olmue: (Default)
olmue ([personal profile] olmue) wrote2011-02-02 10:10 am

Cold

The good news is, we were not in the blizzard path. The bad news is, it's -20F (real temperature; the windchill factor is -31.)

This is what we're been driving on since the week before Thanksgiving, sometimes with a topping of snow and sometimes polished to this lovely, smooth sheen:

ice

It's like, Little House on the Ice Floe or something.

School has been canceled today due to the temperature, although DH still had to go to work. Fun things to see as you're driving out in this kind of cold: the exhaust from household dryers turns to steam--and then instant ice--outside, making interesting patterns on the sides of buildings. Pedestrians wearing ski masks have frost "beards" from their breathing/condensation. And people going to the grocery store leave their motors on when they go inside for fear they won't be able to get their cars started when they come out. (I stopped at the store but turned my car off. Everything was fine, luckily.)

Happy winter! And if you are having blizzard fun, stay inside and stay warm!

[identity profile] karenbschwartz.livejournal.com 2011-02-02 06:16 pm (UTC)(link)
Wow. That is extreme!

[identity profile] olmue.livejournal.com 2011-02-02 08:54 pm (UTC)(link)
It's not too bad--I mean, at least it's all flat. A week or two ago, the plows spent the entire afternoon just on our street, trying to clear away as much as they could. They apparently don't salt here at all, but they do dump a little sand on the intersections so you can at least stop at crucial moments. I don't know, at least things are basically smooth and below the axle... *shrugs*