You know it's cold when....

[H4MM3R]

I know when it is to cold, by setting a boiling pot of water outside and when it freezes it is still warm. J/K

[MetroMPG]

Originally Posted by GenKreton

At -40F you can get snow but without nuclei, but it's nothing like the snow we commonly experience - it's significantly smaller.

"Ice fog"? I've seen it on the prairies in extreme cold. I'm sure Peakster can talk about it.

Speaking of snow nuclei (don't say that very often), I happened to see this news item yesterday:

Bacteria key ingredient in snow, scientists say

Research done on snow samples from Yukon, Antarctica, France, Montana

Last Updated: Thursday, February 28, 2008 | 10:33 PM ET

The Associated Press

Those beautiful snowflakes drifting out of the sky may have a surprise inside — bacteria.

Most snow and rain forms in chilly conditions high in the sky and atmospheric scientists have long known that, under most conditions, the moisture needs something to cling to in order to condense.

Now, a new study shows a surprisingly large share of those so-called nucleators turn out to be bacteria that can affect plants.

"Bacteria are by far the most active ice nuclei in nature," said Brent C. Christner, an assistant professor of biological sciences at Louisiana State University.

http://www.cbc.ca/technology/story/2...-bacteria.html

[MetroMPG]

Originally Posted by H4MM3R

I know when it is to cold, by setting a boiling pot of water outside and when it freezes it is still warm. J/K

Funny!

I did see something this morning I've never seen before. Not coincidentally, over night was one of the coldest temps of the winter so far here (-21 ish C - balmy compared to Winnipeg).

I could see the breath of individual chickadees foraging around the bird feeder. Never noticed that before.

[Gone4]

Originally Posted by MetroMPG

"Ice fog"? I've seen it on the prairies in extreme cold. I'm sure Peakster can talk about it.

Speaking of snow nuclei (don't say that very often), I happened to see this news item yesterday:

I've felt -40's before, but only at night and I never saw this ice fog... I guess I can be thankful this winter is warm and we've only hit the -10'sF really. Unfortunately the warmer temperatures have allowed a LOT more precipitation to reach us and snow...

That article you quote reminds me of the red rain in India that they found out was probably clouds seeded heavily with some strange bacteria and they were arguing over whether it was terrestrial in origin or not. A lot of studies have come up recently studying the effects of Gobi desert dust storms and how they affect our climate, especially Atlantic hurricanes.

[MetroMPG]

Ice fog photo: http://epod.usra.edu/archive/epodviewer.php3?oid=170240

[tasdrouille]

Originally Posted by MetroMPG

Ice fog photo: http://epod.usra.edu/archive/epodviewer.php3?oid=170240

I've seen a lot of those pillars at night this winter along the St-Lawrence River between Quebec and Montreal and was wondering what it was, but never got around to actually find out. Thanks.

[Oval_Overload]

You know its cold when you stuff trash in the grill of your car to keep warm,

When 3 hours on the block heater doesn't move the temp gauge at all.

When your electric car won't hold a full charge

And when you can let the dog off the leash because he runs back to the house in 35 seconds anyway,

[MadisonMPG]

You know it's cold when F*** I just forgot mine...and I laughed so hard thinking about it.

[bennelson]

You know it's cold when even your EV won't start!

[NiHaoMike]

You know it's cold when your (community) wireless Internet service becomes really fast... On the first day it got "cold" in College Station, which is about 55F, I was surprised that my Linux torrents were going at 500KB/s! It usually runs at 100KB/s on a good summer day and performance is really variable (from ~150KB/s to nothing!) on rainy days regardless of the temperature...

Really, it's sad that much of Texas has practically no real winter... So to test the theory about Broadcom routers performing better in cold weather, I'm having my best friend Allie Moore take a Linksys WRT54G V3 running OpenWRT to Chicago over the break for some real cold weather testing. (Maybe the BCM4712 platform performs better below freezing just like the Pentium 3 I refrigerated for my Science Fair project...)

Here in Texas, I have to use technology to get a temperature much below freezing, even during the winter. Up north, going well below freezing is free - just take it outside! (There's an old saying: "The best overclockers are from Russia.")