How Cold Can You Get?

Bluefront · Post by **Bluefront** » Mon Jan 21, 2008 4:08 am

I watched a football game last night. All I heard was how cold it was (0 degrees F), and how this would affect the game. B.S. ....that's not cold at all.

When I was younger, after the winter holiday break, I had to drive back to college on a motorcycle (125 miles). I put the trip off for three days, because of the weather. The last day I had to leave.....it was sleeting, and the temperature was -5F. My Norton had a side-car, so I knew I wouldn't turn over, but it was a terrible ride. On Sunday, with no rest stops open the whole way, I rode about 35/40 mph max. The trip took six hours....vs two hours normally.

Those were the days before thermal clothing....I had none, just two pairs of pants, a heavy coat with towels for lining, regular gloves, and hunting boots. I had a 1/2 helmet with ear flaps, and goggles.

At the end of the trip, my cycle was a block of ice, and I was frozen.....so cold in fact my knees didn't work, and I couldn't talk. I managed to crawl up a flight of stairs to my apartment......and soaked in a warm bath for three hours before I recovered. Stupid I know.....but I was a kid. Now that's cold.........

andyb · Post by **andyb** » Mon Jan 21, 2008 5:08 am

That is seriously cold -17.7 C

Whats colder..............

http://www.antarcticconnection.com/anta ... ndex.shtml

Andy

lm · Post by lm » Mon Jan 21, 2008 8:02 am

google says that (-5) degrees Fahrenheit = -20.5555556 degrees Celsius

Well that's not so cold. Used to be very common temperature in here during winter, but this winter we didn't even have snow!

I've been skiing, downhill skiing and snowboarding in that temp.

Wind speed matters much more when you are sub zero.

klankymen · Post by **klankymen** » Mon Jan 21, 2008 9:28 am

Bluefront wrote:How Cold Can You Get?

meet my ex

Bluefront · Post by **Bluefront** » Mon Jan 21, 2008 10:00 am

Heh....I think I already met her. Riding 40mph in -5F temperatures on a motorcycle, is somewhat like walking around at -25F or so......actually worse because you're just sitting there.

JimX · Post by **JimX** » Mon Jan 21, 2008 10:45 am

Actually, -5F at 40mph is -36F = -38C.

When I ride my bike at temps around 0C, I think I'm going to die, when I ski or snowboard at -5 or -10C I feel OK, since I do move quite a bit.

Bluefront · Post by **Bluefront** » Mon Jan 21, 2008 11:47 am

I still remember that ride distinctly.....I was doing deep-knee-bends while riding, to keep some circulation going. The few people that passed me from the other direction must have thought I was crazy. A 125 mile ride at 40mph or less.....nobody passed me or even came up behind me.....two-lane state highway in the middle of nowhere.

zac_in_ak · Post by **zac_in_ak** » Tue Jan 22, 2008 11:08 pm

Well right now where I live its a warm day in the 30s....GLOBAL WARMING...NOT!

just a couple of weeks it was more like -10
The coldest I have ever experienced I think was about -50 with the wind chill

Post by **MikeC** » Wed Jan 23, 2008 12:05 am

0 degrees F is pretty cold. I'd stay out of it.

My wife rides her bike 7km (each way) to/from work in downtown Vanc. through most of the year, except on real snowy or sleety days when it's just too slippery. This morn, it was -3C when she set off. Add the windchill factor of 20-30km/hr on her bike -- and any real wind. She hates the buses, the $12-15/day parking when the company lot is full, she figures she gets her daily aerobic, and minimizes her CO2 emissions. All good... I wouldn't have done it today; she's tougher than me when it comes to cold.

What she does is nothing like your crazy motorbike ride, bluefront.

