I mentioned last week that -3 Fahrenheit doesn’t seem that cold to me anymore. Well, this week it got colder. The coldest it’s been in Wisconsin in more than two decades, the coldest temperatures I’ve ever experienced. When I walked home from the gym on Wednesday it was -22F. That, reader, is cold. You don’t notice it for the first few minutes because you still have residual heat in your body from being inside. But at -22F your fingers start to get cold and numb inside your gloves and your toes inside your boots. My walk was about ten minutes. I could have handled twenty. But probably not thirty.
official low temps recorded in Embarrass, Minnesota in Jan 1996
1/1 -32
1/2 -40
1/4 -38
1/5 -42
1/6 -42
1/7 -42
1/14 -36
1/15 -36,
1/18 -34
1/19 -57
1/20 -57
1/22 -50
1/23 -42
1/24 -49
1/25 -47
1/26 -47
1/27 -34
1/29 -44
1/30 -55
1/31 -58
2/1 -60
2/2 -60
2/3 -46
you get adjusted to it, -20 isn’t that bad
But it depends on the wind. With no wind and a good coat, no problem. A stiff wind and all bets are off.
I saw a lone goose flying overhead this morning, honking while coming over the Isthmus in Madison, and heading south out over frozen Lake Monona. Where has it been this past week in that arctic weather? I’m sure there hasn’t been a lot of open water for it to come down in and rest. Why was it flying alone and not in a flock? That goose probably has a story to tell, but unfortunately we’ll never be able to hear it.