Going out to do some errands today

Wish me luck

I wondering where Saskatoon is, and I didn't recognize SK, so I used Google.  Oh, Canada.  You threw me off by using Fahrenheit degrees.

I would advise against going out in that kind of weather, unless you absolutely positively must.

Meanwhile, I am using a ceiling fan and air conditioning here in Texas.  In the summer, though, I sometimes wish I was up there.

Good Luck! ;P

I just used F for the more impressive sounding number.

My hands would drop off. They can't handle even holding a nice cold can of drink without pain, even in warm days. Some sort medical issue I think.

Hopefully you survive your day.

Fahrenheit and Celsius agree exactly at -40 degrees.  So, given that a Celsius degree is not quite twice the size of a Fahrenheit degree (9/5), -44 F is about -42C, but the wind chill would be a more impressive number in F than in C.

Be careful, and here's a novel piece of advice that you have never heard before: Dress in layers!  Just don't dress in lawyers because that could be awkward.

Hahaha, the coldest I remember it being here in Ohio recently was -17°F. They closed the local university and the community center was turned into a temporary shelter where anyone could stay. Free hot chocolate, too. At -44°F, they would declare it a county-wide emergency and probably shut the entire city down.

One thing I learned about cold weather is that wearing two or three pairs of socks can be quite comfortable if you loosen up your shoelaces. Also, you'd think that having a massive beard would keep you warm, but all it does is turn into an massive icicle just from merely breathing.

I saw this topic's title, and this was all I could think of.

I'm not sorry.

Also, I knew fully where Saskatoon is, because I read Owls in the Family during grade school. :)

1 hour ago, EarthQuake said:

One thing I learned about cold weather is that wearing two or three pairs of socks can be quite comfortable if you loosen up your shoelaces. Also, you'd think that having a massive beard would keep you warm, but all it does is turn into an massive icicle just from merely breathing.

That's the problem with having a beard/moustache when it gets really cold. When it's kind of cold they help quite a bit, like 20 Fahrenheit. When it gets below 10, it's a liability. I was outside on a forklift all day today, and I have a beard. Admittedly it was -5 to +5 Fahrenheit all day, so not as cold as Saskatoon, but I was picking ice out of my facial hair all day. Didn't help that the wind was blowing at 15-20 miles per hour all day, so windchill was -15 to -20. 

I do agree on the socks though, I usually wear two pairs of heavy wool socks when it gets this cold. I really don't think I could get three pairs on, but my feet don't get cold. My face and my hands however, do get fucking cold. I need to use my fingers, so gloves and not mittens are necessary. Deer skin thinsulate gloves do a decent job. But I wear glasses, so if I cover my jaw and nose, the glasses don't just fog up, they freeze. So I need to keep my nose uncovered. Which sucks.

And honestly, if your vehicle even starts at -44, I want to know what it is. Because that thing must be a beast.

I've had two jobs where I would have to face the cold. One as a yard jockey towing trailers around, and the other in the frozen section of a warehouse where it was kept at -10F. Aside from learning how to dress properly, acquiring the right mentality also took me pretty far in staying warm. Wim Hof had always been an inspiration to me, so I took it as an opportunity to try and practice some of the techniques he explains in various videos.

-44F is nothing to take lightly, though. We had wind-chill temps like that where I live during the polar vortex last week. The university cancelled classes for a day, and the bus routes were free for everyone. Temperatures were even lower across the midwest, and a few people died.

Saskatchewan's temperature extremes can be pretty cruel. If bone-chilling cold doesn't punish you during the winter, sweltering heat might oppress you in the summer. It's tough sometimes, even if we're used to it in principle.

It's not quite that cold here in Southern Alberta, but it's still pretty damn cold. I think I heard that the temperature is going to get to -35c tonight.

I personally prefer chillier weather, but this is a little too much for a university student that needs to constantly move back and forth between separate buildings throughout the day. It kind of pisses me off that who ever is in charge of the heating can never get the temperature right, you need three thick layers outside but as soon as you're indoors you better strip quick or you'll pass out from heat stroke...

I don't really think I can complain that much though, I expect the Chinook winds will be passing through shortly to clear up this coldness...

8 hours ago, Hellish Godzilla said:

If bone-chilling cold doesn't punish you during the winter, sweltering heat might oppress you in the summer.

Back in August, I spent an entire afternoon on a sundeck with a cooler of beer at 100F.

For what it's worth, I live in Buffalo, so while it might not get nearly as cold, it's not too far off - days with temperatures in the single digits Fahrenheit/negative double digits Celsius aren't entirely uncommon in winter, and then we can be well up to the 90s F/30s C in summer with extremely high humidity due to living next to a huge honkin' lake with predominant winds coming off it. Last week we had three days in a row of windchill around -30 to -35C.

But in addition to that miserable cold (and heat), we're also the tenth snowiest city in the entire world. We get just about 8 feet (just shy of 3 meters) of the white stuff in an average year.

Every so often we get so destroyed by it that the entire city gets shut down on a travel ban. Here's a bulldozer plowing my street after a storm we called "Snowvember" that happened in, well, November of 2014, along with me helping dig out.

Snow was about up to my chest (for what it's worth, I'm about 6'3"/190cm or so), and we'd still get another few feet on top of that. We got about the year's average in four days.

And that was in November. There was still effectively four and a half months of winter to go.

where I live, it got below zero during the polar vortex, but then it warmed up.

I can confirm, wearing layers is crucial for insulation. winter hats and scarves are necessary. I find that in really cold weather, covering my face with a scarf works well.

As it turns out, at the time I made the original post, a 112-year-old record was being broken.

Well, you definitely survived then.