Baby, it's cold outside!!

[Brian Tymchak]

Wow. It was 43° here in Columbus last night at 11:30 when I went to bed. It's currently -5° at 8:30, and still dropping. 48° drop in 9 hours. That's got to be a record of some sort for this area. I feel for all those that have to be out in it today. Be careful!

[Brian Tymchak]

-6° now....

[Dick Strauss]

I was watching the Weather Channel and saw that Denver and Casper had a 75-80 degree drop in a 24 hour period. It hasn't been nearly that bad here, at least not yet.

[Bill George]

Yesterday it was -5 when I got up at 6 am, and then it dropped to -10 yesterday and last night!! Its going to be a -1 for a high today yeah!!

[Curt Harms]

Our weather station reported 55 degrees at midnight. Forecast low for tonight is 7 degrees. That may not seem like that big a drop for those in some parts of the middle of the country. For the mid-Atlantic it's certainly unusual.

[Rob Luter]

We’re at -5 or -7 depending on who you listen to. My weather station says -5. I’m not looking forward to the Northwest winds picking up and start dumping Lake Michigan on us. Lake effect snow is a PITA.

[Steve Demuth]

Sub zero temps aren't anything unusual here in the upper midwest (NE Iowa and SE Minnesota, for me), but the wind and cold combination that got us this week was a once every 20 years sort of storm. Was bad enough last night that the sheep passed on their evening feed and just stayed hunkered down in the barn. Probably the first time I've seen that since the 1990s.

[Aaron Rosenthal]

In Canada we’ve also had unusual weather. In Vancouver, the snow dump has been extreme for our area of the province, and the arctic outflows have caused our temperatures to go down to 20 deg F and lower. Outside my house Wednesday night I had -12 C, and with wind chill, it reported -23 deg C.
Unusual for us.
Garbage collection is suspended while they concentrate on snow clearing ( which isn’t working); now, we’re starting a thaw cycle with upper areas raining, but at ground level it’s still below freezing so it’s coming down as ice pellets on top of snow, on top of underlying ice.
Unusual conditions everywhere.

[Tom M King]

Just starting good here. I went out on the end of our point with a handheld anemometer. Lowest I saw was 24.0 mph and highest gust was 34.9, but looks like it will be building.

42 degrees but dropping fast. It's very unusual to see waves this far apart rolling into the cove.

[Jeff Roltgen]

Well, out here, in South Dakota, Wednesday night:
-20 F with wind chills estimated at -55 F. This, just coming off a record snowfall that shut the Hills down last Tuesday through Thursday. Being in the foothills, we had only about 12" of snow from that, but the higher elevations, particularly local ski-hill, claimed 58-62" of snow over the 3 days.

I-90 shut down this Wednesday so emergency crews could rescue occupants of over 100 stranded vehicles out on the prairie. At -55 wind chill, it truly is life threatening - like frostbite in 5-10 minutes.

I have never been so glad that I moved my shop to a building on my own property!

[Bruce Wrenn]

Remember that the ground crews at the airport, and railroad workers still toil on despite the temps. It's always a partly cloudy, 65 degree day on the railroad, no matter what the weatherman may say. Thankful that when I was growing up, there was no such thing as a wind chill. It was just plain cold! Remember living in house, which a glass of water would freeze on top of dresser. We only had heat in kitchen in morning, and in front room (now known as living room) in evenings. Bathroom was located out back, not in house. Temp outside has dropped to freezing in the last hour, and not expected to be above freezing for a couple days.

[Tom M King]

When I took those pictures, it was 10:30 and 42 degrees. At 11:30, it's already dropped to 35. Supposed to be down to 11 tonight, but when it changes this fast, I don't think they have a good handle on the prediction.

[Jim Becker]

Yes, the temperature drops are going to be impressive across the board for this particular weather event. Wyoming had a 70 degree drop when it hit; Denver something like 60 degrees. This morning during the local news, it was 50 degrees colder out in Pittsburgh PA than it was here in eastern PA. We're now getting the drop and I can almost watch it going down in real time on my Apple Watch!

