How well do you tolerate cold? How cold is too cold? (living in, daughter)

[plaidmom]

For me, tolerating cold is all about the gear!
Polartec, Gore-tex, Cool-max....thank-you science
(although, for sheer warmth, nothing beats a good-quality goose-down jacket).

When I am doing a high-aerobic activity (running, XC skiing) I can tolerate temps in the teens (F) for an hour or longer.

My personal cut-off temp for cycling is in the mid-20s. I have friends who ride in the teens. Cycling creates it's own "windchill" effect, so it requires more clothing. If you want to see how some of the truly nutty cope, google "icebike".

I adjust my body temp by the number of layers I wear (many light layers=better than one heavy). The key thing is to cover the extremities: head (ears, nose etc), hands (mittens are warmer than gloves) and feet (wool socks and shoes/boots that are not tight). If it's really cold and I plan to be out for awhile, I use the chemical "warmers".

The coldest I've ever been was 40F and raining...and doing a mountain descent on my road bike. I was shaking so hard I was afraid I'd loose control of the bike. It took about two hours, a warm shower, and many warm beverages to get my body temp back up to normal. I blame it on having the "wrong gear". We'd gone "south" to find warmer weather and didn't pack winter-wear.

Yes, Im a gear-junkie! If you need help finding stuff before you move just let me know....

[ExNYC]

Ashland, Oregon has temps that go in the 20's at night and 50's during the day in the winter, which makes it VERY bearable. The sun is out most of the time which makes it nice for walking and being outside. People have begun to put primroses in outside planters. I'm from NY and find this to be amazing.

[Yorkie_Mom]

When it comes to cold, Minnesota is bad, it has been in some cases -75 below with wind chill in the past. In our lovely state right now last night it was -10 with a wind chill of -35 to -40 below, and yes I was dumb to run out in it, had to get more chex mix and pizzas.
The wind chill is so cold, that when it hits your skin it feels like needles poking at you, your car never wants to warm up, until you get back home, and then it is where you can finally see out your windows, we are going to be in this artic blast for at least a week as far as the weather people are saying.
I would take any temp that would not get below +60 year round, it is taking it's toll on my fibromyaliga and RA, no fun here. If you are healthy and can dress for the cold you would be ok, but if you want to move from a warm place like Florida to Minnesota, you better visit first in the winter to see if you would be able to handle the cold. I say let me out of here!!!!!!!!!!!

[Need_affordable_home]

Thanks for all your replies. I would not be out if its super cold unless it was a medical emergency. If I needed food, id eat what I have and shop later! I already know to avoid the northern midwest states. The northeast and southern states arent bad it seems, let me show you the weather image.



California has great weather, too bad 90% of California is expensive. Theres affordable land in the desert(not interested) and in far north CA(might have to check it out) Coastal Oregon and Washington arent too bad but expensive!
North Georgia, North Alabama, the Carolinas, Arkansas, Tennessee and the northeast states have rather mild winters with color temperatures in the 20s to 30s(shades of cyans or light blues) so those states are my choice to live and theres at least 10 states with good weather that I can live with.

South FL was so hot, I had to run the a/c all night and was still hot! Elfyum of course is in heaven as she loves it hot, humid and muggy but I dont tolerate heat well

[MidniteBreeze]

I read somewhere that there's actually some scientific evidence that your body does make actual physiological adjustments to cold after a while (akin to the old wives tale of "thick blood.") You see that here in MN...if we get an early cold snap in September or October where it dips below freezing, everyone is all bundled up. But after an ARCTIC cold snap (like the one we're in now with daytime HIGHS below zero) 32 degrees above zero is seriously WARM. Think about it, it will be about -20 here tonight so if it were 32 tomorrow, that's a 50+ degree difference! Time to break out the lawnchairs and sunscreen, lol. But in all seriousness, it's NOT uncommon to see people happily stolling from their cars to the stores in just sweatshirts or even T shirts in situations like that.

When you're talking about extreme cold though, I think there's a point where it doesn't matter if it's -20 or -40...if there's any kind of wind at all, it's just damn cold and it all feels the same.

Like plaidmom said though, there is a lot you can do to cope. We have block heaters and high-end batteries for our cars, we bury our pipes 6 feet underground, we insulate our homes and we bundle up. Life goes on when it's cold outside so you just learn to deal.

[dreamofmonterey]

[quote=Need_affordable_home;327419]Hello Momark and others, this at 15 degrees? How much worse would 10, 5, 0, -5, -10 and especially -30 degrees be? What about when you factor in windchill? Do your friends tolerate cold better than you? I ask this revelent question because I have a choice of states I can relocate to. I already ruled out states like Montana, Dakotas, Minnesota, Wyoming, Alaska, Maine and a few others as being too cold. I have a choice of at least a dozen states and some are warmer than others. I know people that praise Des Moines in Iowa. That state gets very cold, its zone 6a with an annual minimum of -10!(of course lower with windchill) but is it too cold? I would think so and have placed it low on my list. Ideally, I want a climate that stays above zero with little or no wind and some snow but not feet of snow! Being from south FL, my tolerance to cold is less than most of you. How long can you stay out at what temperature?

