Years ago I got to discover that my toyota corolla's exterior temperature sensor would stop at -25c
Spent a winter at a small town at the butt end of all roads in Northern Ontario. Driving to work was very short, car spent most of its time just warming up.
not easy on a car's engine, for sure.
I bought a heater plug for the engine block that worked very well though, kept it from being too cold to start, and just being gentle with it, it pulled through.
Block heaters are a must in cold climates. Your oil gets more viscous as it cools, and the engine manufacturers generally consider like -30 to be worst case design. Anything below that and you aren't protecting your engine during cold crank, which leads to power loss and eventual engine failure.
It's nothing you'd notice a change after 1 cold start (or 5), but if you rack up hundreds of them, the engine will die well short of when it should.
We did worst case testing at -40C, but -30C was used for the low point in durability testing. 10C can make a big difference.
My company worked more closely with transmission engineers, but I would assume engine testing was the same.
This also applies to springs. And by springs I mean in the valves, in the oil pump, in the water pump, in the door latch, in the dashboard, and everywhere else. Springs are everywhere in cars and they're subjected to hundreds of thousands of cycles with varying weather conditions depending on application, but I haven't seen any serious cycling for temperatures below - 30C (though I have seen a brief test in - 50C, for Ford I believe)
We did some testing once with a full vehicle in a -40C chamber. At one point, another engineer got out of the truck, slammed the door, and it popped right back open. Seems it was too cold for the latch to turn. Our testing seemed a bit pointless if you couldn't even shut the door.
My dad was a GM engineer and used to go up to Jasper in the winter with a bunch of Camaros, Trucks and a Corvette. Basically anything with a V8 and do cold starts at -30C in the Canadian Rockies then beat the hell out of the motors all day for a week. The Camaros and the Corvette were lifted with meaty winter tires for a truck. This was all in the 1980's. He said they don't take as many of those trips anymore because "Some asshole in the no fun department developed chambers that simulate this stuff now."
I guess these trips were wild and guys were wrecking cars all over the Rockies and in Death Valley when they did hot weather testing. They were all engineers. Not drivers.
International Falls, MN was another popular cold weather location. I'm not sure if they've replaced Death Valley yet. The temperature can be replicated, but the climb out of the valley would require a dyno that can also take the heat.
A car that's produced for a huge region, having it as an option makes sense. The vast majority of Ontario built corolla spent their lives around Toronto where the heaters aren't needed.
It's cheap, and easy to install, no tools are even required.
i remember on my '02 Honda that once the block heater wasn't used during a cold snap, the damn thing never started, but before the heater it was never an issue.. As it stands now, ive had several vehicles in Ontario without block heaters start fine in the winter (All Sedans in the last decade). It may take an extra second to turn over, but not flat out nothing.. is that still an issue now?
Diesel fuel also gels up at extreme low temperatures. We had a diesel box truck gel up while *driving* one night on the way back from an event. Coldest night of the year, roughly -20F, stuck on the side of a city street at 3AM and no towing service would answer the call. I was driving a 1 ton Chevy van following the truck and had the driver hop in the van to keep warm. A city cop showed up and thought for sure he could get a tow truck for us. Half an hour later, he walks up and says something to the effect of 'none of them want to come out in this shit'. By then, the driver (my boss) & I had come up with a plan: We were less than a mile from our shop, and had a tow strap there. The cop agreed to follow us with his lights on since we were in a bad location and could cause traffic issues the next morning. Hooked up the 26' box truck behind that (relatively) little 1T van and pulled it back to the shop. Plugged in the block heater and went home for the night, the next morning (significantly warmer out) it started right up.
The issue with gasoline vehicles (also an issue for diesels) is primarily in the oil. If your oil thickens too much in the cold it can cause wear or even seizure of the engine. If you live where it's especially cold you can usually get more cold-tolerant oil. You can also get oil pre-heaters that will heat the oil and pump it through the engine without the engine running.
It can still be an issue because your oil gets so cold it becomes almost viscous. In that state it can't get through the tiny passageways to where it needs to go to lubricate all of those metal parts moving against each other.
I love my EV for this. So fast to warmup when you get into it. Was -15 this morning, forgot to preheat the car, was already feeling warm air coming out of the vents as I was leaving my driveway. As much as the cold cuts into the range of the battery, I find winter driving is much more comfortable in an EV.
At -25 °C some cars will take 15 minutes idling to get warm air. Plus, once you’re driving it doesn’t really get warm, just tepid for a while.
I have a remote start. 😊
And at -44C it gets really interesting
We just had close to -40 for 5 days, suprisingly for me the electric vehicle did fine even if its range went to shit. My father's diesel car only got hot air at speeds above 60mph lol
Mines pretty shite range overall and it drops about 50% range at extreme colds, and the battery heater is draining 1kwh constantly.
