I have a Question

[Pat]

So where was all this winter camping, your bio is blank?

My personal low is -47F (thermometer not wind chill) and although I have back packed and tent camped in 6 ft of snow (above Idylwild in the mountains above Palm Springs,) it wasn't THAT much below zero. Minot AFB in NODAK is a cold son of a gun though.

So, were you in Minnesota, UP Michigan, Canada, or what, it sure wasn't ND due to lack of credible forests.

These days the average snowmobiler is better dressed for arctic ops than the average USAF guy at Minot (back when it was a SAC base) was defending our northern flanks from the evil scourge of COMMUNISM!

Once conditions got so bad exposed flesh would freeze in less than 10 seconds, non essential personnel were excused from duty and dependents were not to venture outside. Of course we strived to not expose flesh under those conditions.

Pat

[Bird]

Both of my brothers did some snowmobile racing in Alaska. One of them even raced professionally a few years and won a roomful of trophies. And I've seen some film of them racing, as well as playing, and they looked like the astronauts, sealed up completely in that gear. [img]/forums/images/icons/laugh.gif[/img]

[eccentricfarmer]

Maybe the weather is why some dairy farmers are still hand milking in the winter? A goat will work in a pinch, just not a full hand full! [img]/forums/images/icons/smirk.gif[/img]

[jimmyj]

Thanks for the tip Pat, I have filled in the bio now. I'm in Ontario Canada.

-47 is pretty darned cold! Sometimes for my work I go to Winnipeg Manitoba and it's just plain nasty there. Skeeters like crazy in the spring and COLD.... in the winter.

Recently it's been what I like to call "perfect winter" here - just a bit below freezing, lots of nice snow, crisp and clear and beautiful. Spring is in the air though, you can just feel it. Pretty soon we get to enjoy the thaw freeze thaw freeze joys of March.

[Pat]

Yeah, the "Peg" (Winnipeg) isn't that far or different from Minot except Minot was a lot less civilized.

We get terrific variation in weather here in South Central Oklahoma. Day before yesterday it was in the 70's but this morning it is 28 and mostly cloudy.

The state record for temp change in a 24 hour period is held by Oklahoma City (about 50 miles NNW of me) where they had a swing of 80 degrees F. within 24 hours.

Pat

[jimmyj]

Funny that you mention variation. We were "warm" that last 2 days (45 or so) and a front came through yesterday evening and it is now well below freezing. I was outside the whole time and it was pretty interesting. We went from rain and big time melting to a huge line in the sky where the cloud blew out with a lot of wind and clear skies came in. Then everything froze solid. I could drive my tractor on top of the snow by 8pm. Amazing.

The only problem is that the road has wicked icy spots on it now.

Oh well, like I said, spring is coming, you can feel it in the air. [img]/forums/images/icons/grin.gif[/img]

[starchicken]

We're in Ohio and last winter we had -22 degrees with a windchill a few times. What ya do is add more coal to the fire, layer on more clothes and rename the water buckets that you have to out and break ice on every two hours. None of those names can be printed here. Winter isn't that long though and you know there is an end in sight!