Wednesday, February 6, 2019

It's Cold Outside

It's a little chilly in Saskatoon this morning...



So I probably won't be taking any pictures today... or... this week...

How is everybody else doing?





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25 comments:

  1. Phil CurranFebruary 6, 2019 at 9:03 AM

    The English `Big Freeze' was -3 in the south, -9 `oop north'

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    1. timFebruary 6, 2019 at 9:16 AM

      Stay warm!

      A good friend of mine from elementary/high school did his doctorate at Cambridge and told me, though the winters there weren't as cold outside as they are in Saskatoon, nearly all the buildings he was ever in had no insulation at all - so he often felt much colder in the UK than he ever did back home!

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  2. ChrisFebruary 6, 2019 at 9:30 AM

    Hey, you guys need to man up! A mere -42C?! Here in Old Virginia it actually fell to below freezing, and mighty frosty that was, let me tell you. (Actually, it was a lot colder than that, but I'd rather not dwell on it.)

    Manfully yours,

    Chris J.

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    1. timFebruary 6, 2019 at 9:49 AM

      Ha! I'm sure it was a shocker in Virginia! These things are all relative. My father was originally from Toronto, Ontario (which has much milder winters than here). He was shocked when he first moved out to Saskatchewan in the 70s. He marvelled at the resiliency of the people that lived out here and said the snow and cold we got would have completely shut down Toronto - largely because their city maintenance crews wouldn't have the resources to deal with this much snow.

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    2. siggianFebruary 6, 2019 at 4:36 PM

      -42 Celcius is also -43 Farenheit (-40 is equally cold in both scales) and both are really really cold.

      (Says he from a balmy -3 Greater Vancouver)

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    3. siggianFebruary 6, 2019 at 4:46 PM

      The problem with Toronto is that there really isn't anywhere to put the snow when there's lots of it. Many of the side streets are narrow with lots of parked cars so the plows struggle to move the snow out of the way. And even when they do plow, residents don't have many places to shovel the snow berms caused by the plows. In the downtown core, there's just nowhere to place the snow because even the open spots are used for parking. It's actually easier for them to turn on giant heaters to melt the snow rather than move it. If TO gets more than 6" at a time, it can be a real mess.

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    4. timFebruary 6, 2019 at 4:47 PM

      My mom used to always fly out to Vancouver (where she grew up) for a week in February (or maybe it was March?) to help her get through the winters in Saskatchewan - she would visit her childhood friend and see flowers blooming.

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    5. davebFebruary 6, 2019 at 9:24 PM

      There were a number of things budding on Vancouver Island, and even a few starting to put out blooms and there's actually been a winter bite this week. Overnights down to -10 C. We have some trace snow on the lawns! *gasp!* Definitely worth a trip out to beat the cold most of the time. We do whine about how it's a 'damp' cold, but I understand there is something to it and the dry cold of the praires is a lot less miserable at the same temperature.

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  3. LasgunpackerFebruary 6, 2019 at 9:37 AM

    I make that wind chill temperature as -61.6 Fahrenheit, which sounds like something you would experience on Hoth. Our low is expected to be 30 degrees f, and I already thought that was cold.

    And insulation can make a huge difference in comfort! Older homes around here were built without and cane be significantly less comfortable.

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    1. timFebruary 6, 2019 at 9:53 AM

      It's true. We live in an older house which is made out of brick (which if very rare in Saskatchewan). The insulation consisted of wood chips packed between two layers of brick. we figured the insulation value away about R4 - it was very, very cold in the house on days like this - and our heating bills were astronomical! about five years ago we did some extensive renovation - essentially wrapping the house in 8" of insulation. it is now R40+. It still gets chilly on days like today and the boiler is constantly going... but it's nowhere near as cold as it used to be (and our heating bills are a fraction of what they used to be!)

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    2. LasgunpackerFebruary 6, 2019 at 2:01 PM

      Here we insulate mostly for cheaper air-conditioning. ;)

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    3. timFebruary 6, 2019 at 2:11 PM

      Right! Keep the heat OUT!

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    4. siggianFebruary 6, 2019 at 4:55 PM

      We replaced the 35 year old furnace in our house last year after it died. Cut our natural gas bill in half without doing anything else to the house but going from ~30% efficiency to 95% will do that. 95% is so ridiculously good that the exhaust pipe is actually PVC because of the relatively low temperatures coming out of the furnace.

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    5. timFebruary 6, 2019 at 11:10 PM

      We upgraded to a high-efficiency boiler about a decade ago, but I've been underwhelmed by it. We were similarly told our old boiler was running at about 30-40% efficiency and that they new one would operate at 90% efficiency and we should see a corresponding drop in our heating bills and that the boiler would pay for itself. We never really did, though. We didn't see a real drop in our heating bill until we added the insulation. Even then the savings probably haven't covered the maintenance and repairs we've had to put into the boiler... let along it "paying for itself"! I often wonder how much we could have saved by just keeping the old "inefficient" boiler and having it chug along without any sort of maintenance - like it had for probably decades before we bought the place... And now after the last round of repairs the boiler dude is telling us it's almost at the end of it's run and we should look to replace it in a few years!? GAH!?

      I'm glad your high-efficiency furnace worked out - it gives me hope that maybe the NEXT one might actually work better!!! The guy that installed the one we currently have probably just scammed us and gave us a crap boiler...

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  4. A JFebruary 6, 2019 at 11:37 AM

    We're having a lot of rain here in Toledo, but the temperatures aren't too bad.

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    1. timFebruary 6, 2019 at 12:10 PM

      Stay DRY!!

      It's funny, I ride a bike everywhere, year round, and when it warms up to 0°C to -5C everyone always says "Oh, you must be enjoying this weather..." and I have to say, no, this sucks - it makes EVERYTHING wet AND cold. I'd rather it be -10°C to -20°C because at least it's easier to keep everything dry!

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  5. TaximanFebruary 6, 2019 at 12:00 PM

    Note guys the temp at the top says C ... