😲
I really can’t imagine these temperatures and the effect they’d have on most UK housing stock in terms of people’s ability to keep warm and not suffer burst pipes etc.
US housing stock is appalling. They make and sell cheap houses built cheaply in large sizes - typical for the American Dream bullshit - a veneer of niceness but actually shit underneath.
Houses are basically built the same all over the country regardless of prevailing weather - because the traditional homely image in people's minds is that of the East Coast. My in-laws live in a 110 year old house which until recently had NO insulation in the walls. So there was a layer of lath and plaster, then a gap, then shipboard on the outside. In a climate that sees -20 every year. They had insulation fitted, which is seen as a progressive step. FFS. The walls are only about four or five inches thick anyway even with insulation, and were single glazed too. My sister in law bought a house that had no timer on the electric hot water heater so it was on all the time, but the tank had NO lagging. FFS again. Then in the summer the south side of the house is punishingly hot. So most people just whack up the aircon. The house was designed to sell on looks - absolutely nothing to do with suitability for the climate. But they get away with it because everyone's house is like that.
In contrast, the 60s flat I lived in in Finland had really thick walls, double glazing with a third layer of glass on another window opening into the flat. The balcony had two double glazed doors. That was typical, they designed their houses for cold.
GrahamS
Look How Quickly Water Freezes in the Air in Chicago!
The comments under that are actually pretty funny! 😆
I was talking to a friend in Chicago the other day.
Her: "it's minus 2 here."
Me: "yeah, it's cold, it's minus 3 tonight."
Her: "Fahrenheit?"
Me: "... Oh shit."
At least my Canada goose parka is getting used.
I like the cold, it’s the damp slushy thaw that’s horrible.
People are having their coats stolen at gunpoint in Chicago.
When I was there over the winter the relative humidity was in the 90s the entire time, because the daytime temperature was the same as the nighttime.
Err, that's not relative humidity
@Cougar - a friend's brother moved from the UK to Anchorage due to his work. He and his wife had a young toddler so they got some info from the kindergarten: "We don't let them play outside when the temperature drops below zero." "A bit soft" they thought, then realised that was Fahrenheit - -18C!!
the Fahrenheit scale really is shit isn't it.
its almost as bad as using month, day, year date notation.
Helpfully a friend is in Oz right now and posted that it's +41C...
the Fahrenheit scale really is shit isn’t it.
Yep. Just look at the Wikipedia page (usual caveats apply) to see how much of a hack upon bodge upon mistake it is.
A barmy 1 or 2 degrees on Plymouth although I’m sure things are different up on Dartmoor. Think we’ve only had 2 light frost so far this winter. Amazed how much warmer winters are down here – I’m still in shorts most of the time
Sounds like it's quite balmy too given what the rest of us are seeing 🙂
Schools closing early here in Swansea despite the fact that it’s just cold. No snow in miles and the forecast is now saying that it’ll arrive after 5pm. 🙄
From Austria earlier this month... a strange very quiet and "heavy atmosphere" kind of cold
https://www.flickr.com/photos/musselburghbikers/45862742414/in/dateposted-public/
A guy on the Fb Fatbike page is regularly out in -20 – 30 degrees...
cold limit here is -18c for kids to be playing outside. "In case they get lost in the woods"
You know -40 isn't all that bad a temperature as generally it means low (absolute) humidity and not too much wind. I'd certainly take still conditions and -40 over a sleety blizzard and 30 mph winds that is much more common in the (North) of the UK
We went out last night and my new Giant dropper post failed at around -3. The cable was stuck and it wouldn't lock out so sank when I sat on it. All of which gave me a perfect excuse to abort and head home to watch the footie in front of the fire!
I checked it at lunchtime today and its working fine again. :-/
I picked a great week to head North (from Calgary where it's not getting super cold for another couple of days...)
-18C is outside cut-off for Canada kids as well. It's some logic (that I can't find to refer to right now) about how that's 30 minute frostbite time for smaller people with less body mass.
Schools closing early here in Swansea despite the fact that it’s just cold. No snow in miles and the forecast is now saying that it’ll arrive after 5pm.
There’s a school in Russia which only closes when the temperature drops to -52 degrees... 🥶
Sister in Law lives in NYC, it’s been stupid cold even for there.
She caught a flight to Ohio earlier today, it shat it’s engine in takeoff due to ice and had to return. Apparently the stewardesses were strapped in and praying 😮
-17 feels like -27 in Whitehorse YT today. The cutoff temperature for me to go riding is -25ish. Below that it really is uncomfortable.
I used to own a car that I bought in Alberta. It used to start when it was in the -40’s. We moved to Texas and took the car with us. There it regularly saw +40’s. It always amazed me that it would work in such harsh temperatures.
-7 today in the here in the Borders, my kids went of cycling to school with the local village peloton. My lad was in shorts, like he is every day of his life (his choice). No chance of that changing until he is forced into it at High School in a few years.
