protection .

They can get quite wooly and feel energized in cool weather in the north.

When I was a young guy, I owned a couple horse back East and I remember the heat and humidity and the flies on the horses in the summer. I loved to ride them in the winter in the snow.

I really hate to tell you this but its~~~~~~ + 10 here in my part of Alaska ")

+10 here too, but these high winds are miserable, staying inside as much as possible till after Christmas. 50 mph winds are too much for me once it gets below zero.

+3 here and not gonna get close to a flag pole.

It's currently -9F here and very windy. The next few days will be brutal. Next weekend is supposed to be close to 60F.

Keith

Got down to 9 degrees here last night

Guess it would be T-shirt weather to some of you

Outside its 5 and windy, in the bedroom its 22 and living room 48 ...... My fault as I did not get up to put more wood on the stove. With all the slatted windows its tough to keep warm when it is this windy. The upside is that those very windows are great in the summer

11 here in southeast Tx at the moment. hot water PECS didnt freeze but my cold water on the west end of the house is.

Mowing ???

6 here in Alabama, feel like temp is -10

About 10F here but it's blowing about 20mph and expect gusts to 50.

Like a dummy I forgot to get my snow shovel out of the shed last night and the lock is frozen LOL... I'll get after it after work I guess

-20 was my low last night. Wind is 15-25 and has not stopped for a couple days. It shows -10 for a high today. That will be the warmest it has been in 5 days.

We were a you know what hair away from -60 wind chill yesterday morning. I think -59 officially. -40 some dead air temp.

Gonna be a balmy -7 today.

Scuba, should been mulching up those leafs as they were falling. let this be a good lesson. Just messing with ya.

-9 F and -28 wind chill. Thank God for global warming! Yeah, I know global warming caused it.

The wind just woke me from a sound sleep.
Yesterday it was 42 below all day.Very still and stable.

I got out of bed just about 10 minutes ago and looked at the thermometer. It read 28 below.

Ten minutes later it reads.........4 ABOVE !!


I have seen it drop 50 or 60 degrees in an hour but I can't recall seeing a jump like this

Only -12 now. A bit different than the -34 I had yesterday. That's only because there's another storm coming in with snow. Love how crunchy and crisp the snow sounds to walk on. It is still very quiet. That's the advantage of being west of the divide. I dislike wind .

I bet NH has the warmest temp in the country right now ....53 degrees ! .....then going down to 12 tonight “ They “ say.

Wind and rain...but still have power

I remember the winter of ‘88-‘89 in Alaska. I was in Wasilla but it still hit -60. Quite a shock for my new bride who had spent her entire life in Costa Rica!! Another time I was driving a truck up through Watson Lake at -60. Set the throttle to keep it warm while I got a bite to eat. Nope, froze up solid while running. Tried to get it out if gear and the gear shift knob snapped off like brittle wood.

Game camera in a wind tunnel at the bottom of a valley says its cold

January 2005 I spent the night in Tok, AK. It was at least 50 below if not colder.

I got up in the middle of the night to start the truck but the ignition switch wouldn't turn. I had to heat the key with a lighter and insert it. Let it sit and repeat 4 times.Finally the key heated the switch enough to turn. Fortunately I had the block heater plugged in. After that I put a small catalytic heater in the cab and ran a cord through the wind wing. That solved the cold switch problem

Could you guys tell me what a frozen fart looks like?

Usually all lumpy... various shades of brown.

Thanks I guess I did ask.

Windchills are about -40 to -45 here now. I think the actual temp is -10. Gusts to nearly 50 mph

Bryce

Probably a lot like this.

Moosetrot

After reading all of this, I’m yearning for Spring.

Wind..rain..now snow

Lost power from 5-8 pm

But that's the quickest repair time I've evah seen !

3° in Asheville NC 8pm Friday.

It got so cold Yes Sir only drank one cup of coffee LOL

36 below here this morning with a stiff breeze. Warmed up to 12 below by noon. Skinny dipping weather!

Here it most be staying cold for a while as they are spraying that quarter panel removal sauce all over the roads

Not sure how cold it got last night, but neighbor told me his wind gauge had gusts of wind up to 38 mph at -5 which would equal... -35. I live in the middle of town and I had deer tracks all over my back yard. It appeared to have been 3 deer. At one point it appears they had laid down next to my shed, which would have broken the wind. The set of tracks were really large so figure from tracks, it was a buck, doe, and yearling deer.

Garry-

Finding small birds that froze in the blizzard seen 4 today so far I doubt if those released birds will see spring. Since the flu got my birds again that feed is going to the wild birds along with what the wife feeds them.

Drifts are so hard I can walk on them with the fine blowing snow we had in the 45 MPH winds.

Digging out I-90 Kadoka

It was 43 degrees with a 2-3 mph wind here this morning...in my living room. This old farmhouse has seen stuff colder than this and heated fine but it is not sealed good enough for 45 mph winds. Slowly gaining ground, currently up to 50!

10*F here with a 33MPH sustained southwest wind
in Henderson, N.Y.

My water lines froze up at 9:30PM last night.

Awaiting the arrival of the plumber guy to thaw me out.

No appreciable amount of fallen snow but what there is is
in the air and moving horizontally.

My circular drive is wind blown clear down to the gravel.

Hope the wind doesn't knock out the power
as it went out briefly twice yesterday afternoon.

Merry Christmas.

walleyed

That is what happens when Frosty goes Red neck!!!

What animal is that?

Rabbit track