This isn't COLD!

[PeteOz77]

One of my favourite comments to my fellow Ausssies when they ***** about it being COLD when it gets down around freezing is "THIS isn't cold, you don't know what cold IS!"

I like telling the story of a snowmobile trip I once went on in Northern Minnesota. We left Eveleth in the morning and it was 16°F (so well below freezing). When we arrived in International Falls about 6 -7 hours later, it was -41°F. When we stopped along the trail, my eyelashes would freeze together and I had to put my fingers over my eyelashes to melt the frost so I could open my eyes and see.


What is the coldest temp you have ever experienced?

 

[EvilTOJ]

I'd have to say the coldest I've had was one winter I was camping in Jackson Hole, WY in the middle of January. They said it got down to -60º F in the middle of the night, but I'm pretty sure it was a balmy -40º instead.

Now that's nose hair freezing cold right there.

 

[shafferpilot]

Well I can't top you, but:

Some friends and I were partying one night, and it was starting to snow on top of the 6 or so inches that fell two days earlier. We decided it would be a good idea to pile into two 4-wheel drive trucks and head down to "the shop". The shop was owned by an old hippy dude who later became my best friend. Anyway, on the way down, the storm got instantly brutal!! It was right at 32F and snow/rain/ice was whipping everywhere. We nearly piled into one another on the way, but somehow, drunk as skunks (plus some other unmentionable buzzes), we made it to the shop. Out behind the shop was a HUGE hill..... now I can't stress enough, just how big this hill is. The shop is right next to an interstate, so there's a couple gigantic billboards at the top of the hill. Luckily the billboards have bright lights that keep the hill lit all night. This hill is probably 400 feet high (no exageration) at about a 25 degree angle. Seriously, walking up it requires a rest stop halfway. Anyway, we decide to go sledding on the giant hill; only we have but two sleds. So, since our old hippy friend was also a junk collector, we start grabbing anything that would slide, garbage bags, trash can lids, heck even car and truck hoods (they're a blast with 6 or 7 people on em)! The sledding was awesome, but we got a little cold, so we went into the shop to warm up. That turned into more drinking, smoking, and well i might as well say it: tripping on some killer liquid. Couple hours later, we go back outside for more. Only now, everything is sparkling: trees, ground, cars, everything. But is this a result of better living through chemistry or reality. Hard to tell. So we go back to sledding, only the snow is frozen solid!! As in, we were walking ON TOP of the snow instead of in it. I wouldn't be shocked if we were hitting 30 or 40 mph on the sleds. We spent the rest of the evening outside, having a blast and enjoying our buzzes. The next day we find out that the temp went from 32 to -12 during the two hours we were inside..... So after that rediculously long story: -12, that's the coldest I've ever experienced. And one of the funnest nights of my life

 

[superfluent]

Swedish beer commercial:
[YOUTUBE]oyVknt1kuS8[/YOUTUBE]

(the beer is crap, btw)

H

 

[brauhaus]

A friend of mine and I went on a snowmobile trip to Canada, a group of us gathered tents and all kinds of gear to make the 2 day trip (i think it can be done in one day, but we had a lot of sight-seeing to do).

We started out late since we ended up waiting on a few stragglers who couldn't get out of bed and I think that really cost us the trip. We ended up traveling most of the day and then all of us realized we didn't have enough resources to go all the way.

We camped out somewhere in Northern New Hampshire and all I remember was freezing my ass off... the temp was around -12

I haven't had the desire to snowmobile for that long again.

 

[xjiefx]

I once went on a snowboarding vacation in Mt. Tremblant (québec, Canada) a couple of years ago. The last morning of the trip we woke up to an astonishingly (is that a word?) low temperature. We really wanted to make a couple of runs to finish the trip, so we grabbed our equippement and went to the chair-lift. We were almost alone on the mountain top... And that was because it was friggin' -57 C. For you guys to understand, that's around -71F.

Let me tell you that we only went down once and did not take the chair again that day!!! We had to put our hand before our mouth and nose not to choke in that cold windy coldness.

That was the worst I've experienced!

 

[Hermish]

The coldest I have ever been in is around 0 F (I'm from southern california). But the coldest I have been was fishing in the Sierras. It was well below freezing since we had to chip the ice out of the guides every few casts, and the problem was I had no gloves and just a jacket and some normal pants. We were fishing right as the sun was coming up, and eventually when my fingers were about to fall off I quit and went in the car, while my dad kept going.
I have also fished when it started snowing while I was wearing shorts and sandals. That was a fun hike back to the car.

