h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

How cold is it?

Right now, it's zero F/-18C outside the Post Office. The wind is blowing in 35 kph gusts.

The report from a h2g2er in Chicago is that it's -21F with a wind chill factor of -54F.

Basically: it's too cold to be outside. The snow is blowing everywhere. It's...disgusting.

Anybody, including a certain government figure, who makes that tired remark about 'global warming', is going to get an earful.

Lola the Doglet is hunkered down in her padded bed. She ain't movin'. The cats are hogging the grates when they aren't bothering us for entertainment.

If you're not a , we recommend Cmdr Hadfield's Twitter thread on magnetic field variation for entertainment and enlightenment:

https://twitter.com/Cmdr_Hadfield/status/1088942557411782657

Stay warm!

Stay warm indeed...

The temperature here is a comparatively balmy 0C just now, but it is quite the contrast to Christmas Day when the roses were still in bloom and the temperature was 10C...

It's all relative.

Minus eighteen degrees celsius outside the Post Office? Minus twenty one degrees in Chicago?

A bit cold then. How does one deal with temperatures like this? I feel the need to become a polar bear, but this isn't really practical outside the Post Office, or anywhere.

How long is it going to last?

Hopefully only a couple more days. <brr?

"it's SO cold, I saw a brass monkey with a welding rod"


(The story goes that cannonballs used to be stored aboard ship in piles, on a brass frame or tray called a 'monkey'. In very cold weather the brass would contract, spilling the cannonballs: hence very cold weather is 'cold enough to freeze the balls off a brass monkey)

Thanks for that! I didn't know.

cactus--that -21 is F, not C, so... *runs converter* -29C!

Meanwhile, here in sunny Whitleyville, Tennessee, we're at a balmy 20F/-7C No snow, which the girls (including the overgrown one typing) are disappointed about, though there was no school today because of the cold. Yesterday, there was a 2 hour delay in school starting, and then they ended up sending everyone home at 11:30, after serving lunch (I'm glad they served lunch--I'm sure that here, like our old home, there are children for whom school is their main meal source.) If there's a delay or school closure tomorrow, we'll get a call during dinner...

Keep warm! You want to see lots of snow, go up to Boone, North Carolina... We just shovelled some more snow. You can't stay out there very long at a time.

The house is cozy (yay central heat) and we'll light the wood stove in the basement again later--the dogs were relegated to down there a month or so ago, because we got tired of no room in the bed for humans!

Poor dogs.

Hey, I like having blankets covering me at night! We made a nice cave for them to sleep in, lined with mylar (an emergency blanket) and their sleeping surface is one I'd sleep on...

Notepad has been running an experiment today--will a mug full of water freeze if you put it outside? Would've been a more interesting experiment ifshe'd been paying attention to timings (or if we had a thermometer), but she's had fun with it.

Here's the experiment everyone was doing in Pittsburgh today:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fS7g8OgZBzg

They even did it over at the plantarium.

I've seen that done in Siberia, Dmitri, must be bad if it works in Pittsburgh!

Over here, it's so cold I had to cover myself with a thin blanket when I slept last night! Today it was better, a nice and sunny day and I visited the University of Limpopo Botanic gardens. We had heavy rains later the day.

Good! The sun is shining here, too - but it's not doing much good. We are promised warmer weather for Saturday - Groundhog Day.

keep warm everyone

Here it's not bad at the moment, the ground is frozen and we got temperatures around 0°C, sometimes rising up to 5 or so.

Good for you. Wrap up! We're hoping to see 5C by Sunday.

The cold spell!

Whoopee! They can't blame THIS one on El Nino

I've no idea how hot or cold it is here... the temp is apparently below 0 C outside, but, after showering, I had to turn the heating off in the bedroom, open all the windows wide, to stop myself overheating... But my body thermostat is just kapoot. hence I'm currently bare-legged and wearing a summer light dress, to try stay cool, whilst the heating is on full, to stop the house actually freezing