Extreme Cold

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SpeedThrills

SpeedThrills

FABO Gold Member
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Very South Jersey
I can't imagine living where it gets really cold.

Who has experienced it, and what kind of problems are there?

Frozen pipes must happen really quick. It must be hard to insulate and heat buildings. I know you can't bury people until the ground thaws. Cars must have their own problems.

I'll bet even fires are cold. lol

How does one dress?

Lots I can't even imagine.

Yeah, it's cold in many areas of the US now, but it's -20 F in Yakutsk, Ruusia right now. It was -47 there a couple weeks ago!
 
Have you seen what they do to airplanes at Yakutsk airport. It’s so crazy cold there. I’m lucky it’s 50 at my house. 40 miles north snow/ice storms.
 
The further north you go, the deeper pipes are buried. In New Hampshire you must be4 ft deep with pipes or they will burst, also any post must be 4 ft in the ground or the frost will lift it.Dress in layers and even with a new vehicle equip your car with blankets, water, energy bars, flashlight, bags of sand etc as if you might get stuck on a road somewhere, either broken down or just stuck on the road for a couple of hours or day if you are really out in the woods
 
We've been below zero F* just about every night for a while (-17 was lowest so far). Only single digit high's as well. Snow piled up as well. Snow came before New Years, and none has left. 3 winters ago we had -38 without wind chill.
 
it gets to -35 or -40 for 1-2 weeks a year here. we just had a week long stretch.

- dont touch metal with your skin, it will stick.
- propane doesn't evaporate. butane lighters need to be kept inside your coat or they also wont work.
- if your not careful your eyelashes freeze together when you blink
- gloves dont warm your hands. put them on while you are warm and they delay how long it is before your hands are cold.
- facial hair helps keep your face warm, but your breath freezes up in it. careful picking the ice out.
- be careful with anything plastic, like turn signal stalks and the like because they get very brittle.
- we have frost free hose bibs that dont freeze, you bring in your hose or keep it in the shed for winter.
- there are rules about where you can run plumbing in a building so it wont freeze. you will often find a row of urinals on an outside wall has a ~4" ledge above them. the wall is built and insulated, then a wall is built in front of it for plumbing.
- watermain comes in from underground in the basement. its atleast 8 or 10 feet below grade
- keep blankets and such in the vehicle if you leave the city, or even if you dont. i also keep a tow strap and booster cables in my truck.
- i have owned 3 second gen durangos with the 5.7. they all have started fine, with the exception of my current one which probably needs a new battery. many people use block heaters or heated battery blankets. modern EFI and synthetic oils have really improved things in this regard. I knew a guy who worked on the original alaska highway in the 40s. if a machine stopped running because some guy shut it off, they just marked its location to go back for it in the spring.
I work mostly indoors. I put on thick wool socks from bass pro, wool long johns, regular carhart type work pants, a t-shirt, a thin/cheap hoodie, a bit thicker hoodie with a zipper or a fleece, a cheap down filled coat from costco and a wind/waterproof outer jacket and my normal work boots before i leave in the morning. if I have to spend much time outside, I have some german surplus snow pants and good winter boots I put on. I also have cheap magic gloves, then a pair of wool gloves and a pair of heavy mittens. I wear a toque and a wool tube scarf under my hoods as well.
 
#1 diesel, light weight oil, and you had better have a back up plan for everything.
 
South Texas Friday, 6F with a -2 wind chill this morning @ 0200
100_0176 (2).JPG
 
We have had temperatures in the -25F and colder range for about 10 days, with even a slight breeze it makes it feel like -40F and colder. I work as a commercial truck driver, doing local pick up and delivery, and I use a hydraulic tailgate daily for most of my customers. Because of the brutal cold the tailgate ran extremely slow, more than doubling my delivery times per stop and resulting in me being outside in the weather for 3 to 4 hours every day. I dress in layers, but my feet are usually the first to feel the cold, followed by my hands.
Last week I wore a cotton t-shirt, a polyester/cotton work shirt, a hooded fleece sweatshirt, and a heavy 2 layer coat with a denim shell, plus a snug fitting toque. This keeps my core relatively warm, plus I wore cotton long underwear, heavy denim pants, and lined nylon windblocker pants, plus a pair of lined heavy gloves. By the end of my work day Friday I was completely exhausted from the cold and had a nasty migraine.
Now the cold is breaking, and by next Monday temperatures are forecast to reach close to 50F, bring it on!
 
Christ...WHY live in a place that consistently gets that cold? Are the politics better? Are you PAID to live there?
 
Kern Dog said:
Christ...WHY live in a place that consistently gets that cold? Are the politics better? Are you PAID to live there?
Click to expand...
I would love to be able to live somewhere that doesn't get so cold but it's not that simple. I was interested in moving to the U.S. when I was in my 20s, however it was very difficult then, mostly because of political policies, protecting American jobs. Now it is as much an economic situation as anything else, the currency exchange rate is not very favorable and I would lose close to 30% of my current net worth. Plus I am now almost 58 years old and looking more to retire than start a new job or business in a new country. If it's possible to relocate to a warmer place in retirement I would probably be willing to, but have to convince my wife to do the same.
 
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