Even Hawaii..?

[Highmac]

BBC radio news report yesterday referred to "all 50 of the US states" being affected by the Arctic weather.

Now since I understood Hawaii was the 50th state my first reaction was they'd got it wrong. No, I'd got it wrong and even Hawaii has been hit by the big freeze.

Our TV is reporting how North America is battling through the terrible conditions and we keep you all in our thoughts.

Keep warm, keep safe

[jchuzi]

The arctic cold is finally breaking, and I must say that the temperatures have been brutal. The other day, I woke up to -9 F and it didn't get much beyond +5 during the day. The wind chill made it much worse. Last week, we had a snowstorm and I was outside using the snow thrower for about an hour when I had to come inside because I couldn't feel my fingers. No frostbite occurred, but it took awhile to warm them.

The local expression for this is "brass monkey weather". We last had temperatures this bad (actually, even worse, down to -25 F) about 20 years go. I generally don't mind winter but I'm definitely not going to move to Winnipeg or similar environs!

[Highmac]

Not all that local... we use that phrase over here, but this year we've had a remarkably mild winter so far. We had roses blooming in December, which is plain weird. If it would stop raining for a little while I'd have to go out and get weeds out of the path

[gunug]

We had "freezing drizzle" this morning.  It was okay to scrape off the car windows but I had to run the defrost full on just to keep the windshield clear all the way to work (30+ miles).

My sister-in-law and her kids (all in their 20's) were stranded in NYC when they were trying to come back from seeing the ball drop.  They were stuck at a Hampton Inn near the airport for 3 days; they only got back to KC last night!

[jwboyd]

A newsman on radio years ago was giving a weather report. He got his tang all tungled up and referred to it as "dreezing frizzle."

[Xairbusdriver]

The danger is that so many of us seldom ever see these kinds of temps and don't really know how to handle them. That leads to stupid things like walking on a frozen lake when the ice really isn't thick enough. We had one die just yesterday. He'd probably never seen that lake with a complete covering of ice. But it also leads to kids simply adding an extra layer of socks or a scarf and thinking their prepared for an hour in the wind that literally sucks out the bodies heat and freezes their exposed skin. The thought that their car might stall, quit or get hit never occurs to people who don't take these extreme temps and winds seriously. "Aw, Dad!..." Of course, most teenagers are invincible...

But I'm sure our northern neighbors had no ill intent when they sent part their Winter down... well, I'm sorta sure... Different countries have different 'weapons!'

[gunug]

Niagara Falls is always popular as a target for "this is how cold it is" stories:



The falls apparently isn't fully frozen and hasn't been within recorded history:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/style-...t-frozen-solid/

http://www.snopes.com/photos/natural/niagarafalls.asp

[gunug]

Closer to home the pipes in a newly renovated building that houses one of my classrooms froze and the ceiling collapsed; as usual the security
camera got it in the process:

http://cjonline.com/news/2014-01-09/arctic...pine-ridge-prep

What looks like snow is the blown in insulation!

[jchuzi]

For an even wider view, see North America's big freeze seen from space
.

[krissel]

Did anyone look at the calendar?    

Surprise, it's winter!  

Yes, it's been cold but at least it is not a long spell and I kept thinking of how the people must have endured back in the 18th and 19th centuries before central heating and indoor plumbing.  We have it easy.  

To put the "vortex" in perspective:

[attachment=2950:East_Coa...Jan_2014.jpg]

Now, if you look really closely (zoom in) you will see...

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.

.

[Xairbusdriver]

How did you get that NSA map of your relatives locations! I knew they had huge databases but I had no idea they were creating maps with it!!! You can run, but you can 't hide!