Are you trapped in the Polar Vortex?

[Seasha]

and it is 55 degrees right now!

Take Care

That's quite a leap and I'm sure everyone is happier now!

We got our first snow fall of the season with high gusts of wind yesterday. About 4" - not too bad, but roads are icy and temps are in the high teens. Power outages early this am too.

January saw temps in the upper 40's - low 50's, so we're not used to this wintry weather. Guess it was our turn

[pennstater]

marti

Not to worry today.

My area was in the Polar Vortex (NW Ohio), with double digit below zero temps, and it is 55 degrees right now!

Take Care

55 here too and 60 tomorrow! Much nicer walk today. Tons of people are out of hibernation today.

[palmtree]

This thread is very timely for me.! I am from a warm climate and have spent most of my life fighting the heat. I moved to a cooler part of the country to improve my MS. At the moment we are in the Arctic Vortex for an extended period of time.

Last night I got a burst of energy (very rare for me). And decided to go out and shovel snow. It was 5° with a 25 mph wind. I think that is a windchill of -19°. One of my gloves kept falling off. They are just kind with the open fingers and a flap to turn them into mittens. The flap wouldn’t stay on my left hand. The fingertips that were exposed got bad frostbite!

Lesson: If you are from a place with palm trees and flip-flops be careful in super cold weather. If anyone has any advice on what to do to save my fingers I would really appreciate it. Tomorrow I’m going to a wound clinic where they have a hyperbaric chamber. I hope they can reverse the damage!

But it was fun shoveling snow. When it is really cold that is when I get loads of energy. Snow is so beautiful. I wish it wasn’t so dangerous.

[Gwenie]

Cold? It has been beyond cold. Frigid!

Yes, in west central PA there is a ridge of small hills called mountains here. The polar vortex went through and we didn't know what hit us. Not a car nor a person on the road side. Ice everywhere. The wind was not benign. No animal, not a cow, horse or dog was seen. The birds went into hiding and finding a respite from the wind. This went on for two days. My MS loves cooler weather but not like this, my RA was saying "Where's the spa?" But, and I say this with candor, it was only half as bad as what cities like Duluth had to cope with. The problem is most people aren't set up to cope with this. Even the water systems were having trouble, natural gas seemed to ooze out of the jets on the stove and ice formed a long and very big icle from the furnace vent.
Now some 3 days later, the ice is finally disappearing, today it was 50+ F. But next week...? We just don't know.

[Cat Mom]

I can't believe it's only been 6 days since my last post on the uber-freezing cold... yesterday it was +12C (that's approx 55F) and 98% of the snow we had melted. I believe it was a record high. It has been dangerous for many, I live in an urban area and there are sheets of ice blowing off roofs of really tall buildings, one crushed a mail truck! There are also many ice flows and jams in our rivers, some causing flooding.

It was muddy but my pup thoroughly loved a proper walk and so did I. Of course there were a few of those typical "Canadian boobs" who were wearing shorts! Oh well, as the saying goes, it takes all kinds to make a world. Back to chilly today but nothing with the word "vortex", "arctic" or "polar" in it.
Jen