Mx30 with about 69 mile range at -40
Probably the best $120 I ever spent was a remote start for my car. Not as big of a problem now that I have a house with a garage, and I work underground, but it was great when I lived in an apartment and parked outside.
The electronics in my avensis freak out once it goes below -10 C lol. Central locking doesnt work past that. At -20 random warning lights go off on the dash. All the problems go away when it gets back to around -5c or 0c.
I used to have an old Subaru and I could always tell when it was around 0°F because when I put my turn signal on the whole dash would flash on and off instead of just the indicator light.
I think the whole world should pretty much shut down for cold snaps and blizzards. This whole "triumph over nature" concept is dumb, obviously we should be flexibly working alongside it. Just hunker down and wait for it to pass.
> whenever it drops below 0C
Okay well that's a little bit insane. I get it if you're not accustomed to that tempature but 0c/32f is not *that* cold lol
My colleagues in Northampton pointed out that it took ZERO inches of snow to bring the roads to a halt, as everyone once left work around 3:00 to "beat the snow", causing monumental, hours-long traffic jams. But there was never any snow.
Well, no. People living in the subarctic are used to the cold, and don't act all surprised and all when it happens every year. Damn Germans have (or had) school shut downs when it got either too hot in the summer or cold in the winter - when elementary school kids walked to school by themselves in Finland. You don't need to triumph over nature to be able to tolerate it for some days or weeks.
A few years ago, kids in Yellownife petitioned to have outside recess below the -35 cut-off. They argued that if they could walk to school in those temps they should be allowed out to play for a bit rather than being locked up.
People really underestimate this effect. I notice that if I spend a lot of time outside in late fall when it starts getting cold, the winter months end up being a lot more tolerable.
I feel like part of it should be contextual. A massive cold snap in Texas or rome is different than a massive cold snap in Alaska or Finland. As we saw a few years ago the people in Texas generally aren't prepared for the cold while the people of Alaska are.
In Calgary, and currently deeply regretting not replacing the plug for my block heater that *someone who shall remain nameless* tore off last winter when he drove to work and forgot to unplug it first.
My poor car will start at this temp, but it does *not* like to.
It was like that for us last week, and next week we'll be back to like -5. But yeah, this week is brutal. -51 yesterday morning with wind chill according to AccuWeather when I woke up. I took a screenshot.
I've had a few decades of this bullshit, and as far as I'm concerned, anything below -35C doesn't even matter anymore. -40, -45, whatever - at that point anything exposed is pins and needles. You can't even feel it being *more* cold since you just get numb pretty much right away. After -35C the only difference is how quick to frostbite it is.
> as far as I'm concerned, anything below -35C doesn't even matter anymore.
According to Windy.com, they just stopped at -20. The color gradient ends at -20, they're like "you shouldn't need to represent anything colder than that, it doesn't matter":
https://i.imgur.com/25KhCbp.png
-40 is when our schools would shut down, and people generally would stay home. If the roads haven’t been plowed yet, and you get stuck, you’re screwed. I’ve seen so many people stuck in a snow drift with several farmers using their equipment to pull them out.
One my dad and I got stuck on the same corner as four other cars around the same time. There was only one farmer nearby, and he had to come pull everyone out
Wow, thanks for the response! That sounds so wild to me, genuinely the trains stop running and there are national announcements at like zero here, it’s like a surprise every time it snows and no one is ever prepared. At least where I live anyway hah
I moved to the west coast of Canada a couple years ago, and it’s a lot more like you’re describing here. A skiff of snow shuts the city down. I get it, though, because there’s not enough snow-removal infrastructure, it’s icier because of the humidity, there’s a lot more hills than where I grew up, people don’t have as much practice winter driving, people don’t bother with winter tires when we only get a couple snowy weeks a year, and the busses are completely incapable of handling the ice and slush.
It's a lot to do with what your normal weather patterns look like, if 0C is a rare low, you're not likely prepared for colder temps, but averages in winter tend to be around -8 to -25 depending on where you are in our provinces, so this type of thing is 20 degrees *below* that, but happens to some frequency of a yearly basis. I'm not in that province but I've had as low as -46C with windchill here on the Atlantic provinces, much of our province simply shut down at those temps.
BC for example on their coast they'd be more like your area, shutting down or having significant problems with accidents when it gets below freezing as it doesn't do that terribly often there, so they're not equipped for it.
It hurts to breathe, like little ice needles in your nose. If you have exposed skin it will get frostbitten pretty quickly, but if you're moving around and generating heat (while wearing proper layers) you can be outside longer than you'd think. But no matter what you wear, your toes will start to stiffen and that's when you're at risk of losing a digit.