I'm surprised you survived to tell the tale. How many fingers/toes did you lose?

mexell · Post by **mexell** » Wed Jan 23, 2008 2:23 am

I ride my bicycle on my daily work trip - home/train station 12km, train station/office 4km, each one way. We had -18Â°C this winter, that was seriously cold, but still OK with the gear I use:

What works best for insulation is the onion principle. Have thermo/sports underwear to get away the sweat, a lower middle layer (my normal business clothing: jeans and shirt), an upper middle layer (thermo fleece) and layer that keeps away water and is breathable (like Gore Tex or similar). When it's really raining, I add some Gore Tex pants.

One day I forgot my gloves in the office, and it was -5Â° and ice rain... funny ride home

Bluefront · Post by **Bluefront** » Wed Jan 23, 2008 4:53 am

I didn't suffer any permanent injuries during that freezing ride.....but the Norton did. About 1/2 way through the generator crapped out....stupid Lucas parts. Luckily the Norton had a magneto so the engine stayed running, but I had no lights.

Why do Limeys drink warm beer? Because they have Lucas refrigerators.

mexell · Post by **mexell** » Wed Jan 23, 2008 5:22 am

Oh yeah. Your story gets even funnier...

Please tell me that you had to walk the last five miles...

djkest · Post by **djkest** » Wed Jan 23, 2008 5:35 am

Actually, it was -30F at the game after the windchill.

The coldest it has ever been where I'm at in colorado is -20F(-29C). At that temperature... it's really brutal. Usually when it gets that cold there is no wind. And the crazy thing is, since there is no water nearby, it can also get up to 110F during the summer.

Already this year a place called Gunnison Colorado hit -33F several times. Colorado also has the distinction of having the coldest city in the continental US... something like an average of 36F for the entire year. Beat out a city in WI I believe by 1 degree.

Bluefront I'm not sure if yours counts because that was self-imposed windchill. :p

Bluefront · Post by **Bluefront** » Wed Jan 23, 2008 5:43 am

Nah....never had to push the Norton, except for starting when it was cold. It was a day-time ride, so I could do without lights. Modern cycles.....your charging system fails, you walk. I did learn early on to carry tools around when I rode British vehicles.

mexell · Post by **mexell** » Wed Jan 23, 2008 5:53 am

My talking... I once had, for a few months, a Mini. Not the new one, it was built in 1986. It had 42hp and was the funniest car I ever rode. But you always had to have tools with you. These tools also had to be British, because British screws are made with imperial units. And you had to use these tools quite sometimes...

Post by **Ralf Hutter** » Wed Jan 23, 2008 6:40 am

I remember one time about 35 years ago when it got down to 28Â°F around here. It was so damn cold I just didn't go outside for the entire day. It was brutal!

mexell · Post by **mexell** » Wed Jan 23, 2008 6:57 am

Your strange units make me always confused

Miles are OK, gallons also, mpg gets slightly difficult... but these are still linear conversions! This Â°F with its zero-shift is a totally different thing.

Btw, Have you ever noticed that most American scientists also use Â°C, cm, g, l instead of Â°F, in, pound, gallon?

JimX · Post by **JimX** » Wed Jan 23, 2008 7:06 am

Oh no, not again!

thejamppa · Post by **thejamppa** » Wed Jan 23, 2008 12:46 pm

Ok, I have to contribute here. Cold is also bit subjective like sound. For example, on the coast where is more humid, cold is more harsher. I live by the coast and - 3 degree's C with slight west wind freezes you thru bones. I don't remember wind chill effect by heart.