 

[eriktlupus]

FORTUNATELY michigan's west side is buffered by all that water to our west hence it only get's to @-10 here before the lake clouds us over. that being said the coldest i've been in was steelhead fishing on the rabbit river during feb. snowstorm.

 

[bradsul]

I spent some time in Yellowknife when the warmest day was -44C. That was a work trip though. In Ontario where I live it doesn't get nearly that cold. When it's a nice warm -21C you'll find me outside brewing.

 

[Yooper]

It's cold here today- not the coldest ever, but plenty cold. When my husband was shoveling, it was up to -20, but the wind chill was significant today, making it seem much, much colder. No schools in the whole UP are even open today, not even any universities. We had 40 mile an hour winds this morning, too, so it was pretty chilly. I'm not sure what the actual low temperature was here today (I probably don't even want to know!)

 

[Joker]

When I lived in Alaska we use to ride our 3 wheelers no matter what so I was out playing in -20f on a regular basis. Coldest I ever stepped out into was -50f in Fairbanks when we went up for the wrestling state finals.

 

[Rhoobarb]

I remember it well - Super Bowl Sunday, 1985. That winter was the coldest I ever lived through. The Chicago Bears made it to the 2nd round of the playoffs, but lost to the 49'rs, who won the SB that year. It got down to -27°F (-33°C). With the wind chill, it was -83°F (-64°C)! I looked it up and it was Jan 20, 1985.

 

[NitrouStang96]

International Falls, MN

-20 with -60 wind chill.

(I'm originally from LaCrosse, WI)

 

[ohiobrewtus]

I don't know for certain but I'd guess that the coldest it's been around here in my lifetime is probably somewhere around -20 to -30F.

 

[david_42]

-46F (-43C) in Idaho (don't remember the wind chill). I was in Navy training & we would have betting pools for car starting. Put in $5 and draw a number, first car to start wins the pool. Mine always started. More than paid for the 0W50 synthetic oil I was using and the high capacity ignition before they wouldn't let me play.

Cold is when you sneeze and the hairs in your nose shatter!

 

[superfluent]

Spent 2 nights tenting in temperatures between -32C to -40C. Then we spent three nights dug into the snow.

The coldest I've ever felt was after going through the thin ice tour skating in the Stockholm archipelago. I was wet and it was windy and I somehow jammed the zipper on my pants so it took forever to get the wet clothes off.

H

 

[shunoshi]

Well, it's -5F right now with a -21F windchill.

Coldest for me was about -40F with a -70F windchill. Not exactly recommended to be outside at that temp since frostbite starts in roughly 60 seconds.

 

[zoebisch01]

I once went on a snowboarding vacation in Mt. Tremblant (québec, Canada) a couple of years ago. The last morning of the trip we woke up to an astonishingly (is that a word?) low temperature. We really wanted to make a couple of runs to finish the trip, so we grabbed our equippement and went to the chair-lift. We were almost alone on the mountain top... And that was because it was friggin' -57 C. For you guys to understand, that's around -71F.

Let me tell you that we only went down once and did not take the chair again that day!!! We had to put our hand before our mouth and nose not to choke in that cold windy coldness.

That was the worst I've experienced!

You forgot to add the wind chill factor when you were skiing

 

[zoebisch01]

I am not sure the coldest I have been.

I did see a video of an Antarctic substation. The guy threw a pot of boiling water into the air and it came down as ice.

The upside is that unless you transport in germs, in general you don't get sick from them because they can't survive. But 6 months in sheer darkness in a station with only like 6 people. Good Lord.

 

[shunoshi]

The guy threw a pot of boiling water into the air and it came down as ice.

I've seen that done before here. It's pretty cool. A lot of it instantly turns to gas and goes up in a puff of smoke. That's pretty much the only thing cool about it being that cold outside.

 

[PeteOz77]

But 6 months in sheer darkness in a station with only like 6 people. Good Lord.

Especially if a dog shows up that's really a monster that can kill you and then change so it looks exactly like you. And the only way to tell who is the monster (or THING) is to stick a hot wire into a pool of your blood.

