Looks like the deep freeze is over. (Detroit: lease, home)

[MS313]

Well, that was harsh. But it looks like the "deep freeze" is finally over for us here in Detroit. THANK GOD. It's supposed to be almost 50 degrees Thursday. I usually don't start complaining about winter until around February but my patients with winter ended alot sooner then usual this year. I walked around a little bit today like we were having a heat wave.

How do the rest of you guys feel about the deep freeze? I've seen it cold before but I don't think I've ever seen it be THAT cold for that long.

[North 42]

It’s been colder before, but I agree, it’s the length of time that’s this cold wave has been going on that makes it stand out! I have thoroughly enjoyed all of the snow events that we have had though, so pretty!

[Geo-Aggie]

That was pretty awful. Don't get me wrong, I'm from a state with harsh winters and I would walk to university campus in sub-zero temperatures, but when it got that cold it was like.. for 3 days.. then it was back to normal winter temperatures (30 in the day, 15 at night). That extended 2+ weeks of 10 in the day and -5 at night can just go right back to Nunavut, or wherever it came from.

I know the last two winters were both pretty mild, but was this typical of a Metro Detroit deep-freeze? 20 days of single-digit temperatures was really bloody awful. I can take months upon months of Sub-40 temperatures and not sweat it, but man, that really ruined my entire holiday break. I just sat inside for two weeks reading books, playing video games, and attempting to explain to my toddler why we couldn't play in the snow for longer than 5 minutes. Now I'm back at work and it's 40 degrees. Ugh.

[highlanderfil]

I enjoyed the sunshine, but not the fact that my heating bill this month is going to climb into luxury car lease territory. Walking outside to take the trash out last night and finding out it was in the high 20s was almost like a sudden onset of summer. Looking forward to the rain (that is supposedly coming on Thursday) washing away some of the dirt and grime so that the next snowfall will hopefully bring some nice clean powder to go outside and play in.

[canudigit]

I don't do well when it's that cold for days on end. I don't usually get a really bad case of seasonal depression but I was feeling it during that cold snap, and people around me who aren't normally ever depressed were even admitting that it was getting to them too. I think a couple of things that made it worse for me were having a little dog who can't go for walks when it's that cold and just lies around looking sad, and working the night shift and having to get in my car that was parked outside in -9 degree weather and drive home along frozen country roads that were only marginally cleared. Not fun!

I do think, though, that this stuff makes us really appreciate the warm times of the year so much more. Every March I count ahead to how many months are coming up where driving in ice and snow is virtually impossible and it's so encouraging when I can look forward to 8-9 months straight of clear roads!

At least we don't have to contend with big, nasty, frozen iguanas dropping out of our trees like they just did in southern Florida!

[North 42]

Originally Posted by Geo-Aggie

That was pretty awful. Don't get me wrong, I'm from a state with harsh winters and I would walk to university campus in sub-zero temperatures, but when it got that cold it was like.. for 3 days.. then it was back to normal winter temperatures (30 in the day, 15 at night). That extended 2+ weeks of 10 in the day and -5 at night can just go right back to Nunavut, or wherever it came from.

I know the last two winters were both pretty mild, but was this typical of a Metro Detroit deep-freeze? 20 days of single-digit temperatures was really bloody awful. I can take months upon months of Sub-40 temperatures and not sweat it, but man, that really ruined my entire holiday break. I just sat inside for two weeks reading books, playing video games, and attempting to explain to my toddler why we couldn't play in the snow for longer than 5 minutes. Now I'm back at work and it's 40 degrees. Ugh.

This deep freeze broke an all time record for Detroit for the longest stretch of days below 20F at 12 days, the former record was 11 days, so, no, this is an extremely rare, record breaking event for this region!
Oh, and it came from Siberia, not Nunavut, lol.

[BPtransplant]

We moved from MN not too long ago. My wife and I kept joking about how we thought we had moved AWAY from that crap. Those temperatures were expected in MN, we certainly did not expect them here in Metro Detroit.

[mjlo]

Originally Posted by BPtransplant

We moved from MN not too long ago. My wife and I kept joking about how we thought we had moved AWAY from that crap. Those temperatures were expected in MN, we certainly did not expect them here in Metro Detroit.

Yeah usually it's not the case unless the "polar vortex" breaks off and sits its rear end over Michigan. When weather patterns are coming out of the north the lakes do little to moderate the temperatures. Although with this weather pattern everyone was pretty much in a deep freeze. My friends in Louisville were experiencing temperatures as cold as Michigan was.

[North 42]

Originally Posted by mjlo

Yeah usually it's not the case unless the "polar vortex" breaks off and sits its rear end over Michigan. When weather patterns are coming out of the north the lakes do little to moderate the temperatures. Although with this weather pattern everyone was pretty much in a deep freeze. My friends in Louisville were experiencing temperatures as cold as Michigan was.

I was gonna say, even Tennessee got as cold as some parts of Michigan did.

[MS313]

Was that normal for Michigan? HELL... NO!. It broke the records for most consecutive cold days like another poster had mentioned. That is something you probably we probably won't experience again until your kids are grown and possibly having kids of their own. The way the planet is slowly heating up, it may not ever happen again in our lifetime but who knows. But this wasn't just a MI deep freeze either, alot of people I know who went down south for the holidays said that it felt like a normal MI winter all the way down south, I hear some parts of FL almost got snow.

The Niagara Falls is currently an ice sculpture. My supervisor refused to go back up north for the holidays because his hometown was -30.