I know that this was not the coldest temperature I have ever experienced, but I am darn sure this is the coldest I have ever been.

4 years ago we had a fire at a record store that we were working. The call came in at 10:30 PM. At the time it was a fairly comfortable 28 degrees F (not bad for late January in MI). We ended up having to go defensive on the building (surround and drown tactics from the outside). This was at about 12:00 midnight. At about that same time we had an arctic weather system start to come in. The wind shifted and started blowing from the north and the temperature started to drop. By 1:00 AM the temperature had dropped to 8 degrees F with a -20 degree F wind chill. All of this would be just fine except for the NIMROD who was working the deluge gun off of the top of the engine that I was next to. For some reason (still unknown to me) the guy decided to shut down his turret. This would have been fine except that I was right underneath the gun at the time sitting on a hose. As soon as he shut down the water pressure dropped to a "trickle" (and out of a deluge gun a "trickle" is several gallons per minute) right down my helmet and into my turnout gear. I was soaked. I continued to sit on my line, but after about 30 minutes more, I was shivering uncontrollably. It took me about 4 days to warm up after that.

Bernie

---

______________
"Slowbern has always made astute observations."-Casey 03/10/2009
2013-2014 Detroit Lions---13-3 until proved otherwise.

I had a serious hypothermic experience due to weather and water as well. Not nearly as dramatic as fighting fires. (You guys are my all-time Superman Heros! - Everybody's comin' out, and you're going in. Cajones!!!)

There I was screaming down from Windy Pt., Mt. Lemmon, Tucson in a Feburary rain. Winter gear, but no rain jacket. ($20 piece of plastic - what an idiot.) 35-45 mph. I stopped 2x in 12mi. on the way down, because I thought the skewers, and head set had come loose the bike was shaking and rattling so.
Bike was holding perfectly. I shivered un-controllably for 3 hours. 2 hr. jacuzz saved me.

www.bicitreregioni.com

I walked to work last winter when it was -43.5C, not including the windchill. It wasn't all that windy, thankfully. We had a string of about 4 days of -40 weather.

Do you work at one of the Poles? :)

Really, where was this?



www.bicitreregioni.com

I was in Biwabik, MN (Near Tower) two weeks before the Mesabi International high school XC ski race (1998 or so) during some record lows for the area. One night it topped out at -60F (-66 just 10 miles north). By 7am, when I went outside just to feel it, it had warmed up to -51F... but I was only out there for a minute or so.

Coldest I've experienced for over an hour was that same day. Our team actually went out for 10K loops at about -35 in the late morning/noon. We were actually staying warm because we were in the woods and the snow was so bloody slow that there was no wind to contend with. We all smeared our faces with some whale oil or somthing. I think the high for the day was -25 or something absurd like that.

By the way, now that I've experienced it, I can honestly say that -51F is friggin' cold.

---

*
The Dude abides.

Not sure of the coldest temp, but I'm sure of the time my body's temp got down to it's lowest.

Sunny day, no clouds, about 70 at an elevation of 500'. Rode up HWY39 to HWY2, which was closed to traffic, up to Dawson's Saddle at 7900'. I got dehydrated on the way up, but was on a mission. I was getting really cold at about the 6500' mark, and was wearing only bibs, a short sleeve jersey, and had arm warmers, but I kept on. When I got to the top and turned around I knew within seconds I was in trouble. I had an exceptionally strong tailwind behind me on the way up, and was soaked with sweat, and dehydrated. I figure it was about 35-40 degrees at the saddle. I was only able to go down at about 2 mile intervals before I couldn't steer my bike due to such strong convulsions combined with the powerful winds. I had to lay on the side of the road in the fetal position a half dozen times for about 10-15 minutes until I could get up and go another few miles. There was plenty of yelling and cussing at the top of my lungs. Once I got down to about 5500', which felt like an eternity getting there, I was able to lay on the pavement in the sun and though I was still really cold, I also found myself laughing hysterically. Next time I'll bring the anal thermometer to make sure I get an accurate reading of just how cold I get.

Nipsy's profile gives his location as Saskatoon, SK. That would seem to fit pretty good.

---

"How bad can it be?" - SimpleS

Winter surf back in Jersey, air temp. in the 20's, water temp. very low 30's and snowing. Even with a 5mil. full suit it was damn cold, but surfing in a snowstorm is a really cool experience, and it was pumpin' that day. I've experienced colder days in general, but that's probably the coldest overall "elements" I've been exposed to for a considerable amount of time, we were out for about 2 hours.

Just looked back on my calendar - it was January 28, 2004 and it was actually 44.9C

And yes, Julian is correct, i live in Saskatoon Sk (Canada, that is). Brr.

I skied on a day when it was around -30F. I have no idea what the wind chill was, but I don't recall there was much wind. I know it was damn cold when I went fast though so mostly I skied steep mogul runs that made me work hard.

I worked in the frozen foods area for a major Chicago food distributor. I think the temp was -10F every day. The company supplied the workers with "freezer" suits and we got a 10 minute break every hour. It was a union job and paid quite well.

---

Don

Tri-ing to have fun. Anything else is just a bonus!