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Extreme bitter cold. Never experienced before. People wearing shorts at these types of polar temperatures are morons
I've had friends who have wintered at Amundsen–Scott South Pole Station (I've never been there, yet!) and there's a thing called the "300 Club". What they do is crank up the sauna in the station to 200°F/93°C and it has to be -100°F/-73°C outside or colder and people run from the sauna out to the actually South Pole marker and back to station.
Seems simple enough, but here's the catch, you have to do it with just boots, gloves and a hat, everything else completely naked and every year the actual Pole is moving 30 feet (9 meters) away from the station due to the 2 mile thick ice cap moving toward the ocean.
If you complete the task you get a t-shirt and become an official member of the "300 Club". Some winters at Pole, it doesn't even make it down to -100°F/-73°C, so no chance to join the club. Many people also take a "hero shot" when they get to the Pole marker during their attempt. Definitely lots of shrinkage for the guys!
Here's a picture of me at Palmer Station, Antarctica in the so-called "banana belt" of the continent in shorts, proud member of the moron club!
^Yeah the 300 Club is what I show people who clearly don't understand a damn thing about extreme or even moderate cold, when they spew nonsense like "omg -50 C that's like immediate death within 1 minute omg blah blah blah..."
I've had friends who have wintered at Amundsen–Scott South Pole Station (I've never been there, yet!) and there's a thing called the "300 Club". What they do is crank up the sauna in the station to 200°F/93°C and it has to be -100°F/-73°C outside or colder and people run from the sauna out to the actually South Pole marker and back to station.
Seems simple enough, but here's the catch, you have to do it with just boots, gloves and a hat, everything else completely naked and every year the actual Pole is moving 30 feet (9 meters) away from the station due to the 2 mile thick ice cap moving toward the ocean.
If you complete the task you get a t-shirt and become an official member of the "300 Club". Some winters at Pole, it doesn't even make it down to -100°F/-73°C, so no chance to join the club. Many people also take a "hero shot" when they get to the Pole marker during their attempt. Definitely lots of shrinkage for the guys!
Here's a picture of me at Palmer Station, Antarctica in the so-called "banana belt" of the continent in shorts, proud member of the moron club!
That’s pretty cool! There’s definitely a difference to doing that for that reason and leisurely wearing shorts outside at -20c In general for longer periods of time though. I can’t imagine anyone being comfortable doing that
Usually, but not always, the humidity is highest at sunrise, when the temperature is at its lowest and as the sun heats the air throughout the day the humidity will drop as the air "dries out" and be its lowest around 2-3 PM in the afternoon, when the temperature is near its highest.
Humidity and temperature are usually, but not always, inversely related, overnight/early morning = high humidity and low temperatures, noon/afternoon = low humidity and high temperatures, it's just physics!
So, if the humidity was 100%, I highly doubt the sunrise temperature (basically the low) was 113°F/45°C, that would be some record high low there!
The coldest I have ever gotten to experience was -40°C/-40°F in September 2011, when I was living and working at McMurdo Station in Antarctica, with the wind chill it was -63°C/-81°F, that was cold.
My hottest was in June or July in Arizona one year when it was 49°C/120°F. So if my lifetime, I've gotten to feel a 201°F (-81°F to 120°F) maximum difference in temperatures!
I once came out of my house to find that my rear brakes had frozen and would not release. I had to take the wheel off and free the drum brakes manually. It was so cold sitting there that I had to go inside every ten minutes or so to warm up - even though I was wearing thermal underwear, heavy jeans, a couple sweaters and a heavy coat. Hat and gloves of course were also needed although I had to remove the gloves occasionally for fine control.
It was ~(-5) degrees outside that afternoon and I thought it was the absolute coldest I could ever experience. Worst, I was scheduled to deliver that night and I was not looking forward to the colder night.
When time came to start work, the temperature had dropped to ~(-11), and since nobody else wanted to go outside, the phone at the deli was ringing off the hook. After about a hour or so of delivery in the cold, I had stripped off the heavy coat and I think one of the sweaters too and I worked that way from the rest of the night. I was running too hard to have the cold really bother me. I was also lucky to have two or three wool caps because I could exchange them every half hour or so, so that the sweaty ones had a chance to dry.
It's all relative.
Last edited by blktoptrvl; 02-24-2019 at 12:03 PM..
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