December of 1983 (Record Cold)

I was in the Navy and home - which was west of Toledo, OH at that time - on Christmas leave. I can remember the wind chill being -25 or lower; can't remember what the actual temps were.

In Chicago in the winter of 93 - 94 we also experienced record cold. A surveyor called me one day when it was -20 or so complaining that his digital level wouldn't work. I had to bite my tongue hard; the immediate thoughts that came to mind were:

a) I believe you;

and

b) What on earth are you doing running levels in this ungodly weather?

I spent most of that month sitting behind a desk. However, I had invested in about 50 head of Louisiana heifers and was trying to feed them for a profit. If they had ever gotten out onto a road I don't think they would have stopped heading south until they found suitable climes. Chopping ice several times per day to keep them exposed to fresh water was not a welcomed chore or profitable.

what about '90 (or was it '91)? went up to visit the grandparents outside of council bluffs for christmas. was grandma's last christmas at home- i just remember getting on our flight from orlando, it was somewhere around 20. connected through minneapolis, where it was -65, got to omaha and it was 45 below, where it stayed for the whole week we were there. i don't know how long that lasted, but an hour would have been long enough.

spent a month in northern china in january a couple years later. that was the most sustained ridiculous cold i've ever experienced, but nothing so bad as that christmas in omaha.

I remember. We had a high temp of -4 one day. I ran out of LP that month. Neighbor had a 50 gallon tank we took to town and filled. Between a wood burning stove and just using the LP for the kitchen stove, we survived. We all slept in the front room and kept the bedrooms closed off.

My two sons probably wouldn't remember the year. But if you asked them if they remember when the bathroom sink had a pyramid of ice in it when they woke up, they would remember it. We had snow, but not too much. We still surveyed when we could.

That was the year I climbed in the truck after a couple of hours of being outside and grabbed my coffee cup off of the 'doghouse' (engine cover in a 1976 Ford Econoline). I filled it with hot coffee from my Thermos...

It made it to my lips before the handle sheared from the cup from the temperature diff. Had a coverall load of hot coffee in my lap. I started using a melamine cup after that.:bored:

edit:

I also remember finding out that the LCD on a HP41C would get too cold to display. Thank God for Ford's lousy defroster vents.

That sounds about the winter that US59 was unofficially closed from I30 in Texarkana to the south past I20 and Marshall for a few weeks.

It stayed below 30F around a month and spent alot of days from near zero and below 20F.

There was very little work getting done.

We had miles and miles of boundary to clear and mark so we sharpened our Mexican heaters and the chain saws to keep us warm.

When it all glazed over with a sheet of ice we gave the crew time to organize the storage building in order to draw a check if they came into work.

I put about 1200 laths in the bed of my El Camino and found it easier to get around on the snow and ice covered roads.

😉

I was an instrumentman for a small firm in MI that year. One day it was 23 below and we were setting some line stakes for a gas pipeline. The instrument was facing into the wind, which made my eyes water so bad that I had to step back and wipe them dry every few seconds.

The chief was starting to get pretty annoyed with me, so I decided to just ignore the watering eye long enough to give him line. After a few seconds my vision just kind of fogged over and my eye ached like It had been jabbed with a stick. It had frosted over.

It thawed quick enough when I put my hand over it to warm it, but that was a bit scary at the time.

That winter I drove a 64 Dodge panel truck and the heater core was leaking, so I just bypassed it, until I could get around to replacing it. It was Christmas Eve, so I loaded up the family and drove from Springfield to Bellevue (NE). The wife held our 3 year old son on her lap and the 2 girls, 8 and 5, sat on a toy box in the back. I think it was about -17F.

Everyone was bundled up with quilts and such, except me, I was wearing 6 or 7 shirts, long johns, wool hat, wool socks and winter boots but I wasn't wearing gloves. I was an instrument man at that time and didn't like wearing gloves; I could tuck my hands in whenever I needed and I just got used to it. I had worked that day and then we had a little office party so I did have a little glow going too.

My wife looks over and says, aren't your hands cold? I held my right hand out and a little steam was rising up off of it. My wife pulled her hand out from under the quilt and took off her glove. When she grabbed my hand; my hand was warmer than hers.

Winter is my favorite time of year; but I sure don't miss those long cold winters in Nebraska......

I was working on a Power Plant being built in Central/East Texas, it stayed below freezing for 14-17 days. We were doing the underground piping and footings for a building that had a January 1st deadline. It was too cold to pour concrete, too cold to glue the fiberglass pipe. But we couldn't go home because of the deadline.

James

I was in the Army and stationed in Germany. Glad I missed that one...