Unofficial Tex Murphy

So as I write this it is currently -31 degrees Celsius, typical Canadian winter. I know that is just the temperature outside but the wind chill is WAY colder. If you don't believe me try standing and waiting for a bus without winter attire. Unless you're Cubase and happen to live in the Southern Hemisphere where it's summer right now. I don't normally complain about the cold but there's just something about it that is really bugging me. -31 isn't the coldest I've seen actually, this is actually a bit of an average for January/February. The coldest I have personally seen is -55 degrees Celsius. I know it can get much colder here. My father was says that the coldest he's personally seen was -72 back when he was a kid. Now I am not sure if that is Fahrenheit or not but I know Celsius and Fahrenheit meet at -40 so if you're having a hard time grasping just how cold that is just know that at -50/-60 Celsius that a cup of boiling water thrown into the air explodes into ice crystals. So you can safely say it's a tad nipplie out. Granted -31 isn't as bad as that but it's still really annoying. Probably doesn't help that I didn't want winter to happen this year as I missed out on Summer last year. I know there's a couple other countries on the board that must experience a cold like this. Where was I going with all this? Oh right it's freakin' cold outside.

EDIT:
Here's a couple of images from the weather network AND it's supposed to get COLDER tomorrow!

Goddamn, son! And I thought southern Norway was cold! We got, I dunno, about -12 C?

-Fred

Coldest I've ever been in is about -2C... but in a strong comparison to the temps you are experiencing there, it is around 40C (104F) here at the moment... thank got the building is air conditioned.

-Cub. =o)

Wow and I thought it was cold here. It is chilly though, but nowhere near as bad as that of course.

Where exactly in Canada are you Electron Stu?

i was looking at the map and around Sudbury it is -30 right now.
You around there?

Here in London, ON its about -14.... but damn that still felt cold.

My hands were frozen in 1 min with leather gloves on.
As in.... i could barely feel them. My face was completely numb.... as in it hurt to make any facial expressions. That took about 45 seconds.

We're starting to dip into the single digits {F} with all the northern Canadian winds blowing in... But of course they aren't sending us any of the snow to go with it, just cold... For Maryland these are pretty cold Temps...
I'm going out to Montana this weekend... Should be a blast to finally stomp around in some snow...

Around -25 here today. With the wind, there's talks of -45 for tomorrow

Guess it's time to get the actual winter jacket out of the basement.

So today wasn't as bad as yesterday. It was only -30 today with a windchill of -43 . . . yeah it's still cold. No matter how much I deny that winter is here it's still here. My attire (photo at bottom) will have to change. Really gotta invest in a winter coat I think.

It's occurred to me that some of you out there may not know what cold actually looks like when I say that. Usually you know the moment you look outside when you open the curtains that it is bitterly cold out. I have taken a few pics to illustrate the fact nothing too spectacular but something to curb boredom right?

Pic 01

Here you can see ice crystals growing on my window in my office.

Pic 02

This is some random pipe in a wall that leaks out some sort of air and condenses on the wall.

Pic 03

Here is another pipe that expells air from a building and condenses with some sort of pink colour. Maybe it's from the mortar?

Pic 04

In this shot you can see there isn't a cloud in the sky (they act like a blanket) so it's really super cold out. Also you can see a truck that spent too much time in the parking lot so it's covered in snow when it was warm enough to snow.

Pic 05

If you look carefully at these buildings you will see what looks like steam billowing from them but it's actually air. The cold air actually causes it to crystalize and look like steam or smoke. I'm gonna have to look up the defenition of steam after this because it might actually be steam.

Pic 06

Here's another example of cloudless cold sky with steam at the top of a building.

Pic 07

Your average pedestrians walking with their babies. I assume the plastic is to keep the cold wind out.

Pic 08

If you look here you can see that cars (depending on how tuned up they are) billow out exhaust and smoke as well in colder weather. They have water mixed in with the gas, not sure how it gets in there but it is and that's what causes it to look like the next photo.

Pic 09

There's a perfect example of the exhaust and yes when you're walking by it you can smell and taste it. Bleh

Pic 10

Here's an example of a "warm" winter day looks like at that same intersection. When it isn't bitterly cold it snows . . .

Pic 11

and snows . . .

Pic 12

and snows . . .

Pic 13

Back home over Christmas it really warmed up to the point that it was foggy.

Pic 14

Then it started to actually rain, yet things remained frozen. It was really weird. Here's a shot of a river with water from the rain and melted snow on top of the old snow and ice of the still frozen river. Winter can be really messed up sometimes.

Pic 15

Finally here's a shot of me taking photos that day. I've been told that I look like a PI . . . completely independently of Tex. I assume a modern PI who hunts down cheating husbands and whatnot.

To answer a few things, no I am not from Sudbury but I am in Northern Ontario, more north actually. 40 degrees Celsius and I die in that weather. I don't know how you can do that Cub, I'm a ginger kid and I incinerate whenever the sun beats down on me in that weather. For the record it gets that warm here too in summer Americans have a hard time believing it when they come visit. The heat comes straight from the States so I guess we also share our weather. You give us the heat we share the cold. It's quite the contrast I must say but I think it's a fair trade. Super hot in summer and super cold in winter. Great for whatever season you like best.

Great Pics Stu... As for the steam you're seeing, it's not much different then when you see your breath when you're out in the cold... The air coming out of vents are much warmer than that of the outside, so it creates the "in air" condensation... Usually from exhaust vents for Furnaces and Water Heaters and such...
I'm like you, I don't care for really warm or hot weather, I'll take the cold over it any day... If I hadn't met my wife I very well might have moved to Canada or Alaska or made my Cabin in Montana my permanent home... But I decided to do that Family thing and stayed here... She knows I'm torn when it comes to times like this, but she also knows I ain't goin' nowhere---For too long a period of time anyway...

Electron Stu wrote:
Pic 08

If you look here you can see that cars (depending on how tuned up they are) billow out exhaust and smoke as well in colder weather. They have water mixed in with the gas, not sure how it gets in there but it is and that's what causes it to look like the next photo.

The smoke is actually the ice and dew which sits inside the exhaust system and engine vaporizing and condensing as the car heats up. It's actually only has a small percentage of carbon monoxide. Most cars (as you know) would do this in the cold, but eventually will stop once all the liquid has been vaporized.

Awesome photos!

-Cub. =o)

Alright winter can officially be over now, I get the point. It's cold. Can we go back to summer now? I walked to work and it was -32C out today. However despite it being colder in the other posts it actually felt warmer due to lack of wind chill. So it was actually more tolerable but still freakin' COLD. So that's enough I think, let's start with the spring weather.