What is your most vivid cold weather memory?

Michael Olson January 6, 2014, 8:57 AM Jan 6, 2014

Frozen fairgrounds. #tellmpr pic.twitter.com/9yu3nDYBAZ

— Jeffrey Thompson (@jeffreythompson) January 6, 2014

Minnesota is colder than Mars today. It is expected to warm up a bit tomorrow, but temperatures will be nearly as cold as they were this morning. Cold comfort: at -50 Siberia is still colder.

Temperatures on Monday will not likely break the Twin Cities record of -27. One record that we could break today in the Twin Cities: -14 for the daytime high.

It is likely that today is the coldest we will see this winter. Is it your coldest? Do you have a memory from a colder one? Tell us about that.

Today’s Question: What is your most vivid cold weather memory?

weather

About the blogger

Michael Olson

molson@mpr.org • @publicmic

Editor, MPR News

Jamie

I remember walking to work at 20 below because my car wouldn’t start. It was less than a mile, but it sure was cold. That’s when I decided I wouldn’t ever complain about hot weather again, but I still do. I still don’t know why we choose to stay in a place with such extreme temperatures – not too bright, I guess.

Sue de Nim

Doing the throw-hot-water-in-the-air trick at -38F in 1996. My friends in warmer climes were unimpressed. One said he couldn’t imagine living someplace with such “stinking cold.” I was able to reassure him that at -20F nothing has any odor at all, because aromatic compounds don’t volatilize. 😉

Mary Ackerman Zabel

I remember walking home from the pool back in the early ’70s, when my wet hair would often freeze so quickly and so hard, I could snap it off at the ends! This weather feels like what we endured commonly in northcentral South Dakota back in the day…

James

When I used to live in a small sod hut with my 5 children, burning corn husks for heat, with nothing but a single hole, unlighted outhouse, winter used to be a little tedious. TV reception was awful. Netflix was very much in its infancy. Luckily I didn’t have to drive very far to work.

JQP

several … but January 1986 ? took a girlfriend and her dog winter camping at Gooseberry falls – the night temp was single digits and her dog was suffering. We had zipped to bags together and now had the dog in there with us. Got through the night … sort of warm. I was doing better then girlfriend and her dog – so I started the car and then walked to lake while it warmed up ( girl and dog got in car). There was a surface of cloudlets on the lake surface – basically heat rising up through gaps/vents in the ice. the wind was very light 1-3 mph and bouncing from NE to SE. the cloudlets sort of danced with the shifts… I was mesmerized as they moved back and forth in the rising sun’s light. Tried to get a picture – but my camera was frozen.

Girlfriend and I broke up … she said if that was my idea of winter activities … she wasn’t interested.

Onan

Quite a few years ago during a “guys weekend” up in Orr, MN when it got down to -40 (actual temp).

The next day was bright and sunny and a balmy +10F.

I took off my shirt to drink in the “warmth” of the sun and said to my buddies, “It’s 50 degrees warmer than it was yesterday, and it’s still only 10 degrees. Welcome to Minnesota.”

/And I always think about those poor folks up in Winnipeg. They seem to get this cold each and every winter.
JL Anders

The day that Arne Carlson closed the schools I absolutely had to go to work because 2/3 of the staff wouldn’t make it. Driving down a back country road that ended in a T intersection, my accelerator froze. Understandably, panic ensued. Fortunately I managed to get it unstuck before flying off the road into a field.
- Jim G
  
  My first car was a VW purchased for $400 from a classmate from Cloquet. It had a 6 volt battery system. I actually had to take the battery into the house at night or it wouldn’t have the juice to crank the frozen engine in the morning. It also lacked any defrosting ability because the heat from the rear engine barely made it into the passenger compartment. It had a tendency to automatically accelerate when the frost conditions were at their worst. I kept it for one winter and sold it in the spring… for $400.00.
PaulJ

Pumping gas during the energy crisis. -30 11 hours outside / 4 cars at a time check all the oil. I was in the background on the 10oclock news. Woke up sleep walking that night dreaming I was diving to stop a car from overfilling.
Jim G

My wife slipped on glaze ice at the gas station, fell and broke both wrists during the 1996 cold snap of -30 degrees. We spent an entire evening at the Emergency Room. Lesson learned? Use the “Minnesota Shuffle” when walking in these emergency situation conditions.
Zac Rakke

When I was six my family moved into our new house. It was January 1996 and about -30 degrees out. It was so bitterly cold, the moving trucks wouldn’t start, our new home didn’t have heat on when we arrived, my brother dropped my favorite toy (which was made of plastic) and it shattered because it had frozen during the moving process. Just a brutally cold day
Jon M

