I kind of rushed out of my job this morning, because there is only one hour or so in between jobs, and I like to make that time count. So, I went out into the cold without gloves. My right hand was tucked into a coat pocket, but my left was carrying some stuff.
It is maybe a quarter of a mile walk from my building to the parking garage, yet during that brief walk of maybe three or four minutes, my hand was in pain, and it took quite a while to stop hurting. Probably around ten minutes, and even twenty or so minutes later, the tip of one finger still felt strange, almost numb.
All of it went away, but that is an example of how brutally frigid it is outside. We already got more snow than usual here in the northeast for December (five measurable snowfalls in northwestern Jersey to this point, with more expected tomorrow). Now, the brutally low temperatures and wind chill are adding to the misery of what has so far been an unusually bad winter season, with temperatures that have been hovering well below normal.
It has been incredibly cold in recent weeks in the northern half of the United States.
How cold?
Well, when midnight came on the 1st just a couple of days ago, New Jersey (where I live) experienced the coldest New Year's Day on record. There were warnings that even a mere 30 minutes outside with exposed skin could create frostbite conditions! Wind chill factors made it feel even colder than the temperatures suggested.
And that was just New Jersey! Record cold temperatures were also recorded in various other parts of the country, including Chicago. When the ball dropped in Time's Square in New York City, it was the second coldest on record, and the coldest in over a century. And these are cold weather regions, where cold temperatures during winter months are not exactly strange. But the seriousness of this cold is making headlines, perhaps especially for how early in the winter this cold stretch is coming.
The story is much the same from New England, through the mid-Atlantic states, and across much of the Midwest, and even throughout much of the South. In fact, even Florida and southern Georgia are experiencing below freezing temperatures, and measurable snow is expected to fall there, and all across the East Coast tomorrow. Parts of New England, particularly along the coast of Maine, are expecting up to a foot of snow.
Yes, this is unusual. We remember the Polar Vortex from a few years ago, when temperatures were even colder. But those patches of days did not last as long as this period has, as we have seen below freezing temperatures in the greater New York metropolitan area now since well before Christmas.
And so, it seemed timely to add some links to articles about the cold. The first is an article about how to gauge when the cold is starting to reach dangerous levels, and when you just should not really go outside more than you absolutely have to. And the second link is how the East Coast is perhaps being hit by something called the "Bomb Cyclone," which I had admittedly never heard of before. If I understand right, the cold temperatures are expected to at least continue for some time, if not get worse!
How to gauge when it's too dangerously cold to go outside by Hilary Brueck, January 2, 2018:
http://www.businessinsider.com/when-is-it-too-cold-to-go-outside-2018-1
The East Coast Is About To Get Hit by a “Bomb Cyclone” And you thought last week was cold? ROWAN WALRATHJAN. 2, 2018:
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