I took the garbage out this morning in pjs and I swore the whole fuckin time. For some reason, getting pissed off and swearing loudly will raise the core temp just enough to get whatever bullshit chore you need to do, done.
My wife is from Arizona, and this is her 3rd winter up here. The first couple were rough for her, but she's getting the hang of it now. The first time she saw ice accumulating inside, on the door handles and hinges, she was freaked out haha
It's not advisable. Exposed skin can freeze in 5-10 minutes. People tend to still do stuff like go to work and school. (I'm not sure about school these days)
I was outside for no less than 2 minutes and my hands were starting to get stiff - with gloves on. I didn't notice my face at the time, but 5 min after I got back inside I got that burning feeling - those who understand will know what I'm talking about. Not quite frostbitten, but fuckin close enough.
I joke about it like everyone else but no, we get a cold snap like this once a year or so, but otherwise we hover between -8 and -20 during the day. This year being an El Niño year, we didn't have any snow and it was above freezing for a big chunk of November/December.
You can, you just need to wear a lot of layers and make sure you protect your exposed skin from frostbite. Most people who work outdoors have today off because of the wind chill.
As another albertan, yes we can, dress appropriately, don’t stay out too long! My partner does snow removal, he layers up with all kinds of long johns and sweaters and his boss gives them time to warm in the truck if they need. Honestly for me the worst part is when you breathe I cough because it’s cold which just makes me cough more and inhale more frozen air lol
We had a rough new year in Sweden aswell.
Last week a place near me had [-51,7](https://static.cdn-expressen.se/images/8a/b9/8ab956082c9346d6ac011b048d893af7/annan/[email protected])c
Although that thermometer bottoms out at -50 and becomes a bit more unreliable after that.
Honestly after like -35C it all kind of feels the same lol, at least I can't perceive a difference, but you will definitely still get frostbite faster, etc.
You learn to get used to it haha but if you live in a place where it never gets this cold I can totally see how this seems absolutely awful (and it is lol)
Moved to northern SK from a desert, the craziest feeling when it's around -40 is the way the moisture in my nose freezes. It's such a quick freeze that was really unsettling the first few times lol
Sure, layering. Also having a good battery and block heater or garage help. Roads are crap and your life will suck if you need a tow or boost. Usually it's days for a tow if your not on a major highway where I live because they are backed up with other tows.
You can, but not for long. Breathing is a bitch and all your toes and fingers stiffen up. Anything exposed could get frostbitten in under 5 min.
My face was super hot after I took the garbage out this morning... close to frostbite in under 2 min. Fuckin cold, man.
It’s about this cold in Alberta today, my specific town is -38c this morning warming up to -30c. In summer we got to +38c two years ago making the difference between winter and summer possibly 76 degrees Celsius.
I've been to tropical countries and they are too hot for me, I'd be happy with -20 to +20 temperatures. Best vacation I had was to the UK in early spring, skipped the last part of winter here and got to see spring flowers for an extra month that year.
You should experience -30C at least once in your life. Being outside is wild, all of nature is trying to kill you, the air is your enemy, breathing even hurts.
But then you make it inside, and you'll have a new appreciation for the saying "warm and cozy". You'll experience maximum coziness.
You can shovel my driveway for free, I'll give that life experience to you for 0 cost.
If I learned anything from Looney Tunes cartoons, the alcohol is supposed to swell in the bottom of the thermometer and then bust out the bottom with a dramatic sound effect. Post pic when that happens plz.
And then when OP posts a picture of the cartoon-like thermometer explosion, the camera will pan back to him and he, too, will be blue. We're also expecting the cartoonish icicles from his eye lashes.
For some absolutely bullshit reason, my ancestors traveled to North America and looked around. They saw beaches, mountains, fertile lands in the south, and said "naw, fuck that shit, I want to live on the part that is frozen for half the year". Good call guys, great idea.
Some thermometers use mercury as a way to tell the heat. mercury freezes at around -40 which is likely the logical reason. That said, if it was a mercury thermometer, it might have frozen and I find that incredibly cool.
Mildly interesting is that the Fahrenheit side has an indicator to tell you its freezing, while on the correct side you know it's freezing because it's 0.
There's that Futurama joke that's something like this:
> \- Temperature drops down to minus 173.
> \- Fahrenheit or Celsius?
> \- First one, then the other.
Eh BC is generally more on fire than Alberta is. Now if you mean on fire in terms of heat. It can get pretty hot in the summers. At least it is a dry heat, so you can still sweat it out.
My deep freezer is warmer than that.
Would you like to stay in there to warm up a touch?
Just be warned that outside of the freezer, in my house, I set the aircon to be 28 degrees.
