You know it's cold when....

[bennelson]

OK.

I am NOT MAKING THIS UP!

You know it's cold when......

1) You can't take your forklift apart because the blizzard keeps making your socket set disappear.

2) You can't plug in your block heater because the cover is frozen on.


Both of these have actually happened to me.
Do you have a TRUE "you know it's cold when"?

[trebuchet03]

It's 72 degrees outside right now... according to my thermometer.... :shrug:

[Peakster]

You know it's cold when...

There's a dense fog covering the city from exhaust outlets in every car and building.

Today was only about -10*C though, practically T-shirt weather .

[Gone4]

If it's snowing, it's not that cold

(I feel I should add, I know it's not the cold directly that causes the lack of snow at lower temperatures but too much dynamic stability...)

[Ryland]

I put my winter coat away when it reached -10F figiring that it was summer already, but it's still cold enough that my clutch is slow to engauge, and it takes 5+ miles for my temp gauge to read anything, or heat to come out of the defrost.

[bennelson]

Originally Posted by GenKreton

If it's snowing, it's not that cold

(I feel I should add, I know it's not the cold directly that causes the lack of snow at lower temperatures but too much dynamic stability...)

It is actually a myth that it gets "too cold to snow" - it just happens to be more rare when it is both really cold AND snowing. It doesn't snow much in Antarctica because it's a desert, NOT because it's cold.

Don't forget to factor in wind-chill!

[Who]

I wouldn't call it a myth, I'd say just more of a norm for weather.

Weather tends to be clear and cold (high pressure) or warm and wet (low pressure).

[johnpr]

not as interesting or funny...
you know its cold when neither of your vehicles want to start (cranking for 5-10 secs )

[tasdrouille]

You know it's cold when you can pour liquid propane in a glass.

As for the "too cold to snow" statement, I'm with Who on that one. I can't remember the last time it was -30 and snowing here. With the global warming trend, we are expecting to have even MORE snow in the winter around here as the mean temperature for the winter goes up towards 0.

Edit: All temps in Celcius

[Gone4]

Originally Posted by bennelson

It is actually a myth that it gets "too cold to snow" - it just happens to be more rare when it is both really cold AND snowing. It doesn't snow much in Antarctica because it's a desert, NOT because it's cold.

Don't forget to factor in wind-chill!

I was trying to avoid this, hence my footnote, but if you want to get technical, -20F it's too cold for most snow to happen. At -40F you can get snow but without nuclei, but it's nothing like the snow we commonly experience - it's significantly smaller.

Around -5F there begins to be an extreme lack of vapor in the air, that is it snows before it hits the air mass at this temperature, often on the front, because the colder mass isn't capable of holding that amount of water - that's what the dew point is all about. Saturated air is capable of reaching Antarctica, and may soon in coming years if it warms up. Besides the fact no saturated air makes it over the region, its cold enough that even in sunlight, little water evaporates and therefore little precipitation can ever occur. Add to that the temperature gradient is minimal promoting dynamic stability, it becomes impossible for it to snow under these temperature conditions.

Parts of Vermont are getting hammered with snow this year because it is warmer than normal. Normally the moisture encounters the Arctic/Canadian air mass and falls before it can get to us, but not this winter...