[Rich Engelhardt]

-1 here just North of Akron Ohio. Maybe two/three inches of snow. It's blowing around so much it's hard to tell.
The National Weather Service was saying there were going to be 20 foot waves on Lake Erie.
That is huge.

I've been out on Erie when there were 8 to 10 footers. I've seen 12 footers from shore. I've never even heard of 20 footers.

We were at 10 degrees F yesterday so we've had a 41 degree drop. I remember a similar drop when I was in high school. It went fro 55 degrees in the morning to 10 degrees by 3 pm when school let out. I tossed on a light blue jean jacket and wore my motorcycle helmet with the open face instead of the one with a face shield.
LOL! I still shiver when I think of that ride home!

[Tom M King]

When Jack Frost left the party last night, I heard him say:

Hold my beer!

[Brian Tymchak]

Well, out here, in South Dakota, Wednesday night:
-20 F with wind chills estimated at -55 F. This, just coming off a record snowfall that shut the Hills down last Tuesday through Thursday. Being in the foothills, we had only about 12" of snow from that, but the higher elevations, particularly local ski-hill, claimed 58-62" of snow over the 3 days.

I-90 shut down this Wednesday so emergency crews could rescue occupants of over 100 stranded vehicles out on the prairie. At -55 wind chill, it truly is life threatening - like frostbite in 5-10 minutes.

I have never been so glad that I moved my shop to a building on my own property!

Ouch... You win Jeff. I don't know what you win, but you win...

That's just plain brutal, and I hear that there's another storm just landing on the WA coast. Shaping up to be a "fun" winter.

[Doug Garson]

As Aaron reported earlier here in the Metro Vancouver area we just got down to about 10F so not too extreme and in our area just east of Richmond, we never got much wind so no real wind chill. We're expected to get above freezing in a few hours and remain there (up to about 50F next week) with rain so our concern now is flooding. We got about 16" of snow this week over 2 storms plus freezing rain. Mexico for New Years with 80F weather is looking very attractive.

[Derek Meyer]

We had our really cold spell Wednesday night and Thursday. It was -7F at 8PM Wednesday night, and got down to a low of -12F. Thursday's high was 3F, and it went down to -10F that night. It is supposed to get to 28F today, but as of now it is about 12F so it's not warming that fast.

A few of our employees live about 15 miles north, and one said it was -25F at her house yesterday morning. We have about a foot of snow in town. To the east, they have much more. There's a recreational area about 50 miles east of us, and they have about 10 feet of snow out there.

[Steve Demuth]

I grew up on the prairie, not far outside of Flandreau, SD. Done my share of farm chores at -20, -30 or colder, and that without considering the wind contribution. In January 1975, we had a blizzard with snow and -20F or worse temps that blew for 3 days. Just getting feed to the cattle was a death defying effort. Nothing moved for those days across the Dakotas and Western Minnesota. The combination of cold and wind drifted the snow so tightly that we drove heavy farm equipment over it, like it was concrete, and digging out was a days long effort for everyone. Hell of a blizzard. Wasn't a big shock to us, as we had been raised on stories of the Children's Blizzard, where the temperature dropped like a rock and a sub-zero blizzard blew across the Eastern Dakotas, Nebraska and Iowa for 2 days in January 1888. Known as the Children's Blizzard because some 200 children were stranded or got lost on their way home from school when they were released after the blizzard started, and froze to death. That blizzard was nearly 100 years before the one in 1975, but was still local lore in the region.

[Kris Cook]

-21 here night before last. Only -16 last night. Balmy 2 degrees at the present. Supposed to be in the 40s and raining at Christmas. This is closer to a normal winter for us (unlike the last several years and without the 40 degree warmup). Maybe it will keep the influx of people we have had recently from increasing or maybe some of them will go home.:D

[Jim Becker]

Currently down to 9ºF here ... it started at about 50º F this morning.

[Tom M King]

17 with wind down to 15mph now.