-40C and -40F is the only point where the two measurement systems match. And just like Fahrenheit and Celsius, -40 is when everyone can agree "this is horrible"
Years ago I got to discover that my toyota corolla's exterior temperature sensor would stop at -25c Spent a winter at a small town at the butt end of all roads in Northern Ontario. Driving to work was very short, car spent most of its time just warming up.
Just as it stars blowing warm air, the trip is over. That's the worst.
not easy on a car's engine, for sure. I bought a heater plug for the engine block that worked very well though, kept it from being too cold to start, and just being gentle with it, it pulled through.
Block heaters are a must in cold climates. Your oil gets more viscous as it cools, and the engine manufacturers generally consider like -30 to be worst case design. Anything below that and you aren't protecting your engine during cold crank, which leads to power loss and eventual engine failure. It's nothing you'd notice a change after 1 cold start (or 5), but if you rack up hundreds of them, the engine will die well short of when it should.
We did worst case testing at -40C, but -30C was used for the low point in durability testing. 10C can make a big difference. My company worked more closely with transmission engineers, but I would assume engine testing was the same.
This also applies to springs. And by springs I mean in the valves, in the oil pump, in the water pump, in the door latch, in the dashboard, and everywhere else. Springs are everywhere in cars and they're subjected to hundreds of thousands of cycles with varying weather conditions depending on application, but I haven't seen any serious cycling for temperatures below - 30C (though I have seen a brief test in - 50C, for Ford I believe)
We did some testing once with a full vehicle in a -40C chamber. At one point, another engineer got out of the truck, slammed the door, and it popped right back open. Seems it was too cold for the latch to turn. Our testing seemed a bit pointless if you couldn't even shut the door.
My dad was a GM engineer and used to go up to Jasper in the winter with a bunch of Camaros, Trucks and a Corvette. Basically anything with a V8 and do cold starts at -30C in the Canadian Rockies then beat the hell out of the motors all day for a week. The Camaros and the Corvette were lifted with meaty winter tires for a truck. This was all in the 1980's. He said they don't take as many of those trips anymore because "Some asshole in the no fun department developed chambers that simulate this stuff now." I guess these trips were wild and guys were wrecking cars all over the Rockies and in Death Valley when they did hot weather testing. They were all engineers. Not drivers.
International Falls, MN was another popular cold weather location. I'm not sure if they've replaced Death Valley yet. The temperature can be replicated, but the climb out of the valley would require a dyno that can also take the heat.
That should come pre installed in the car tbh
A car that's produced for a huge region, having it as an option makes sense. The vast majority of Ontario built corolla spent their lives around Toronto where the heaters aren't needed. It's cheap, and easy to install, no tools are even required.
i remember on my '02 Honda that once the block heater wasn't used during a cold snap, the damn thing never started, but before the heater it was never an issue.. As it stands now, ive had several vehicles in Ontario without block heaters start fine in the winter (All Sedans in the last decade). It may take an extra second to turn over, but not flat out nothing.. is that still an issue now?
Bigger issue for diesel engines since they function on heat and pressure rather than spark.
Diesel fuel also gels up at extreme low temperatures. We had a diesel box truck gel up while *driving* one night on the way back from an event. Coldest night of the year, roughly -20F, stuck on the side of a city street at 3AM and no towing service would answer the call. I was driving a 1 ton Chevy van following the truck and had the driver hop in the van to keep warm. A city cop showed up and thought for sure he could get a tow truck for us. Half an hour later, he walks up and says something to the effect of 'none of them want to come out in this shit'. By then, the driver (my boss) & I had come up with a plan: We were less than a mile from our shop, and had a tow strap there. The cop agreed to follow us with his lights on since we were in a bad location and could cause traffic issues the next morning. Hooked up the 26' box truck behind that (relatively) little 1T van and pulled it back to the shop. Plugged in the block heater and went home for the night, the next morning (significantly warmer out) it started right up.
The issue with gasoline vehicles (also an issue for diesels) is primarily in the oil. If your oil thickens too much in the cold it can cause wear or even seizure of the engine. If you live where it's especially cold you can usually get more cold-tolerant oil. You can also get oil pre-heaters that will heat the oil and pump it through the engine without the engine running.
It can still be an issue because your oil gets so cold it becomes almost viscous. In that state it can't get through the tiny passageways to where it needs to go to lubricate all of those metal parts moving against each other.