But most cold thing I've experienced? When I've lived here, - 39 Degree's C by the coast and - 42 degree's C inlands while I was serving in army. It was nice to spend a week in the woods with wood heaten tents when it was from -27 to - 42 Degree's C. There is reason why finnish army training is considered one of the hardest general army training, especially during the winter. ( its much worse for northern lapland units like Sissi platoons and regular northern jaeger companies ) A week in middle of nowhere without portable latrines, toilet paper, electricity... God I loved it

Frost was so bad during the nights you heard when tree branches broke with loud bangs during nights because frost was so bad that water remained in some branches couldn't cope but broke.

aristide1 · Post by **aristide1** » Wed Jan 23, 2008 1:45 pm

It was 3 degrees below Hillary here last week.

walle · Post by **walle** » Wed Jan 23, 2008 3:37 pm

Hellary do send cold shivers thru my spine, humid, at -10Â°C

klankymen · Post by **klankymen** » Wed Jan 23, 2008 4:59 pm

thejamppa wrote:its much worse for northern lapland units like Sissi platoons

wow, even the sissys are sent to -40Â° weather, I don't even want to think about what the real men have to do!

dragmor · Post by **dragmor** » Wed Jan 23, 2008 5:20 pm

Any weather where you require more than jeans and a long sleeve shirt is to cold (anything less than 12c during the day). You can keep your frozen hells.

Now who wants a game of tennis? Its only 38c outside at the moment.

aristide1 · Post by **aristide1** » Wed Jan 23, 2008 5:25 pm

My mistake, I usually call her Billary.

walle · Post by **walle** » Wed Jan 23, 2008 11:59 pm

klankymen wrote:
thejamppa wrote:its much worse for northern lapland units like Sissi platoons
wow, even the sissys are sent to -40Â° weather, I don't even want to think about what the real men have to do!

floffe · Post by **floffe** » Thu Jan 24, 2008 1:42 am

mexell wrote:Your strange units make me always confused Miles are OK, gallons also, mpg gets slightly difficult... but these are still linear conversions!

mpg to l/100km is actually inverted (D/V compared to V/D)

Bluefront · Post by **Bluefront** » Thu Jan 24, 2008 2:25 am

It'll take an act of god, or a constitutional amendment, for the American public to start using metric units of measurement. When referring to heat measurement with computers I use Celsius, and for some other things I use metric measurement. But I think in MPH, and mostly other non-metric units. I worked on foreign vehicles all my life, so I think metric better than most people here.

Just get used to it...

mexell · Post by **mexell** » Thu Jan 24, 2008 2:39 am

floffe wrote:
mexell wrote:Your strange units make me always confused Miles are OK, gallons also, mpg gets slightly difficult... but these are still linear conversions!
mpg to l/100km is actually inverted (D/V compared to V/D)

Yes. Inverting something in my head makes almost no problems. But making a zero shift and a linear conversion is more complex and unhandy, at least for me

To be honest, I ask my phone when I want to know exactly how cold Bluefront's motorcycle vengeance was

klankymen · Post by **klankymen** » Thu Jan 24, 2008 5:54 am

yeah, although mpgs suck, they don't suck as bad a s Fahrenheit.
Simply divide 240 by whichever efficiency measure you are using, and it results in the other.

But fahrenheit?? yuck. I just convert by typing "45 F in C" in google.
And for quick conversions, I just know that -40 are the same in both, and a 400Â° oven is the same as a 200Â° oven, and of course 32 is zero.
And I kinda keep in mind that 90 is hot, just like 30 is hot, even though they're not really the same.

nici · Post by **nici** » Thu Jan 24, 2008 5:56 am

Years ago i was out alpine skiing for half a day in nearly -40c, i stayed reasonably warm as long as i kept moving..

So i guess my opinion is that -40c is not cold if you are properly dressed. However you will have problems getting your car-engine warm.. and very likely have to cover the radiator with cardboard or something. Though i guess it would be easy to run a fanless computer if you kept it outside...

Oh and Sissi = Guerilla, if someone missed that. Though i have to admit that Sissi doesn't sound very cool, i think it's a girls name too. Oh well, off to the snow and to the store to get some food so i don't die and can continue being a nuisance.
Edit: Or then i'll just order some pizza, a wheelchair is no the most practical means of tranportation in what you could call a minor snowstorm with 5-10cm of fresh snow on the ground so far.

How Cold Can You Get?

How Cold Can You Get?

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From the Great White North