60-63 for the next 10 days. I've been out in my yard cleaning up my gardens all weekend. Wacky weather. I haven't spent this much time outside in my yard in February in... ever.

I actually planted snap peas last weekend.

Stay warm

It wasn't actually bad, except on blocks where the wind was coming directly at you. It's the damned wind; the cold is fine if you're dressed for it. The wind makes it almost unbearable (and they don't call it the Windy City for nothing).

But then, I lived in Minnesota for 15 years, where we used to get 60 below wind chills on occasion. It puts hair on your chest.

Even 80 below. But it has only happened a few times in my life.

I didn't walk that far this time, but I did a few weeks ago when it was that bad. It was horrible! And it was snowing. Like little needles in your face and eyes. Brrrr.

You're sturdier stuff than I am.

You know it's "the windy city" because of all the hot air blown by politicians? Though they both fit.

Thinking of all the homeless people tonight, especially the children -

One out of every 45 children – some 1.6 million – in the United States is homeless, according to a report released Tuesday by the National Center on Family Homelessness. The majority of the children are under age 7.

http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Society/2011/1213/Homeless-children-at-record-high-in-US.-Can-the-trend-be-reversed

So many of the working poor are one financial disaster away from losing their apartments and living out of their cars. This article is a few years old, but descibes such a situation.

since the economy was detonated by Wall Street. It's at a record now, and keeps increasing.

Stay safe!

with very strong wind gusts ( I think at least 30 mph). It is horrible. I feel really bad for Bostonians and others being hit by this. Take care everyone!

find shelter and survive the night.

It's REALLY cold tonight. As cold as I can remember.

Wind chill is the "apparent" temperature on bare skin, due to factoring in the wind.

But like today here in rural west Michigan, where the high was 8F, I rarely go outside naked. I bundle up, so I have relatively little bare skin.

So wind chill is just a bunch of bullshit made up by the media to make things seem worse and more sensational than they are. It sells more lawyer ads on the televisionary set. That's it's only purpose.

Just give me the actual temperature and leave the wind chill bullshit to the sensationalist media. Or better yet, give me both the temperature and wind speed. To combine them into one number actually gives me less information.

By the way, when I arrived home this evening at 7:30PM it was 8F here, and calm. The forecast for the morning is -14F and again, calm. That's how cold it is here.

No phony wind chill inflations are necessary.

I apologize for being a pedant.

My regards.

to get to the barn to feed my horse and even bundled up my eyeballs felt that cold. I thought of all the poor who have no homes....my water is frozen in the kitchen but the bath is fine. I forgot to set the trickle in the kitchen and it froze. No problem beyond inconvenient but the poor are in my thoughts.

There are many more homeless here, living in tents. I think of them often with these temps. Its -14 WC & 2 degrees here this morning, and that's warming up.

That wind chill business is nothing more than hype to get people to watch the channel. The wind is not constant, it varies, often, second to second. If I stand on my front porch where the Norway Spruce that we planted 30 years ago block most of the wind, it is far different than if I go out in the open field and measure it. So, as far as I'm concerned, I'll take the temp and register the wind. Forget all that BS about wind chill. Oh, and it was -15F overnight and has warmed up to -7F and yes, the winds are chugging down the valley.

Temp is 2 degrees. South central PA. Brrrrr

The wind chill is somewhere around -28. I'm staying in the house all week

and the wind chill was at least -40. Maybe lower. I can't recall after all these years, but in various northern parts of the country it gets COLD. Get over it.

I lived in northern New York State as a child, and it was routinely 20 degrees below zero. We lived with it. You bundle up and deal with it.

When you live where it's very hot in the summer (say Phoenix) the only way you can dress for the heat is to wear an air-conditioned car.

I've lived in places with extreme cold and extreme heat, and in my personal case I'll take the cold every time. Your mileage might vary.