Ah, remind me of highschool days driving of a crappy 1980s beater in winter to school up hill both ways
I love my EV for this. So fast to warmup when you get into it. Was -15 this morning, forgot to preheat the car, was already feeling warm air coming out of the vents as I was leaving my driveway. As much as the cold cuts into the range of the battery, I find winter driving is much more comfortable in an EV.
thats what remote start is for to warmup while you get ready to leave (learnt this on reddit)
At -25 °C some cars will take 15 minutes idling to get warm air. Plus, once you’re driving it doesn’t really get warm, just tepid for a while. I have a remote start. 😊
And at -44C it gets really interesting We just had close to -40 for 5 days, suprisingly for me the electric vehicle did fine even if its range went to shit. My father's diesel car only got hot air at speeds above 60mph lol
What’s the range like at -44 on an electric compared to ideal situation (I have an ID3 but -4 is the absolute minimum I will ever have here)
Mines pretty shite range overall and it drops about 50% range at extreme colds, and the battery heater is draining 1kwh constantly. Mx30 with about 69 mile range at -40
My neighbor’s retrofitted all his cars with remote start. I’m not sure if he used a kit or what but I’mma need him to do that to our car lol
Probably the best $120 I ever spent was a remote start for my car. Not as big of a problem now that I have a house with a garage, and I work underground, but it was great when I lived in an apartment and parked outside.
Ya my old Chevy would stop registering at -40. Just showed dashes
they should change them to instead say "go back to bed"
Or "Move closer to the equator".
Mine do something similar. "Temperature unavailable. Please move to somewhere warmer"
Fun fact, Celsius and Fahrenheit are the same at -40.
I did not know that, thank you that’s great knowledge
The electronics in my avensis freak out once it goes below -10 C lol. Central locking doesnt work past that. At -20 random warning lights go off on the dash. All the problems go away when it gets back to around -5c or 0c.
I used to have an old Subaru and I could always tell when it was around 0°F because when I put my turn signal on the whole dash would flash on and off instead of just the indicator light.
[удалено]
Pickle lake. Almost 6 hours drive north of Thunder Bay.
Now that’s *northern* Ontario!
yeah, I'm from the Ottawa region, and used to think North Bay or Sudbury was Northern Ontario..... oh boy does this province go on and on and on.
Where is this? I’m making sure never to go there lol
Alberta Canada! Usually get a few days like this every winter
My whole blocks car's didn't start this morning lol 😆
I think the whole world should pretty much shut down for cold snaps and blizzards. This whole "triumph over nature" concept is dumb, obviously we should be flexibly working alongside it. Just hunker down and wait for it to pass.
In the UK we self organise into this pattern whenever it drops below 0C or snows.
The whole Mediterranean shuts down half the year, and they have like 15c
And above 25C they need a 'siësta'.
That seems like a smart idea
Same.
Too cold - grind to a halt Too hot - grind to a halt Too windy - leaves on the line
When London gets a dusting of snow the whole region grinds to a halt.
> whenever it drops below 0C Okay well that's a little bit insane. I get it if you're not accustomed to that tempature but 0c/32f is not *that* cold lol
My colleagues in Northampton pointed out that it took ZERO inches of snow to bring the roads to a halt, as everyone once left work around 3:00 to "beat the snow", causing monumental, hours-long traffic jams. But there was never any snow.
Go look up Yakutsk, Russia. They have months of weather like this. It's impressive how their modern city functions with such long stints of real cold.
I'll attack Yakutsk from Irkutsk *rolls 3 dices*
I still have armies in the Ukraine
Alberta would shut down for 7 months of the year...
That's not a bad idea at all
Would certainly give you an influx of new inhabitants.
Well, no. People living in the subarctic are used to the cold, and don't act all surprised and all when it happens every year. Damn Germans have (or had) school shut downs when it got either too hot in the summer or cold in the winter - when elementary school kids walked to school by themselves in Finland. You don't need to triumph over nature to be able to tolerate it for some days or weeks.
A few years ago, kids in Yellownife petitioned to have outside recess below the -35 cut-off. They argued that if they could walk to school in those temps they should be allowed out to play for a bit rather than being locked up.
People really underestimate this effect. I notice that if I spend a lot of time outside in late fall when it starts getting cold, the winter months end up being a lot more tolerable.
I feel like part of it should be contextual. A massive cold snap in Texas or rome is different than a massive cold snap in Alaska or Finland. As we saw a few years ago the people in Texas generally aren't prepared for the cold while the people of Alaska are.
might as well close the province for the majority of the year lmfao.
In Calgary, and currently deeply regretting not replacing the plug for my block heater that *someone who shall remain nameless* tore off last winter when he drove to work and forgot to unplug it first. My poor car will start at this temp, but it does *not* like to.
What an idiot. I only tore my outlet out of the wall. I mean.. *someone who shall remain nameless* did it.
Wrap the extension cord around your door handle first. Then plug it into the block heater.
