I was talking with a friend over the weekend about our warming trend. It’s been rather nice since we started to gain daylight, which is appreciated after a cold November – December. After enjoying a couple of beers from the new brewery, we came to the conclusion that -10F is an ideal winter temperature.
I may have to explain that further to the Lower 48ers. My buddy pointed out that our roads are in much better shape, ice-wise, if we stay at zero and below. For me, the cabin is easy to keep warm at that temp, but if it gets much above zero I end up opening windows. So all in all, my buddy & I agreed that if we saw a winter of only ten degrees below zero, what a wonderful winter that would be.
Two days later, my friend sent me a link to a story online. The headline read: Another Day of Dangerous Cold in Minnesota. I opened the link, and scanned the article. School districts cancel classes… blah, blah, blah. AAA handles 900 calls on Monday… yeah, yeah, yeah… get to the good stuff. Forecasters say that Duluth sees a high of 10 degrees below zero.
So I’m sitting there, looking at the computer screen, acting like a person who was just told a joke, but didn’t get it, and was waiting for the punchline.
Minus ten is dangerous. I’m going to let that sink in. In the meantime, forecasters are calling for -45F to return to Interior Alaska for this weekend. I wonder what -45 would be called today in the Lower 48…
BTW, the coldest temperature ever recorded in the Lower-48 was minus 70 degrees F at Rogers Pass, Mont., on Jan. 20, 1954. That’s more like it.
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