 

[Desert_Sky]

Cant really say Ive been in cold weather all that often. Now if a thread comes up about the hottest weather you've ever been in, well now thats different story

 

[McKBrew]

About -50 just south of Fairbanks Alaska. Couldn't work below about -35 or so because the hydraulics on the log loading equipment wouldn't warm up enough.

Average was about -20 working 8 hour days strapping down log loads to rail cars.

 

[PeteOz77]

Cant really say Ive been in cold weather all that often. Now if a thread comes up about the hottest weather you've ever been in, well now thats different story

Not necessarily the hottest, but the most uncomfortable I can remember being due to high temps was in Singapore. It was high 90°F's to low 100°F's every single days and it was at least 85% Humidty all day long, every day. I swear, less than a minute outside and sweat was pouring out of me. Thankfully, this place was less than a block from hotel I was staying in.

Brewerkz


We went on a 5 day cruise out of singapore, into Malaysia and Thailand, and it was even HOTTER on the boat if you went outside... so we sat in the intense heat and humidity and drank a LOT of Tiger Beer.

My brother is in Iraq right now and I guess it's hot there too, except without babes in bikinis and I bet the food probably isn't as good either.

 

[Ryanh1801]

Someone say hot. This was taken at 12 in the afternoon it got hotter, but I was staying the hell out of the sun under a tree by the Colorado River.

 

[McKBrew]

Okinawa is frickin hot as well. The naval pier there is a few thousand feet long, and the closest building off the pier is about a mile. Walking that in 95 degree heat was definately challenging. But the thing that bothered me most about that place was the signs along some trails that read "Beware of Snakes."

 

[shunoshi]

Hehe, I remember stopping at a rest stop outside of Yuma, AZ on the way to San Diego to have a cigarette and it was about 120F out. Screw that. My motto is, you can always put on more clothes to stay warm. At 120F, you're screwed.

 

[PeteOz77]

I forgot about a motorcycle trip I took through Minnesota, South Dakota, Wyoming, Idaho, Montana, North Dakota and Back to Minnesota back in 1986. Badlands.... 121°..... on a motorcycle. Not fun Worst part is that 5 days later when we were camping in Northern Montana, the temps got to 11 Degrees overnight, so the 110° temp swing was a bit hard to handle..

 

[Bernie Brewer]

I don't remember the coldest it's been, but I remember the longest it's been cold. Back in the mid-late 80's we had an entire month where the temp never got above zero. I don't mean above freezing, I mean above ZERO. there were even sweatshirts being printed out that read "I survived the Deep Freeze." all the news stations were talking about an impending ice age. Now they're saying we're all gonna melt.


Oh, and Pete, I know what you mean about Aussies not liking the cold. My BIL is from Sydney, and he won't come to WI to visit us unless it is July or August...............

 

[mrfocus]

I spent some time in Yellowknife when the warmest day was -44C.

No kidding, I was born in Yellowknife and lived there till I was 10.

I can clearly remember one weekend morning when my dad and I were at the cabin and wanted to go to a lake next to the one the cabin was on by snowmobile. After less than 2 minutes, we came back cause my feet were freezing.

The coldest I've probably seen is about -50C (-58F). In Yellowknife, it's not uncommon to have a full week of the year be under -40C, you can even go a month sometimes under -30C (-22F) (that's even during the day).

 

[superfluent]

Cant really say Ive been in cold weather all that often. Now if a thread comes up about the hottest weather you've ever been in, well now thats different story

I did a 3 week trip around the southwest this summer. We had a spare day that we after quite a bit of hesitation decided to spend in Death Valley, so we got up in the morning, shook the ice of the tent in Yosemite and got on our way. When arriving in Furnace Creek it was 122F. Yikes. Like standing in a giant hairdryer.

When it comes to "artificial heat" sauna is a big part of the culture up here so we regularly subject ourselves to temperatures in exess of 90C (194F) at 90-100% humidity (and then throw ourselves into ice cold water or in the snow).

H

 

[z987k]

it was -30 or so last winter skiing in Steamboat. That was only until about 10am or so though, it warmed up later in the day.

 

[mrfocus]

When it comes to "artificial heat" sauna is a big part of the culture up here so we regularly subject ourselves to temperatures in exess of 90C (194F) at 90-100% humidity (and then throw ourselves into ice cold water or in the snow).

That is another thing I love doing when I'm up in Yellowknife visiting.