What is the lowest temperature you have experience while outdoors?

[Strawboss]

We are getting ready here for some cold weather in Cleveland, the coldest in 2 years, not really that cold to me but some are predicting mass hysteria which I thought was the norm before cold weather. Highs around 10F and lows around 0F for maybe a few days. Again, not that cold compared to some other locales. Anyhow, I work outside with water and it takes planning. The lowest outdoor temps I experienced is -20F WITHOUT windchill, that was around 20 years back. My face gets slow to move and my fingers remind me of the old cold injury. How about you?

[m in sc]

Kansas in the late 90s. was in the - teens with a 40mph sustained winds. . was out repairing a fence with the GFs father on the farm for a few hours. that sucked. Have been in temp-wise colder, but that one day was the epitome of debilitating cold, for me.  Lowest was -20s  also in KS, but northeast (Manahattan) and luckily i was working in a heated shop at the time.

[Stasch]

-24 F actual - froze a water pipe near the outside wall in the basement.

In MI - probably about the same time Strawboss referenced in OH.

[VirginiaJim]

20 degrees below the real 0.  Rochester, MN.  My mustache froze on my face in about 20 paces from the Airport terminal to a rental car bus.

[tweeter55]

Went snowmobile CAMPING many, many moons ago over New Year's Eve.
Gets mighty cold in NE Iowa that time of year. We saw -5 the next morning when we got up.
NEVER, NEVER, NEVER AGAIN!

[VirginiaJim]

I don't like cold..

[Eupher]

Walking dogs when it was -19, wind chill put it at about -30. North central Missouri at the time.

Even the dogs thought it sucked. We weren't out there very long at all.

It wasn't long after that I quit my job and we moved to Mississippi. That introduced us to horrendous numbers of mosquitoes. But I'd rather have the skeeters than 4 ft. of snow and -30 temps.

[Strawboss]

I mention cold to my cousins in Alabama and they think I'm joking. I tell them you can usually tell about what the temperature is by noticing certain things. Below 10F, your nose hairs stick together when you inhale. Closer to 0F the snow "crunches".  After that, it really don't matter as you won't notice too much more until it really starts to get cold. I've seen videos from Siberia where they throw a bucket of water into the air and it freezes before it hits the ground, that's dangerous cold. -20F is just cold where you need to wear a parka type coat and mittens.

[maxtog]

For me it was -15F when I was a teenager in Richmond.  It was a freak weather pattern, as I don't think it has ever been anywhere near that cold after.  I remember going out to the mailbox and just breathing was a very odd sensation.  It gave me a great respect and empathy for those living in climates where that is "normal" (or even not bad) for winter.

[Boomer]

Kiruna in Sweden. -51C (-60F).
Not that big a deal when you have a full coverage, lined fur suit & gloves and tinted UV filtered goggles to prevent snow blindness and but it hurts to breathe and you get icicles on the end of your nose which hurt like **** when you remove them as they take hair and skin with them. You know it's cold when the Saami start limiting their time outdoors. I remember one of the Saami telling me that the best invention ever was indoor flushing toilets. 

Lowest on a motorcycle was -20C in southern Germany. I followed the snowplough into it's depot near Munich. The snow/ice on my legs had frozen so I nearly dropped the bike. Managed to keep going while I punched my legs to crack the ice free so I could put my feet down. I had heated gear so I was actually not that cold, but again icicles on the nose and I got a tiny piece of frostbite on my top lip.

[Conrad]

I just checked my weather station here at home for the all time low temp.

-26°F 01/30/2019 7:11 AM

All time lowest wind chill.

-43°F 01/30/2019 6:46 AM

I didn't have to go out in that mess since I'm retired. 


The all time lowest temp that I did go out in.

-18°F during a snowmobile trip in Wisconsin a few years ago. We were dressed for this weather, of course, so it didn't really feel all that bad. I don't know what the wind chill was that day.

My wife may disagree with the above statement though. Women have it MUCH tougher than men do when it comes to having to pee when your out enjoying the snowmobile trails...


My wife just reminded me of something. Back in 1983 we moved from Kansas back to Illinois. That winter saw the temps dip down to -27°F with a record wind chill of -82°F. That was when the battery in my car froze solid. How could I forget having to replace my battery in that cold? Without a garage! 

[bigjim]

My first wedding night, 2/16/1979, almanac said -48 20 miles away.  Drove form Willsboro, NY to Lake George village , NY in our VW bug.

The hotel room got up to 45 F by morning (they had not turned the heat up for our arrival).  Bug had a dead battery and flat tire when the sun came up...

[connie_rider]

We went in Brainerd Minnesota for cold weather testing on gasoline. {I worked for Shell Oil}
As I recall, the bank sign showed -25*F when we went to work several mornings.
Waaaaay to cold for this TeXaN!

