How well do you tolerate cold? How cold is too cold? (house, the best) - Other Topics - City-Data Forum

Need_affordable_home · 02-01-2007, 10:35 PM

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?

http://www.srh.weather.gov/srh/jetstream/global/chill_large.htm (broken link)

dullnboring · 02-01-2007, 10:52 PM

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.

BabyBoomers2 · 02-02-2007, 04:19 AM

As soon as we can sell our house here in Parker, 28 miles south of Denver,......we are OUTTA HERE, PERIOD!! We were both raised in "snow/cold belts" of Detroit, Michigan and outside Ft. Wayne, Indiana, but ENOUGH IS ENOUGH for us. We are heading to Charlotte, NC. With my hip replacement and an upcoming shoulder surgery (due to a fall in snow/ice this past Dec.), we just can no long handle the winters here. We are in our late 50's and too many days of snow and cold just affects our health to much. While we were having our December "Holiday Blizzard" (as the news called it), it was in the high 60's in the Charlotte area.

bmurphy · 02-02-2007, 04:29 AM

Wind is the worst.

If it's 30f with no wind, it's pretty okay.

20f with no wind a little worse, but not terrible.

10f with no wind is pretty biting no matter what.

Add ANY kind of wind and you're miserable. That's why nobody would live in Antarctica - it's way too cold. Don't go giving me "but it's not -100f". It doesn't matter! People are uncomfortable in 20f, let alone -10.

BTW, the climate you're describing is kind of a paradox. You can't have snow without dropping below freezing. If you want that kind of climate though, the states you picked so far don't seem right. The Carolinas would be the best pick for that sort of climate: little but some snow, generally above freezing etc. Of course not the mountainous areas.

Need_affordable_home · 02-02-2007, 05:19 AM

Good posts. Its supprising how much a difference windchill makes! At 10 degrees and just 6mph wind chills to zero! 12mph and its -5 windchill! The first 10mph of wind makes a big difference but the difference shrinks rapidly as the wind gets stronger. I am supprised by some examples, at -20 and 2mph wind it feels like -26! Also the lower the temp, the more the windchill will further lower it. At 30 degrees, windchill doesnt do very much but at -20 even a breeze can make it feel so much colder!

Im thinking ill put the cut off at zone 7a with an annual average minimum of zero. This would rule out Des Moines which is zone 6a. It would also rule out several additional states. I have never experienced cold below 35-40 degrees as thats about as cold as it gets here in south FL. This kind of cold is easily tolerable with a thin jacket and long sleeve shirt/pants. I will need to visit a northern state in the winter to get a taste for cold.

I dont tolerate heat well so Texas, Arizona and New Mexico are off the list, they get over 100 in the summer. Ive been to Las Vegas in the summer and it was brutal. Yes its a dry heat but still brutal! Im thinking the best is the mid latitude states, NC would be a good example.

poprocksncoke · 02-02-2007, 06:47 AM

I do NOT tolerate cold well. I get that from my mom.
It is like 20 outside right now.. I don't know what the windchill is.. but let me tell you.. its cold.

How do I tolerate it? With HEAT!!!! My apartment is about 73 degrees inside, I have fleece throws, and at work I have a space heater right under my desk set to 80.

Ahh, I am like a toasted marshmellow. Cept without all that golden crust on the outside.. just the warm part.

I LOVE PA! · 02-02-2007, 07:46 AM

I can say that I efinitely beleive that you acclamate to your environment somewhat. When I moved from NY to the mountains of PA, we would bundle up like you can't believe! The kids would wear sweaters and coats, real warm coats, hats. gloves and scarfs. Now, when it is 20 degrees out, I'm lucky if I can get them to remember to grab a coat if it is just a car ride. Most of the time they just wear heavy sweatshirts or hoodies. On the other hand, when we go to Florida in the summer, it literally makes us sick, we cannot function. Also, we keep out house at 60 degrees, and it feels warm, when I have folks come to visit and have to turn the heat up, we are roasting!

MoMark · 02-02-2007, 08:57 AM

Windchill is probably one of the major factors as everyone has mentioned. You can be thoroughly frozen at 50F with high enough wind too. Think of walking in San Francisco during the summer fogs... you freeze your ass off.
But truly cold temperatures below freezing with wind can be dangerous and you have to layer to prepare. Hoodies/sweatshirts with hoods....everyone wears those in this part of Missouri and layer over it as needed.
Most of us don't stay out in it too long. You go from your garage to wherever you're going, if you go shopping, it's from your heated car briefly across a parking lot to the warm store, etc.
For me it's when I have to be out in it for a long period doing necessary yard work that it's awful.
From inside the house... I don't care!
I've been in -37F in Bemidji, Minnesota when my dad lived there. I hated it. You can't do anything. I've lived in Chicago and walked around at -4F... too cold for me.
Above zero, preferably at least above 10F I can tolerate for a short time outside. If there's no wind, you can tolerate a lot, but you still have to be careful because it's insidious then...you get cold but don't realize it all the time until you're truly frozen.

poprocksncoke · 02-02-2007, 09:00 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MoMark

Windchill is probably one of the major factors as everyone has mentioned. You can be thoroughly frozen at 50F with high enough wind too. Think of walking in San Francisco during the summer fogs... you freeze your ass off.
But truly cold temperatures below freezing with wind can be dangerous and you have to layer to prepare. Hoodies/sweatshirts with hoods....everyone wears those in this part of Missouri and layer over it as needed.
Most of us don't stay out in it too long. You go from your garage to wherever you're going, if you go shopping, it's from your heated car briefly across a parking lot to the warm store, etc.
For me it's when I have to be out in it for a long period doing necessary yard work that it's awful.
From inside the house... I don't care!
I've been in -37F in Bemidji, Minnesota when my dad lived there. I hated it. You can't do anything. I've lived in Chicago and walked around at -4F... too cold for me.
Above zero, preferably at least above 10F I can tolerate for a short time outside. If there's no wind, you can tolerate a lot, but you still have to be careful because it's insidious then...you get cold but don't realize it all the time until you're truly frozen.

It gets alot colder down in the Ozark valleys than we see here in stl.
I am bundled up sitting on our dock at the Ozarks in September!!! That wind coming up off the lake.. that's no joke!!

j33 · 02-02-2007, 09:03 AM

I think I tolerate it pretty well and am okay being outside without being too miserable in temps above 20F if there is no wind. But there is a point at which it doesn't matter what you do, or how much clothing you wear, you'll be miserable.

The coldest I've ever been in my life was waiting for a train on an exposed 'el' platform at 10pm at night in 1994 when the ambient temperature outside was something like -20F (that was a miserable year, there were quite a few cold related deaths, schools closed due to cold, and that never happens, and my pipes, despite being insulated, froze along the outside of my 3-flat and I had to bathe in my kitchen sink for a week).