Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire How Cold was it?

As others have said, that's a fair piece from reality. You might not notice much difference if you live and work indoors in modern insulated buildings with new, well-maintained vehicles, but if you're working/living outdoors, you'll learn different in a hurry.

Coldest weather I personally experienced was the winter of 1968-69. We went through a cold spell of over a month with the daily high never climbing above -25F. This was in Calgary, AB, and the entire Bow Valley was affected. It was warmer in Edmonton, 200 miles north!

In the middle of that cold snap, Dec 26-Jan 1, I went to a YMCA leadership training camp in the eastern slopes of the Rockies for 6 days. The high temperature on Day 1 didn't make it up to -50F, and at night the temperatures dropped to -65F or so. It got colder after that. We slept in uninsulated clapboard cabins with sheet-metal wood stoves for heat. We spent most of every day cutting and splitting firewood. I learned very quickly that, as Jack London states in his classic story, "To Build A Fire", there is one helluva difference between -40 and -50, and the difference between -50 and -60 is even more frightening.

Clothing that is comfortably warm in -40F conditions is barely adequate at -50. A 5 mph breeze at -40F is nothing. At -50, it will cut through your down jacket like a knife. At -60 you can feel the heat being sucked out of the windward side of your body. At -40 you can unscrew the wingnuts on a truck battery tie-down with bare fingers. At -50 you need heavy gloves, and at -60 you'll feel the cold for half an hour afterwards even with heavy gloves on. At -40 you can, if needed, perform repairs on your truck with ordinary tools. At -60 metal becomes brittle enough that a steel wrench can snap in two if you force it too hard. Twisting the valve on a propane tank too hard, or forcing it with a hammer, can cause the valve to break off. Better not be smoking if that happens.

Taking care of livestock at temperatures lower than -40F gets a lot tougher, too. Just getting them water will take you 3 times as long as it does in warmer (zero degrees) weather, unless you've got a heated pumphouse, which we didn't have.

These were good lessons to learn about cold. A few years later, when I finished college and there was a boom in seismic and oil exploration in the Canadian arctic, a bunch of my friends took the bait and went north to work. I didn't, because unlike them I'd experienced deep cold in '68 and I wouldn't willingly go back into that. Two guys I knew didn't come back from the oilfields, both deaths attributable to deep cold and its effects on metal and men.

I had to do a radiography job this week in a man basket hanging from a crane about 150' in the air. It was -20c with a brisk wind and all I had was a piece of cable to hide behind. The job took over two hours to do with no coming down till it was done. I didn't get cold, but my feet were sore in a wierd way later in the day when I was sitting by the wood stove.

Ambient -44, with windchill -90 (-30 & 30 mph wind). Yes, the time with the windchill did feel colder than the -44 w/ no wind. As others have said, yes you definately notice it when it's colder than -10 to -20.

When I was younger and stoopeder I walked between some buildings on the slope with just my nomex overalls and my cloths underneath, as I'd left my jacket back in the control room. It was -30 out. I wasn't out for that long, couldn't have been more than a 100 feet or so between buildings, flight of stares down, flight of stares up and back. My back hurt for 1 week as the muscles got so cold in that brief time.

No, not really. The only time we had a radio on was in the car and we were out of them as much as possible. I do remember, (not by name), one of the hookers that hung out at the old Switchboard lounge buying herself a wolf coat though. I thought that was pretty neat.

I think around 25� F (maybe 20?). Pretty sheltered life, in that respect...

Ah, yes. late summer!

Doc, that winter of 1968-69 was a cold one for me too. It was my first winter in Alaska, and I was working on the Lower Yukon at Galena and Campion AFS - got my first nip of the frost that winter, in fact. We did a lot of experimenting with throwing out hot water into the -50 air.

There seems to be a big differnce between -20 and -30...at-30 the hairs in the nose start freezing and feeling prickly.

Even though I was only in Grade 4, I remember my Dad getting one of those cetificates.

You can the judge the level of coldness by how many breaths thru your nose that it takes for the boogers to freeze.

I have only experienced one breath booger freezing a couple of times, and it is darn cold

Taken at Prospect Creek.

It was a balmy -40 today. Should be hitting winter any time now.

The year the train blew up, about -35 or more. Took out all the lights and heat. My wife and I were lucky, our lights and heat were back on in about 6 hours. For some it was 2 or 3 days later.

About 7AM in the morning it was about 60 above, by 7PM that night (the night before the train blew up) it had dropped to about -35 or so. Now that's a cold front!!!! Burrrrrrrrrr.

minus 72, absolute.

50 below with a 50-60 knot wind is no picnic (Pt Hope, mid 70's). Bare skin froze in seconds - as in about 3.