I've lived in the sweltering heat & humidity of the Washington/Baltimore area summers, not to mention the humid hell of Florida summers, as well as bone-chilling Chicago lake front, Wisconsin & Pennsylvania winters. When extreme weather circumstances include loss of electric power (heating/air conditioning), what are you gonna do? Re heat, you can only strip down so much - even stark naked in the privacy of your own home to avoid hyperthermia/heatstroke. But in the cold, you can always add layers of clothing/insulation to combat the cold - I'm a big fan of fleece & Patagonia brand long underwear.

However, I do find your "Just suck it up & deal with it" view lacks appropriate nuance and in particular is not realistic when it comes to those who lack heating/air conditioning, physical stamina, adequate food, clothing, shelter, etc.

For one thing, our bodies do adjust their abilities to deal with temperatures. After years in southern California and then 3 years in Florida, I found Pennsylvania winters to be extremely punishing the first several years. This year I had a college exchange student guest from Oman over the Christmas holidays, and even though she bundled up, the cold was extremely painful for her. We both had winter gloves on, for example, and she was getting tingling fingertips/frostbite within minutes of being out doors, whereas I had no problems at all.

A sub category of adjusting over time to extreme heat or cold is that "back then" once it got cold, it stayed cold for the season. Now our temps fluctuate with wild abandon. Here in SW Penn., it's sub-zero for a few days and then bob's-your-uncle we're up to 50 degrees for a couple of days, and then whoosh! minus 27 with the windchill.

Another factor is body mass index. Overweight people have more insulation, so to speak, from the cold, but suffer and sweat more in the heat.

I found this informative research article on the various negative impacts of extreme heat and extreme cold in areas such as health & mortality; transportation; agriculture; energy resources and water. http://sciencepolicy.colorado.edu/socasp/weather1/adams.html

Bottom line though, is that while young and/or healthy people with the financial resources can indeed suck it up and deal with extreme weather, this is not an option available to all, and the problem is greatly exacerbated by the extreme fluctuation in temps of global climate change.

and people struggling to pay fuel bills. People who have to work outside. FFS, get over yourself.

You want an award for living places that are normally this cold? Did living in those places kill off your empathy?

Go back in and read the OP it simply states the temperature and says "bundle up". YOU have to diminish the challenge some of us are facing because at some point in your life you lived in even colder climates?

The extreme cold is easier on me than that overwhelming heat of Phoenix, absolutely, however I don't think making a note of the cold is whining or complaining. I know for a fact that I wouldn't survive long living in a tent in these conditions, even with the proper clothes. That's just a fact.

We have apparently kicked the refrigerator door to the Arctic open. (on further analysis of the hi-low therm it was actually -16F)
http://www.climatecentral.org/news/stratospheric-phenomenon-is-bringing-frigid-cold-to-us-15479

and anyway "the fuse is blown" for the West Antarctic Ice Sheet
http://climatecrocks.com/2015/01/22/the-fuse-is-blown-glaciologists-jaw-dropping-account-of-a-shattering-moment/

So… have fun while it lasts?

Cheers,
Agony

Last night and warmed to 15 today....it's now 11 degrees and snowing..or it was about an hour ago. It usually has to warm up to snow...

Thanks for the links. Yeah we've made sure everything is toast...sad. TPTB don't give a damn as long as enough survive to supply the slave labor.

I'm hearing country joe and the fish replaying in my head.

Woopie!

Maybe we can't tell from a single event, of course, but if this continues to be a long term phenomenon.....

I don't do trudging across the tundra very well.

32° is invigorating. -17° No, thank you.

to live in this much horrible weather. It's one thing to get an occasional bad snow storm. But not being able to dig out before getting hit again is terrible. I wish the weather didn't have to be a life-or-death daily consideration for so many people.

keep warm! You have my sympathy! BRRRR!

Cold here too although not as severe, we'll be in the freezing zone later tonight! Ofcourse, we Central Texans are not used to this type of weather!

Keep us posted! And most of all keep warm!!!!

Not what you folks have had to put up with, of course, but even we've been unusually cool for Feb., when our normal highs are approaching 60 degrees.

I'm worried about the drought out there...I hope you get more rain soon.