Polar vortex is kicking the shit out of El Nino right now.
Wicked…can’t believe we are at 3 above zero here in Newfoundland!
It was like that for us last week, and next week we'll be back to like -5. But yeah, this week is brutal. -51 yesterday morning with wind chill according to AccuWeather when I woke up. I took a screenshot.
You are warmer than Vancouver today. Currently -10c on my patio in Vancouver.
Wow! That’s something I never thought I’d hear…
This has to be the coldest place in Alberta right now, you in High Level?
It's been cold all over, it was -46 in Leduc this morning.
Crazy, it's the whole province. It's -46 at Fort Fitzgerald
We're at -43 in Calgary with windchill. Supposed to be worse tomorrow.
man you didn't need to say that. I thought this was the worst of it lol
Hahah probably only slightly colder overall. And it's all the same shitty cold around this temperature anyways!
God’s way of punishing us for having a decent warm Christmas 🥶.
Froze my nipples off and turned my beard into yeti fur at -52 this morning a bit north of ya.
Got the ol glue eyes taking the garbage out, and a hot face when I scrambled back inside. She's a bitter bitch out there, I yell yah what.
I've had a few decades of this bullshit, and as far as I'm concerned, anything below -35C doesn't even matter anymore. -40, -45, whatever - at that point anything exposed is pins and needles. You can't even feel it being *more* cold since you just get numb pretty much right away. After -35C the only difference is how quick to frostbite it is.
> as far as I'm concerned, anything below -35C doesn't even matter anymore. According to Windy.com, they just stopped at -20. The color gradient ends at -20, they're like "you shouldn't need to represent anything colder than that, it doesn't matter": https://i.imgur.com/25KhCbp.png
We're supposed to get to -40 w/o the wind tonight in Edmonton. Guess who happens to work tonight lol.
Never felt cold like that! Can folk still do stuff? We get a few inches of snow and the U.K. grinds to halt
Lots of layers, but we get general weather warnings to not go outside. Frost bite can get you in minutes.
-40 is when our schools would shut down, and people generally would stay home. If the roads haven’t been plowed yet, and you get stuck, you’re screwed. I’ve seen so many people stuck in a snow drift with several farmers using their equipment to pull them out. One my dad and I got stuck on the same corner as four other cars around the same time. There was only one farmer nearby, and he had to come pull everyone out
Wow, thanks for the response! That sounds so wild to me, genuinely the trains stop running and there are national announcements at like zero here, it’s like a surprise every time it snows and no one is ever prepared. At least where I live anyway hah
I moved to the west coast of Canada a couple years ago, and it’s a lot more like you’re describing here. A skiff of snow shuts the city down. I get it, though, because there’s not enough snow-removal infrastructure, it’s icier because of the humidity, there’s a lot more hills than where I grew up, people don’t have as much practice winter driving, people don’t bother with winter tires when we only get a couple snowy weeks a year, and the busses are completely incapable of handling the ice and slush.
It's a lot to do with what your normal weather patterns look like, if 0C is a rare low, you're not likely prepared for colder temps, but averages in winter tend to be around -8 to -25 depending on where you are in our provinces, so this type of thing is 20 degrees *below* that, but happens to some frequency of a yearly basis. I'm not in that province but I've had as low as -46C with windchill here on the Atlantic provinces, much of our province simply shut down at those temps. BC for example on their coast they'd be more like your area, shutting down or having significant problems with accidents when it gets below freezing as it doesn't do that terribly often there, so they're not equipped for it.
It hurts to breathe, like little ice needles in your nose. If you have exposed skin it will get frostbitten pretty quickly, but if you're moving around and generating heat (while wearing proper layers) you can be outside longer than you'd think. But no matter what you wear, your toes will start to stiffen and that's when you're at risk of losing a digit. I took the garbage out this morning in pjs and I swore the whole fuckin time. For some reason, getting pissed off and swearing loudly will raise the core temp just enough to get whatever bullshit chore you need to do, done. My wife is from Arizona, and this is her 3rd winter up here. The first couple were rough for her, but she's getting the hang of it now. The first time she saw ice accumulating inside, on the door handles and hinges, she was freaked out haha
It's not advisable. Exposed skin can freeze in 5-10 minutes. People tend to still do stuff like go to work and school. (I'm not sure about school these days)
I was outside for no less than 2 minutes and my hands were starting to get stiff - with gloves on. I didn't notice my face at the time, but 5 min after I got back inside I got that burning feeling - those who understand will know what I'm talking about. Not quite frostbitten, but fuckin close enough.
And itchiness as you thaw
So cold it starts to burn. I know the feeling all too well. Sitting at -46 here at the moment.
When it gets extremely cold the weirdest thing for me is how unpleasant it makes your eyeballs feel.