I had posted in another thread that we were heating 7,000 sq. ft. with an 18k mini-split. I thought surely we'd have to turn on some more heat today. I went around and made sure all the covers on the foundation vents were secure this afternoon. We haven't had to turn on any additional heat, but sitting in the living room the ceiling fan that runs in reverse all the time to circulate the air from the cathedral ceiling down is dropping air that is a bit chillier than it normally is.

Insulation matters. When the Building Inspector looked at my last addition here, he asked, "You know that code only calls for R30, right?" I said, "I don't care what the code minimum is. I'm going to insulate the hell out of it." It's paying off now.

No real noticeable difference of the comfort inside our house. The air coming out of that mini-split set at 74 degrees is very warm. Two fans circulate it around the rest of the house. The heat back in the dog room does come on when we open the door on the North side of the house to go in or out, but it doesn't stay on for very long.

[Jim Koepke]

The temps are relative to wherever you may be. In my area today's lesson for me was about freezing rain. This morning it looked like there was a bit of fuzziness on everything outside. When I finally went out everything looked like it was wet but it was frozen solid. Even parts of the grassy areas was slicker than snake snot on a doorknob.

Our high yesterday was 28º. It is actually warming up now and wet rain is falling temps in the low 30s.

This year was the first year for the fuzzy bear caterpillars to have a very narrow brown band compared to wide black bands. That is supposed to be a predictor of a cold winter. Looks like they were right.

Today was supposed to be garbage pick-up day. Maybe coming up in to the hills might not be something they do when the roads are ice. It also looks like there was no mail today. Maybe I should give my neighbor a call, he might know. He works for WADOT and drives a snow plow at times.
Well, he wasn't home, his wife says he is out sanding the roads. He took her car because she has studded tires and last night when he took the truck it was all over the place. She also said many of the county offices told people to stay home and off the roads.

jtk

[Tom M King]

We get more ice here from freezing rain than we ever get snow. When we do get snow there is often a layer of snow on top of a sheet of ice.

People move here from up North and say people down here don't know how to drive in the snow. The ones I've pulled out of the ditch with a tractor have always been people from up North who know how to drive in snow. People here know about the ice, and stay off the road.

[Lee Schierer]

It warmed up here overnight, it is -3 up from -5 yesterday evening. The wind it still blowing. We've had minimal snow, but it is drifting. Out whole house heat pump is working fine. Gotta love that geothermal.

[Tom M King]

11 this morning with 12mph wind. Mini split heat output doesn't seem to have diminished at all.

[Brian Tymchak]

All the way up to 2° this morning! With a high of 5° forecast today. Another good day to squirrel myself away in the shop.

Supposed to get up to the mid 50s here mid week. That's going to feel like summer time!

[Jim Becker]

5ºF here this morning and windy. I think today's high will be something like 19ºF...and windy. But New Years next week...56ºF. The only thing I find even remotely acceptable with this cold is that I can get the big machines moved into the new shop building on Monday without sinking into the muck that is also called our lawn. :) :D

But what we're feeling here in SE PA is nothing like what some folks are enduring in the midwest and especially the northern midwest and Rockies.

[Keith Outten]

Ten degrees here in Eastern Virginia before the sun came up this morning. It's 70 degrees in my shop and office and I don't have plans to go outside until I am called to the house to eat. :)

[Bruce Wrenn]

Eight degrees here this morning. Replaced propane in shop yesterday, it was 45 this morning. Forgot to turn heat back up. Now back up to 57, which is where I like it. Currently outside 26 degrees. In the house, cozy 67 degrees.

[Rob Luter]

About 8°F here this fine Christmas morning. It looks like the cold is slowly moving East and North.

492237

[Lisa Starr]

3 F here this morning and very fine snow coming down. Since it finally stopped blowing hard, local travel should be no problem today.

[Jim Becker]

Up to a balmy 20ºF here this morning which is still cold, but much preferable to single digits with big wind. Almost no wind today...

[John Ziebron]

I suppose some of us might feel a little better after watching this video about a day in the coldest place on earth:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lj5GXZaE7qs