Keeping out riff raff...

Here is our balmy forecast for the next day or so. Seems the ol thermometer was not so far off. I guess places up north hit -50 below and colder which makes me kind of wish I had 3 inches of wool on me. Either way we are not letting it stop us, we are headed out on snowmobiles today for a nice day of riding.

Overnight: Mostly cloudy, with a low around -45. Calm wind.

Saturday: Mostly sunny and cold, with a high near -2. Wind chill values as low as -37. Calm wind becoming west around 6 mph.

Saturday Night: A slight chance of light snow after 2am. Mostly cloudy, with a low around -21. Wind chill values as low as -35. East wind between 3 and 5 mph. Chance of precipitation is 20%.

Sunday: Snow likely, mainly after 4pm. Cloudy and cold, with a high near 9. Wind chill values as low as -36. East wind between 7 and 10 mph. Chance of precipitation is 60%.

Sunday Night: Snow likely, mainly before 3am. Cloudy, with a low around 6. East wind between 3 and 9 mph. Chance of precipitation is 60%.

M.L.King Day: A chance of snow. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 16. Chance of precipitation is 50%.

Monday Night: A chance of snow. Cloudy, with a low around 10. Chance of precipitation is 50%.

Travis Johnson said:

Sunday: Snow likely, mainly after 4pm. Cloudy and cold, with a high near 9. Wind chill values as low as -36. East wind between 7 and 10 mph. Chance of precipitation is 60%.

Sunday Night: Snow likely, mainly before 3am. Cloudy, with a low around 6. East wind between 3 and 9 mph. Chance of precipitation is 60%.

M.L.King Day: A chance of snow. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 16. Chance of precipitation is 50%.

Monday Night: A chance of snow. Cloudy, with a low around 10. Chance of precipitation is 50%.

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Goodness, Travis, sounds like you folks are going to experience a heat wave!! Keep warm!!!!

So, Travis, is the sled out and running yet?

Travis:

I was going to buy a wireless therometer for my Daughter in the Colorado mountains.

I found out batteries that work much below -30 are difficult to find.

Are you using wireless?

Your thoughts?

Jim DeLaney said:

So, Travis, is the sled out and running yet?

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Yes. Despite the temps we went out yesterday and while it took a boost to get my sled running (battery was dead for some reason) we hit the trail at 11 Am and got home at 20 PM. Only 125 miles but it was a chilly ride so we kept the ride short. (11 am=10º and 20 PM=-18º)

Surprisingly my brother and best friend's sleds had problems with...of all things...overheating. A snowmobile uses the snow flying around the track to land on heat exchangers to cool the engine. Since the snow was so cold, it was like driving on ice the entire way. With no flying snow hitting the heat exchangers...the engine coolant got hot and overheated the sled to the point where it was boiling over. Fortunately the remedy is easy, when you see some fresh snow off the packed trail drive through it and get that powdery snow churning onto the heat exchangers and your sled runs cooler again.

All and all it was a good ride.

Pete Simmons said:

Travis:

I was going to buy a wireless therometer for my Daughter in the Colorado mountains.

I found out batteries that work much below -30 are difficult to find.

Are you using wireless?

Your thoughts?

Click to expand...

Yes it is and I wondered about this myself. A few towns away from me the official temp from the National Weather Service was only -31º F, while I was reading -45º F. That would take into account a weakened battery. But just North of me a town had an NWS official record of -50º so since I lie in between the two it would shake out as being correct.

Now when temps get this cold, there is never any wind so I think the air temp is constantly in flux since there is little air movement to mix it up so to speak. I think its entirely possible to have varied readings only a few miles apart because of topography, tree coverage, swamps (they always put out heat from decaying vegetation) etc. Its called micro-climate and I think in this case you have a lot of that.

Was my temp -31º F or -45º F? I really don't know, but I suspect the temp was pretty close to what it said. I will say that soft water here got hard pretty quick at these temps, but if you would like to come join me up here and calibrate my thermometer more accurately, you are more then welcome to!

Batteries

Not questioning the calibration.

Just wondering about batteries at those temps.

I am amazed it works at all.

Same for the snowmobile. It uses a lead acid battery---correct??

Again amazed it works at those extreme low temps.

Pete Simmons said:

Not questioning the calibration.

Just wondering about batteries at those temps.

I am amazed it works at all.

Same for the snowmobile. It uses a lead acid battery---correct??

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No, the snowmobile uses a NicCad battery of some sort I or maybe a variation thereof. I know its a high tec battery because it needs to be small and light to reduce weight, but still have cranking amps. Most sleds have back-up pull cords, but mine is a 1000 cc 4 stroke, so there is just no physical way a person could pull it over anyway so without a battery I'm dead in the water (or frozen snow as it is).

If it all seems silly for a simple machine that goes over snow, keep in mind that compared to my comuter car; a Ford Focus, my sled goes faster, has more horsepower, and assuming both were new, my snowmobile would cost more money to boot.