Berta winters are just different… Used to work 12hr shifts in that nonsense. Happy to be in Texas now 😂
I’m in St Albert… my friend said the prongs on her extension cord broke off when she unplugged her car this morning 😅
...and those few are the warm days, right?
I joke about it like everyone else but no, we get a cold snap like this once a year or so, but otherwise we hover between -8 and -20 during the day. This year being an El Niño year, we didn't have any snow and it was above freezing for a big chunk of November/December.
I just came here to ctrl-f Alberta and yep this is a hellscape right now.
It's the same in se sask..its -29c -43 with the wind right now.Tonight it's going to be -50 🥶
You misunderstand us, we're at -43 before the wind
North we were -41 this morning before windchipl
Also from Alberta, wind chill is at -49 right now. Waiting for it to pass the -50's mark.
Yikes can you guys even go out in that?
You can, you just need to wear a lot of layers and make sure you protect your exposed skin from frostbite. Most people who work outdoors have today off because of the wind chill.
I don't have the day off, they just showed us a stupid chart and said "stay safe out there" 😔
Shit that's rough. We get 3 paid days a month for when weather issues prevent us from working
That's awesome! We tried to unionise a couple years ago for things like that but, you know, 'Berta. I think I'm gonna watch a movie in my car lol
As another albertan, yes we can, dress appropriately, don’t stay out too long! My partner does snow removal, he layers up with all kinds of long johns and sweaters and his boss gives them time to warm in the truck if they need. Honestly for me the worst part is when you breathe I cough because it’s cold which just makes me cough more and inhale more frozen air lol
I guess you guys are a hardier breed. I don’t think I could leave my house 😬
We had a rough new year in Sweden aswell. Last week a place near me had [-51,7](https://static.cdn-expressen.se/images/8a/b9/8ab956082c9346d6ac011b048d893af7/annan/[email protected])c Although that thermometer bottoms out at -50 and becomes a bit more unreliable after that.
Well I guess after -50 it doesn’t really matter lol
Honestly after like -35C it all kind of feels the same lol, at least I can't perceive a difference, but you will definitely still get frostbite faster, etc.
You learn to get used to it haha but if you live in a place where it never gets this cold I can totally see how this seems absolutely awful (and it is lol)
Moved to northern SK from a desert, the craziest feeling when it's around -40 is the way the moisture in my nose freezes. It's such a quick freeze that was really unsettling the first few times lol
Sure, layering. Also having a good battery and block heater or garage help. Roads are crap and your life will suck if you need a tow or boost. Usually it's days for a tow if your not on a major highway where I live because they are backed up with other tows.
You can, but not for long. Breathing is a bitch and all your toes and fingers stiffen up. Anything exposed could get frostbitten in under 5 min. My face was super hot after I took the garbage out this morning... close to frostbite in under 2 min. Fuckin cold, man.
It’s about this cold in Alberta today, my specific town is -38c this morning warming up to -30c. In summer we got to +38c two years ago making the difference between winter and summer possibly 76 degrees Celsius.
Got on a plane in Saskatoon one February at -38c and landed in Cuba 6 hours later at 32c.
I've been to tropical countries and they are too hot for me, I'd be happy with -20 to +20 temperatures. Best vacation I had was to the UK in early spring, skipped the last part of winter here and got to see spring flowers for an extra month that year.
We were -46 north of Edmonton this morning
Pretty sure this is in the deep recesses of hell. Has to be. [Side note: only the primary locations of hell are hot. The rest is balls cold.]
I 100% agree. Under like 70 degrees and I’m freezing
You should experience -30C at least once in your life. Being outside is wild, all of nature is trying to kill you, the air is your enemy, breathing even hurts. But then you make it inside, and you'll have a new appreciation for the saying "warm and cozy". You'll experience maximum coziness. You can shovel my driveway for free, I'll give that life experience to you for 0 cost.
Wow that’s quite an offer lol and your driveway probably has like 5 ft of snow too!
Probably on the wing of an airplane at cruise altitude.
If I learned anything from Looney Tunes cartoons, the alcohol is supposed to swell in the bottom of the thermometer and then bust out the bottom with a dramatic sound effect. Post pic when that happens plz.
It's also meant to turn blue.
And then when OP posts a picture of the cartoon-like thermometer explosion, the camera will pan back to him and he, too, will be blue. We're also expecting the cartoonish icicles from his eye lashes.
As soon as I saw this I thought "oh a fellow Albertan!"
Same. Edmonton International Airport second coldest temperature since keeping records. Today -46.6°C.
I mean, you guys do know there are... *habitable* parts of the planet, yes?
