Colder than a witches broomstick

Rennie Heuer

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Staff member
Messages
11,607
Location
Constantine, MI
Expecting blizzard conditions here at the end of the week. About 6" total, lows in the single digits, 50 mph gusts, and wind chills to -20.

Oh, and the heater in my shop stopped working.

Repairman should be here tomorrow.

It begins on Friday and goes through Saturday.

Friday​

25°Hi
RealFeel® -1°
Bitterly Cold
RealFeel Shade™ -1°
Bitterly Cold
12/23
Blizzard; strong winds and hazardous weather can lead to travel disruptions
Max UV Index0 Low
WindSW 29 mph
Wind Gusts51 mph
Probability of Precipitation98%
Probability of Thunderstorms1%
Precipitation0.18 in
Snow3.0 in
Hours of Precipitation12
Cloud Cover100%

FRI12/23​

25° /9°
Blizzard
98%

SAT12/24​

16° /12°
A little snow at times
55%

SUN12/25​

17° /4°
Cloudy, a snow shower; frigid
55%

MON12/26​

20° /13°
Cloudy, flurries; frigid
49%
 
About the same here.
Gonna be a 'fun' holiday for the travelers, for sure.
Cold dry snow, 30 mph winds with gusts to 50 - It may be Sunday or Monday till I can use the snow blower since the prevailing winds blow over the drive and towards the house. Either the snow goes where I don't want it or in my face - not that I want it there either.
 
if you are going to send out the witches, well diggers, and brass monkey warnings, do it right.... :rofl: (and its not her broomstick that is cold...)
View attachment 123169
You cannot complain if you have chosen to live above the arctic circle. And, yes, I know what part of the witch is cold. My first wife was a founding member. :rofl::rofl::rofl:
 
It’s all relative.

My son in Alberta sent me this earlier today.

Alerts for: Whitecourt - Edson - Fox Creek - Swan Hills​

Warnings​

3:29 PM MST Monday 19 December 2022
Extreme Cold Warning in effect for:
  • M.D. of Big Lakes near Swan Hills
  • M.D. of Greenview near Fox Creek
  • Woodlands Co. near Benbow and Windfall
  • Woodlands Co. near Carson-Pegasus Prov. Park
  • Woodlands Co. near Goose Lake
  • Woodlands Co. near Whitecourt and Blue Ridge
  • Yellowhead Co. near Edson and Sundance Prov. Park
  • Yellowhead Co. near Peers and Niton Junction
Extremely cold wind chill values of minus 40 or colder will continue tonight.

These extremely cold wind chills will continue through the week, especially in the overnight and early morning hours.

A warming trend is expected by the weekend.
Extreme cold puts everyone at risk.

Risks are greater for young children, older adults, people with chronic illnesses, people working or exercising outdoors, and those without proper shelter.

Watch for cold related symptoms: shortness of breath, chest pain, muscle pain and weakness, numbness and colour change in fingers and toes.

If it's too cold for you to stay outside, it's too cold for your pet to stay outside.

Extreme cold warnings are issued when very cold temperatures or wind chill creates an elevated risk to health such as frost bite and hypothermia.

Please continue to monitor alerts and forecasts issued by Environment Canada.
 
Extremely cold wind chill values of minus 40 or colder will continue tonight.

Ah, just like my childhood (before windchill haha)! That's one part I sure don't miss.

At least we were in the dry inland NW, alberta isn't that much different I suppose, not like it would be if it landed in the maritimes (yikes). When I lived for a year outside of Calgary I remember it was -35F one day and the next it was 70F when a chinook wind came over the Rockies.
 
Ah, just like my childhood (before windchill haha)! That's one part I sure don't miss.

At least we were in the dry inland NW, alberta isn't that much different I suppose, not like it would be if it landed in the maritimes (yikes). When I lived for a year outside of Calgary I remember it was -35F one day and the next it was 70F when a chinook wind came over the Rockies.
That kind of cold here would be a disaster. We had one night last January when it touched -29 on the Valley floor, which took out 80% of the stone fruit. They are not major economic crops, but we missed their tree-ripened goodness this fall.
We typically get a couple of weeks of -20C night temperatures and everyone thinks it’s the end of civilization. But, the dampness really cuts through and sends many western visitors running for the wood stove😀
 
We had one night last January when it touched -29 on the Valley floor, which took out 80% of the stone fruit.

Ah man, that's sad and it takes so long to get the orchards built back up again too.

We had a not even that hard of a freeze here 5 or 6 years ago that killed off a lot of cherries. It happened while the sap was still fully up and the weird thing is the trees all leaved out in the spring from the residual sap once they thawed and then promptly died because the delivery system in the bark had ruptured. Zombie cherry trees basically. A nice slow cool down so the plants can push up some sugar and pull down their moisture content and they'll do surprisingly well (just ask my covered in ice and snow cabbages hehe).

My grandpa's place regularily hit -35F and we were able to keep some stone fruit going. The trick was exploiting nano climates aggressively. The main orchard was in a bit of a hollow with a cold drain out the bottom to the river maybe 400' of elevation below. That kept the wind off of them and the cold was kind of blocked on the sides. The top of the gulley was probably 10F-20F warmer than the bottom on really cold days and the whole thing was quite a bit warmer than the surroundings. Dark cherries never did very well, we managed to keep one alive on the top side with western exposed slope but it was always dicey. The pie cherries did pretty well. The peach plums managed to make it on the warm slope alongside the

We had a row of blue plums up below the main house, it was a smidge protected by some trees but pretty open, I guess they're pretty dang tough as these things go.

We had an apricot that grew alongside the main old log house. It eventually froze back one year at around -45F. My theory is that that was after they'd moved out of that house into the new well insulated one so it just didn't have the 12 cords of wood leaking heat through those old gappy walls to keep it warm anymore :ROFLMAO: Was sad to see it go as it was one of the sweet pit apricots (kind of like a bitter almond.. not entirely cyanide free but sweet enough to add a little "punch" to your apricot and cherry jam😁).

Choke cherries and interestingly a "wild" chokecherry/pie cherry cross grew all over even in pretty exposed areas and while not really a stone fruit the Saskatoons did well wild in small hollows (they're really seedy but if you can them first that softens the seeds and make a pie not altogether unlike blueberry).

Peaches were never an option alas. I don't know how old I was when I first had those, probably early pre-teens when we went to the Okanogan (they have ALL the stone fruits there).
 
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