NAH- I was in S Fl. but originally NY. You are probably right -5 is too much, but I miss the snow-now with global warming we get less snow. I remember as a kid having blizzards; it was fun. Granted this changes as you get older, but I enjoy skiing (Cant afford Aspen though-lol)

Overall I prefer cold to the heat there were weeks in Florida when I dreaded getting in the car-the humidity was unbearable. I can even remember one night in April at 11 PM standing outside talking to a neighbor, and the heat was unreal!! At least in the cold you can put on a warmer coat!. It seems people either love the heat or hate it!

sunny.

[mb919]

Originally Posted by dullnboring

If it's just cold air with no wind, which is rarely the case in Winter, I think I have fairly average Mid-Atlantic tolerance for the cold. I can tolerate temperatures in the 20s in that instance. However, when I say "tolerate", I mean tolerate in it's strictest sense. I won't find myself cursing the wintry weather as I leap from one heated location to another (i.e. home to car) but I'm not going to spend any more time outside than I have to when temperatures dip so low either. When it's very windy, I have a hard time dealing with temperatures as "high" as the upper 30s (wind chill would generally be 20-25). I tolerate and accept the cold during Winter, but I'm ready for it to be done with after a few weeks. Similarly, while I find snow beautiful and enjoy looking out the window at the snow-covered ground, it too wears out it's welcome rather quickly with me. There's a lot of issues aside from your body temperature that also can contribute to cold weather not being the greatest experience. Your car can die, there's black ice on the roads, you have to scrape ice off of vehicles if they're not in a garage, locks freeze, snot flows, lips chap, it takes longer to get ready to go out (coats and hats and such) and such.

As far as temperatures as low as -30, yeah, there's a HUGE difference between that and 15 degrees. I can't even fathom how cold that is. I've only ever experienced temperature below zero a handful of times in my life, and these were temperatures only a degree or two below, and it was so cold that it was literally painful. It felt like every open inch of skin was being stabbed and even the covered portions of skin were frozen and there was simply no way to be remotely comfortable outdoors.

Yeah, what he said!

I find that at this point, my tolerance for cold weather is decreasing every year. Even this year, winter didn't really start around here until mid-January, but within 2 weeks I was already grumbling about how sick I was of it. This week, we are supposed to get another arctic blast that will keep things cold and windy for most of the week, and I am already dreading it.

Next winter, when I am in Arizona, I will look back on all this and laugh

[j33]

Oh, I agree it isn't comfortable, but there are thousands of us whose commute involve a walk of 1/2-3/4 a mile or more to get to work (I know mine does) and it is doable if you bundle up right, but it isn't pleasant, I occasionally find ice on my glasses by the time I get to the train on particularily cold days. And 'tolerate' is the correct word, few enjoy it, but tolerating it is possible.

However, I do agree with accilimation, whenever there is a serious cold snap and then the temperature goes up to around 35-40 degrees, it feels refreshingly warm.

[ElkHunter]

Shortly after high school, I moved up to where I'm at now. Worked in a mine north of town building the mine sight, not doing the mining. It got cold. We had to shut down the job. It was -58. No wind chill. There was no wind, that's what the thermometer read. (wind chill is computed on how the temp feels on bare skin. It's got nothing to do with vehicles and such. Seeings how the neighbors won't let me run around naked anymore, I don't count wind chill)

I went back to my 8x40 trailer and it was cold. The furnace was running wide open. I lit the 4 burners on the stove, turned on the oven and left the door open and after 3 hours, my living room was up to 39 degrees.

I went in and turned on the electric blanket and set it to 10. Normally, I would turn it on about an hour before bed time to take the chill off the sheets. Then turn it off when I crawled in bed. That night, I slept with it on 10 and didn't get overheated. With the 4 burners going and the oven. Wasn't worried about oxygen, the trailer leaked sufficiently so I had plenty of air. haha

Next morning, I jumped out and grabbed my long johns put them on and jumped back in bed to warm up. I jumped out and grabbed my shirt and pants and put them on and jumped back in bed to warm up. Finally, I jumped out to grab my boots. They was froze to the tile. I thought, what the hell am I doing here. I joined the Navy. Spent 18 years in San Diego. I finally got out and where did I move to? YEAH, I'm about a half mile from where I lived back in 1972. haha

I have found that I don't tolerate the cold like I used to. It's not because my body can't take it. It's because I don't have to take it.

[Need_affordable_home]

Good god -58? Did you live in northeast Siberia or in the arctic? You say windchill makes no difference, then whats the point of reporting the windchills? If it was zero with no wind and zero with 30mph wind, I would feel no difference if im fully dressed?