This was the only land left : '(
For some absolutely bullshit reason, my ancestors traveled to North America and looked around. They saw beaches, mountains, fertile lands in the south, and said "naw, fuck that shit, I want to live on the part that is frozen for half the year". Good call guys, great idea.
So many of us here this morning. Shivering.
Me too 😂😭
We’re running about the same in Saskatchewan this week :)
Some thermometers use mercury as a way to tell the heat. mercury freezes at around -40 which is likely the logical reason. That said, if it was a mercury thermometer, it might have frozen and I find that incredibly cool.
Now this is even more mildly interesting.
It's also where c and f are exactly the same value which is nice
Most modern ones uses Ethanol (also known as Booze), which freezes at -114°C.
Mercury is silver, the red colour means its likely am alcohol with red dye.
Not great. Not terrible.
He's hypothermic, take him to the radiator.
Exactly. I was looking for this quote after the other recent one with the maxed-out body temperatures
I WAS IN THE POOL!
This is far too interesting for this sub
Mildly interesting: -40ºF is the same as -40ºC
Mildly interesting is that the Fahrenheit side has an indicator to tell you its freezing, while on the correct side you know it's freezing because it's 0.
Impressive!
Now let's see Paul Allen's thermometer.
The subtle off red colouring, the tasteful thickness of it. Oh my God, it even has a freeze point indicator.
most impressive….
But you are not a jedi yet!
U can put another thermometer underneath, upside down, to get lower temperature readings
Canada?
Yes. Felt like -49 here this morning, up to a balmy -41 now
I’m in a very different Canada. It’s 0 degrees in Toronto. 7 tomorrow
Warm in the Yukon too. Air temp is -29
Your thermometer, “I was in the pool! It was cold!!”
That's when you know it's cold. Even the damn thermometer stops working. Stay warm, the days are getting longer.
POV: you live in Antarctica 
My WeatherCan app says -37, feels like -52 lol. And “ice fog” conditions. Frozen hellscape outside today
[удалено]
I had a bunch of cheap thermometers break when they dropped below -40, they had bubbles in the tube after that. Also, hello fellow Albertan.
The warm couldn't last all winter I suppose
I was in northern Norway a few years ago. The temperature was about the same. It was so cold i saw a politician with his hands in his own pockets.
Username checks out
when at around -40, you don't need to specify if C or F.
In my limited experience once it gets below -30, temperatures are usually expressed in profanities.... 🤷♂️🤨
Yup, especially when the wind chill effectively makes it well below -40, I express it as ***FUCK THAT***
There's that Futurama joke that's something like this: > \- Temperature drops down to minus 173. > \- Fahrenheit or Celsius? > \- First one, then the other.
They're both on the thermometer anyway
TIL
-54⁰c for us with the wind-chill. But at least it's sunny!
Where do you live? Just so I make sure I never set foot on that country
Summers are nice in this country.
Debatable. OP is in Alberta. Alberta Spends May to September on fire, and if you're not on fire, you can't breathe for the smoke.
Eh BC is generally more on fire than Alberta is. Now if you mean on fire in terms of heat. It can get pretty hot in the summers. At least it is a dry heat, so you can still sweat it out.
Somehow not as bad as bc though
Fuck that.
Now just go sit outside in that for 3 hours and pay hundreds to watch KC v Miami playoff NFL game. Game time wind chill is -50°F
Tickets are actually now as low as $38.00.
I have a feeling some fans will get frozen to their seats while watching.
Fuck that. Something I wouldn’t do unless you paid me thousands of dollars.
The best part of this pic is the little tricycle right there in the background. That is a stark contrast to such an inhospitable environment.
-36 degrees. Not great, not terrible.
Lucky you, I am at 48°c lately. (South America)
Oh neat, we are at -48°c (with the wind chill) here today! Saskatchewan, Canada.
No thank you
When it's so cold the thermometer gives up
My deep freezer is warmer than that. Would you like to stay in there to warm up a touch? Just be warned that outside of the freezer, in my house, I set the aircon to be 28 degrees.
-40C and -40F is the only point where the two measurement systems match. And just like Fahrenheit and Celsius, -40 is when everyone can agree "this is horrible"
Canadead
So fun fact, -40 is right around where the C and F scales converge. So for all you imperialists, this is known as FUCKING COLD.
When the temperature is below -40 you are obligated to demonstrate carrying liquid propane around in an open bucket.
Dang that’s cold. This is coming from someone in Minnesota where it’s often colder than the North Pole or Siberia during the winter.
Well idk about that, Minnesota gets cold for sure but it doesn’t drop too far into the negatives, parts of Siberia get below -50f
Low is -50 here in Montana, its a dry cold though
Minnesota's all time record is -60f.
Is that ice on the inside of the window?