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January 15, 2004...I still remember, when thirty was cold...When a Sasquatch calls someone hairy, that’s a big statement. When a polar bear thinks its cold, it’s really cold. When I overheard New Hampshire folks talking about how terribly cold it is this week is when I realized exactly how severe this cold snap is It made big news when people blogged the hurricanes last fall, so I thought I would weigh in on the incredibly cold weather gripping the Northeast. As I write this, the temperature is 1 degree. The high today is supposed to be 6 degrees, but it looks doubtful that we will ‘warm’ that much. To fully understand it, allow me to share with you a couple of anecdotes. Yesterday morning, I left the apartment with my hair still wet in some places. After only a few moments in the air outside, the exposed wet hair had frozen in place. This afternoon two of our volunteers were returning from lunch and was walking back into the office. As they walked past a parked and running minivan the side window in the sliding door shattered outward, the shards narrowly missing our guys. Apparently, the difference between the heat inside the vehicle and the cold outside caused the glass to shatter; sort of like a intense version of the cracks in a windshield that slowly grow through a winter in milder climes. The driver of the minivan was a woman and she had a six month old in the car seat. One of the volunteers who had witnessed the glass explosion and I went outside to try to tape some plastic over the opening. It was so cold the clear plastic packing tape would not stick to the metal of the vehicle. A runny nose freezes almost instantly when walking outside without a mask or scarf covering the nose and face. Weather warnings advise that exposed skin can freeze within ten minutes. As Kevin has noted, workers at an ice plant in Laconia, New Hampshire, have actually turned to going into their freezer to warm up. Outer doors at our office have a growing layer of frost building on the interior edges as moisture freezes when the door opens. Carbonated drinks left in a car overnight freeze and explode as they expand. The Manchester Water Works crews are fearful that within a day the cold will have frozen deep enough into the ground that their water mains may be threatened. If any gentle readers are aware of bloggers that are covering this cold snap, please let me know. Comments
Wow. Posted by: sugarmama at January 15, 2004 03:23 PMBogie in New Hampshire at http://bogieblog.typepad.com/happenings/ I second the "Wow." I don't think it's fair for me to ever complain about the winter weather here in Virginia, at least not when I hear about those conditions. At this point I couldn't even imagine voluntarily living in a place that gets so cold. Posted by: Zandria at January 15, 2004 04:11 PMAh, I remember that cold from my days in Manchester. My fingers got numb just trying to punch in my pin at the drive-up ATM one day when the wind chill was well below 0. You have my sympathies, Adam. Stay smart and warm. Posted by: jen at January 15, 2004 04:23 PMIt's a balmy 7 degrees up here in Toronto as I write this... -10 with windchill. When I was walking my dog this morning it was -8 degrees pre-windchill... somewhere along the lines of -20 or so with the wind. I blogged about having to buy my dog a sweater and boots because it's so damn cold. Posted by: Ryan Waddell at January 16, 2004 10:09 AMPost a comment
 
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