50 degrees below zero?! How do you live with that? (Baudette: assessment, transport)

[SueJ999]

Personally, I just hibernate all winter here in MN!

[Globe199]

Originally Posted by golfgal

Which happened in 1936--not common at all. Honestly, you get used to the temps after a day or two. Even though they are below zero it doesn't mean that they are -50°, it could be -1°, which if it isn't windy isn't all that bad.

As for getting out to ski in -50° of course no one is skiing then-that would be stupid. The difference is that you MIGHT see a day like that every 3rd year or so, maybe vs having weeks on end in the south of 100+ degrees. There are maybe a handful of days in the winter where it is really too cold to be out for any length of time.

Furthermore, that link is misleading. It doesn't mean that the temp didn't rise above zero for 36 days. It just means that the daily minimum (i.e., the day's low temperature) was below zero.

There are days with lows below zero and highs well into the +30s. 01/29/2008 in Minneapolis had a low of -13F, but a high of +36F.

-50F is completely unheard of in the Twin Cities. You'd have to go well north in Minnesota to get that cold. The all-time record low for Minneapolis is -34F on 01/19/1970. We have not seen -25F since 12/26/1996. We have only had SIX days since 01/01/2000 that were colder than -15F and only one (01/30/2004) colder than -20F.

yeah, I'm a weather geek

[rcsteiner]

Originally Posted by Globe199

Furthermore, that link is misleading. It doesn't mean that the temp didn't rise above zero for 36 days. It just means that the daily minimum (i.e., the day's low temperature) was below zero.

Wow, you're right. I just did a quickie search to find it, and I guess I didn't read closely enough. I know there's a page out there that has a list of periods of time that were actually below zero, and I thought that's what I had located again.

Sorry about that.

Here, I think this is what I meant to link to before:

Extended Period of Zero or Below for the Twin Cities

Still, the record of 186 hours is 7.7 days, and it almost was 311 hours (12.95 days, or from 8pm Dec 31 1911 to 10am Jan 13 1912). That's still a long period of cold in my book!

[Globe199]

Originally Posted by rcsteiner

Wow, you're right. I just did a quickie search to find it, and I guess I didn't read closely enough. I know there's a page out there that has a list of periods of time that were actually below zero, and I thought that's what I had located again.

Sorry about that.

Here, I think this is what I meant to link to before:

Extended Period of Zero or Below for the Twin Cities

Still, the record of 186 hours is 7.7 days, and it almost was 311 hours (8pm Dec 31 1911 to 10am Jan 13 1912). That's still cold in my book!

Yeah, that would be unbelievable. I remember that cold snap in 1994; it was brutal and depressing. Last winter had some very cold stretches, but we still don't get much in the way of prolonged periods of extreme cold.

[summer grace]

Originally Posted by SueJ999

Personally, I just hibernate all winter here in MN!

Me too..

[GraniteStater]

It is not the temp for most people but the wind chill factor. Wind chills are now in the -40 to -45F range for northwest Minnesota.

[3-Oaks]

Yes, maybe there were 36 days where the daily low was below zero. What it didn't say was how many of those got into the 20s and 30s or maybe even near 40 during the day.

It's not at all unusual to have a 30 or more degree difference between the daily high and the daily low.

True, every year, there is usually a week or so in Jan or Feb where the temp is -0 all day. There is almost always a week or so called the January thaw where it may not even freeze at night and in the daytime gets up into the 40s and 50s and very occasionally into the 60s.

Born & raised in MN, but got a job in ND after college & now I've been here way longer than I was in MN.

Originally Posted by rcsteiner

It's an exaggeration, but sometimes below-zero streaks *do* occur:

Streaks of at or Below Zero Minimum Temperatures for the Twin Cities

[kuan]

Originally Posted by GraniteStater

It is not the temp for most people but the wind chill factor. Wind chills are now in the -40 to -45F range for northwest Minnesota.

They're actually closing some schools up there for tomorrow.

[Huckleberry3911948]

piece of cake, you move here.
say hello to all my buddies in chicago.

[marmac]

I live just 100 miles NW of Minneapolis and it is -13 with a windchill of -36.

The worst stretch of winter weather I can remeber was December of 1983.
It lasted from about a week before Christmass til a few days after Christmass.

Being a dairy farmer then (and outside a lot) it wore on me physically and got to me mentally.

I recall Christmass Eve afternoon (about 2:00) with things freezing up,breakdowns etc, and warming up in the barn and the radio saying the windchill was -60.

I hope that memory goes farther and farther in my past and there are no new ones to top it.