Thursday, January 15, 2009

15 January 2008: Cold

Driving to work today (as it's too cold, snowy and icy to cycle), the car told me it was two degrees outside.

As I drove, it changed its mind and told me it was actually minus five. By the time I got to work (about a five minute drive, depending on traffic lights), the car was getting depressed and told me it was minus six. Then I realised it was talking Farenheit, not Celcius. So we were actually talking minus 21 degrees Celcius.

Rick just came into the office and said the temperature was dropping and it's now eleven below. Farenheit. So that'll be minus twenty-four degrees Celcius then.

Weird thing is, the air is so dry and the sun is out, so it doesn't feel that cold unless the wind gets up. Until you're out there more than a couple of minutes...

Weirder thing (maybe) is this: today marks one year, exactly, since we emigrated. If I'd have known we were heading to -24 country, I might have opted to stay in the British January storms.

Postscript: Forecast for tonight is currently -16F. That's -27C. We're rapidly getting towards the point where F and C cross over each other and F numbers start getting bigger than C numbers again.

5 comments:

wjlanesr said...

You can always come to South Carolina, where the balmy weather will be a warm and pleasant +12 degrees F tonight.
Take care and bundle up!
Jeff and Julie Lane

Anonymous said...

At least it's sunny and dry where you are!

Is it like when you go somewhere very hot: it's extreme temperature but people are prepared for it, so it's ok? I think in the UK we can't deal with anything too hot or cold, everything falls apart immediately :-)

Think it's -40 you have to get to before CELSIUS and Fahrenheit cross over, isn't it? Pretty sure that was on QI the other night ...

P.S. It's now considerably milder here, but has been very windy and rainy instead. Much more typical weather.

DuncMcRae said...

Yes, if i remember correctly from Mr Durrans' maths class in the second year at Ivybridge (back in the days before they started calling it 'Year 8'), -40 is the crossover point.

Temperature on drive to work this morning: -15. Radio said windchill would be around.. ready for it? -40.

Not really dry though: the snow fell a little on Monday and Tuesday and it's so darn cold that even with a full day of direct sunshine, the snow just sits there, not a hint of a melt.

Anonymous said...

Do you know, that even happened here (slightly)? We actually had snow on the ground, even in the middle of town, that just didn't melt at all for a good few days. OK, so it was only an inch or so but still ...

More due this coming week apparently.

P.S. Did you ever receive a Christmas card from us? It was posted somewhat late ...

Anonymous said...

I haven't thought about Mr Durran in ages: thinking back on it, he was probably the best maths teacher I had at ICC. Well, that's only in comparison to Weller, Hac, and Gadd, so hardly stiff opposition.

Did I ever tell you that where I work now is responsible for those Bostock & Chandler A-level maths books we all loved so much?! Some sort of irony that I ended up working on the maths list for two years ...