Here's a chart from the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric AdministrationNOTE: click on the chart if it's not fully displayed in your window on this post.
We never heard of wind chill back when I was growing up in Fargo, ND, and the temps were often waaay below zero. Since Fargo is the windiest spot in ND (even windier than Grand Forks!, which is 80 miles north of Fargo), the wind chill numbers would have driven everyone away. The average wind speed in Fargo year-round is about 12 mph. So--and pardon my creaky math (Ha. All my brothers with the possible exception of John were geniuses in math and wound up as engineers...I was a writer...John turned out to be a doctor)--in theory if the air temperature on any given day in January was -2F, and the wind was puffing away at 12 mph, the wind chill would be somewhere around -16F to - 19F!! I think. I just remember the way Judy Henning and I figured out to tell if it was colder than -20F when we walked to school in the a.m.: the outsides of our legs would get stiff. When we got to school, we had to go through a few minutes or hours of pain while our legs warmed up! Sting and burn!
The reason that I know that -40 is where the Fahrenheit and Centigrade scales intersect is that it is always mentioned when the temperature gets down that far. Granted, it doesn't get as cold as THAT very often anymore, plus we don't live in North Dakota anymore. Its just a fact that sticks in my head. -40 is cold no matter how you measure it.
ReplyDeletei dint know that! when it's -40 and the scales intersect, your rearview mirror snaps off like a potato chip if you try to move it, and the tires go clunk clunk clunk--if you can start your car at all. just think. we lived through it, but we may have seen the last of it....
ReplyDeletexo, ma
Man, does that sound cold. I can't think of any good reason to live there in the winter. I was born in Michigan, and I do remember the cold, cold waits for the school bus - all of the girls had to wear dresses. It must have been some man's idea. Do you know that here in Sun City (near Riverside) CA it was 80 degrees and that is not a minus number and there was no wind chill! Sorry for you guys!
ReplyDeleteI remember cold winters too...and short dresses...and little red rubber boots that fit over saddle shoes and chaffed little legs.
ReplyDeleteI remember the whiteness, softness, and silence of snow. And sometimes I wonder if I'll ever see it again.
Mage'in
patsy:
ReplyDeletewe had to wear dresses, too, but we were allowed to wear snow pants underneath. nice of 'em, huh?
Mage'in:
i remember those those boots over the shoes. they left red marks on your legs where the rubber hit the skin. gracious living!
musta been gasohol!!! that stuff was always gunking up.
ReplyDelete