Trick-or-Treating in the “Great Halloween Blizzard” of 1991. I was 7 and I wasn’t gonna give up on the candy. When I get to the door the nice people gave me lots of candy as there weren’t that many trick or treaters. I think I made it to like 8 houses and wound up with a bunch of candy.
Jane Snell Copes

The classic tongue-on-cold metal at the playground with my 2-year-old! I had very carefully NOT mentioned to her not to lick the metal, but she did it, and I figured our how to “breathe hot air” on her tongue to get it off. Much later, she said it had been an experiment because she had licked the metal the previous summer and wanted to see if it tasted the same. She’s now a Ph.D. scientist, and we all lived to tell the tale.
Anna

It was the winter of ’95-’96. We were living in a townhouse in La Crescent, MN. I had already had to miss work because of the ice storm that winter (half inch on the roads and I had to commute to Winona).

We had a 20 inch snowfall that winter in February or early March. There was so much drifted snow that we had to lift our son over the snow at the front door with a broom to clear it away. We cross country skied down the street with a four-foot wall of snow on either side.
kevins

The entire winter of 1997….winter storms or blizzards seeming to come up only after I had driven to work in the AM, only to have roads closed by quitting time. Snow depth was 111 inches for the season and my horses had to walk up a hill of packed snow to get out of the barn….poor girls could have wakled over the fence on snow by March. And then….melt off, ice blizzard and Red River flood in April. That was simultaneously memorable and forgetable! This winter seems to hurt more so far however…maybe its aging.
Susan

In ’76-’77 we lived in South Dakota. I lived two long blocks from work and always walked. I remember running home as fast as I could and being afraid that I might not make it–might just fall down and die. Under the old wind chill index it was -75 or -80.
Ralphy

Two come to mind. Winter cross-country ski & camping trip at -25. Cooking on the little one burner Coleman, the meat was freezing on top while burning on the bottom. We were comfy after building a small campfire and a 5×5 curved snow wall to reflect the heat.
The other was a -10 football game on a rock hard frozen field about 40 years ago. No sideline heaters – we didn’t even go in at the half. I guess the coach thought the cold/warm/cold would be too much. Didn’t know how cold I was until my feet started to thaw out after the game.
Dennis F

The time in 1962 when a tow truck driver was trying to get me started in my 1953 Packard in front of Hopkins High School by pushing me down Hwy 7. My hands were frozen and it wouldn’t start until the truck driver came over and turned on my ignition key. Then the push got me started.
Harry

Seventh grade in Fargo, I risked mockery by wearing long underwear under my slacks. Waiting for the doors to be opened that morning, I see a girl wearing a mini-skirt (yeah, it was back then) with legs as red as the red symbols on this web page. Even then, I thought that was foolish
birch lake woman

December 1978 sitting in my car in the parking lot of Central High School in anticipation of the ACT test watching the steam roll on the surface of Lake Superior. The surface of the lake entirely froze that winter. We went down to Park Point in May for a picnic and the ice was stacked so high we could not see the lake.
Bear Paws on Berntside

Someone higher up in the family decided we should take a Winter snowshoe trip at a family camp on Burntside Lake back in the 60s. This was pretty serious Winter fun: bunk house with wood heat, half inch ice covering the primitive Summer windows, sleeping in clothes inside sleeping bags. One kid later dubbed the firemonster decided to stoke the fire in the middle of the night causing some of the adults to awaken in sweat with water running down the windows. But it all went pretty smoothly. Temps were in the -20 to -30 range while we were out on some very long treks, but the wind was mercifully still. This can make all the difference.

The morning we left temps exceeded -50. The camp caretaker said it was quite common. He had his work cut out for himself starting cars for the city folk that morning.
Bear Paws on Berntside

Someone higher up in the family decided I, the youngest in the family, needed more experience in Northern Minnesota Winter. So I was sent on an adolescent snowshoe camping adventure somewhere close to the Canadian boarder. Mostly I remember slogging along expansive frozen lakes with blinding sunlight, putting one foot in front of the other. Not a lot of conversation going on from behind those face masks with holes punched for eyes and mouth. But camping was memorable. Our able guide didn’t fool around while preparing a hearty stew on a fire, gently assigning tasks so that in no time we all were well fed and happy in a Winter wonderland. Then, to our amazement, he asked us to tromp around in a rectangular area before unfolding a canvas tarp in the snow. After lining up like sardines, he folded the long heavy tarp back over us up over our heads. No worry breathing, plenty of fresh air out there to find its way under the tarp. No worry about youthful hanky panky I suppose in those temps either.