Ride safe, Ted

[Boomer]

I hope all our Texican and other members affected by the Deep Freeze are doing OK.
Just been looking at the news and Texas is in a bad way with long power cuts and people freezing to death, along with carbon monoxide poisoning issues due to people trying to find other ways to stay warm.
Most of the other states seem to be coping so far, but very few TX houses have much in the way of insulation or non-electric heating.

[BruceR]

About 15 years ago went 4-wheeling in Iowa at -12 degrees.  The whole week, I think the high was -1.  Wife has put a travel ban on Iowa from about mid-Oct to mid-Apr after that.  Coldest ever that I recall was -25.  They actually called off school for that.

I just hope Dallas airport has the runways cleared tomorrow.

[maxtog]

I hope all our Texican and other members affected by the Deep Freeze are doing OK.

I have talked with some lately and was shocked what they are dealing with.  Very odd.

very few TX houses have much in the way of insulation or non-electric heating.

All modern TX houses have probably adequate insulation, since they need it to combat heat.  But you are correct that few will have non electric heating, like fireplaces or gas/propane/etc.  Even with gas heat (like I have here), if there is no electric, there is still no heat.

Here, I woke up night before last to severe THUNDERSTORMS at 2am! In mid Feb!  The temp jumped from the 30's to 50's in just 30 minutes... and then it was freaking 65F in the day!  Then fell like a rock back to below freezing last night and a HIGH of just 34 at peak today.  Wild.

[Rick Hall]

Born and raised in MN, so this competition is a bit one sided. Have seen -30f more than once.

Foam car seats are like a brick at -5f and lower. Propane (the heating fuel) freezes about -35. Your spit freezes before it hits the ground at/near the same temp (-35f), and will ball up and roll down the hill. Natural rubber (tires, seals, CV boots) will crack/shatter if flexed near -40 (C or F). Many venues have 'plug in' connections in their parking lots so you can keep yer engine warm while shopping/dining.

Have camped in frigid temps, unsure how cold but there was gobs of snow. Had to clear the snow to build a fire. Feet/fingers numb when I awoke, Scoutmaster said to put my frozen clothes on and start walking. Painful, as I couldn't feel much, but it worked.

Cleared snow, built a fire, raked off coals and ash, pitched the tent on the 'warmed' ground.

Texans, and everyone in this polar event, are suffering. They are not used to it, neither is their infrastructure.

Rick

[connie_rider]

(Houstonian}
No one expected the power to go off for days, and I saw little preparation by people for the possibility. {??}
I prepared, and I have a Radiant gas heater in my Fireplace. So we were fine.

Around me, I was amazed by people's lack of ability to keep warm.
NOTE: Here, many have fireplaces {mostly decorative, but they work}.
On the 2nd day, i noticed that no fireplaces near me had smoke coming out the chimney..
So, I went from house to house helping them build fires. Gave away all my firewood as few had any.
{I keep some FW for the Smoker}

Now, the weather is warming and the thawing water pipes are starting to spew water.
(already) 7 houses within 1 block of my home have busted pipes.
And, "it's gonna get worse as they thaw" because our plumbing is not built for cold weather..

Ride safe, Ted

[Boomer]

Glad to hear yer OK Ted 
A colleague who lives near Waco has a big diesel generator for electricity only and has satellite internet so has stayed connected throughout.
His heating runs off wood and he has a good stack of that available at all times.
He has been hosting several of his neighbours as they couldn't stay warm in their houses.
Most of them had generators being out in the boonies, but most ran out of fuel for them on day 2 or 3.
He is also surprised at most peoples lack of preparedness but then it is a pretty rare occurrence.

[maxtog]

Most of them had generators being out in the boonies, but most ran out of fuel for them on day 2 or 3.

I have a 6KW John Deere gas generator which I have to manually back-feed the house through a 220V 30A outlet.  Sits in the garage and I plumbed the exhaust to outside and with a vent fant.  Amazingly, I can mostly power the whole house, including HVAC in AC, if I am careful to run other things one at a time.  But it is terribly loud and hot, plus too scared to run it while sleeping.  I bought it many years ago, days before a hurricane that ended up leaving us without power for a week.  It was a life-safer.

Anyway, it holds about 8 gal of gas, and I have maybe 10 gal of stored fuel (even with Stabil, gas lasts only so long , plus I don't have much space).  That thing sucks gas pretty quickly, I believe around 1/2 gal per hour.  So yeah, it would only last me a few days if I could not get additional gas.  We were lucky that some gas stations were still open.

A better solution would be a 10KW natural gas one sitting outside with auto-transfer.  But when I looked into that, companies wanted something like $12,000!  I check around every several years, and the price is always the same... even though I think the hardware is around $4,000.... I have a concrete pad next to the garage and it sits right next to the gas meter and electric meter, with the main panel on the other side of the wall.  $8,000 of labor for maybe 6 hours of work???