Cold

It was cold today. When I woke up this morning it was in the teens, just below zero if you factor in the wind chill. The high today was around 25. I spent a lot of the day outside, traveling from one client's apartment to the next, killing time in between.

It snowed a lot on Friday and then again yesterday morning, so all that accumulated snow has turned to ice, making the roads and sidewalks very slippery.

Fortunately I like the cold. I can tolerate it well for someone who didn't grow up with it, but even I have my limits. When I lived in California I used to work with a guy who grew up in Duluth, Minnesota. He went back there for Christmas one year and when he came back he said the temperature was -40. After a certain point, I wondered, is there really any difference between the cold? Does -40 feel any different from 0? How could it?

He said it did feel different and tried to explain it to me but I didn't get it. After living in the northeast for four years, now I get what he was saying. This is how I'd best describe all ranges of temperatures. The following only apply to daytime highs, because 30 degrees in the morning of a day where it will get up into the 60s is an entirely different beast than 30 degrees at 2pm where the overnight low will be 5.

I'll start with hot and work down:

over 90 if it's dry, over 82 if it's real humid: too hot. Not comfortable. Just want to stay inside and turn on the air conditioner. Don't want to do anything active outside. Hope that it will cool down soon.

75-82 if humid, 80-90 if it's dry: comfortably hot. Doesn't feel oppressive. Can still do most things, don't hesitate to go out. Probably will be perfectly comfortable once the sun goes down.

65-75 if humid, 65-80 if dry: comfortably warm. Don't have to think about the weather. Can wear short sleeves and be fine.

50-65: perfect. This is temperature range at which I'm optimally comfortable. I'm not too hot and I'm not too cold. I can wear long pants, long sleeves and maybe a light sweater at the cool end and be perfectly fine. Being outside is not a problem.

35-50: comfortably cool. You definitely want to wear a coat of some kind and maybe a hat. As long as it's not windy you're fine. You can still do most outside stuff.

25-35: cold. This is the point where I start having to wear gloves and a scarf. I can be outside for a while but I don't usually want to stay out too long. If it's windy or very dry it can start to get uncomfortable.

5-25: Uncomfortably cold. This is the point where you really can't do much outside. If you have to be out you want to keep it to a minimum. It's not comfortable, but it is possible to be outside for a little bit.

-15 to +5: Forget about it. This is just too cold to do anything. This is the point where being outside, even just for a little bit can be painful. If your ears aren't covered they'll start stinging within a minute or two. If you don't have gloves on, your hands will start to feel like they're being stabbed with a thousand little sharp knives. Towards the lower end breathing comfortably starts to become n issue. All that cold air going straight into your lungs starts to hurt and your nose gets dry.

-15 is the coldest air temperature I've been in, but I've been in wind chills up to -30. I wouldn't say I have enough experience with that kind of cold to talk about it at length, just that the breathing issue gets more intense and things (like cars) start not working. Also, when it gets that cold, no matter if your house is insulated and has central heat, you can never really get warm, everything is saturated with cold.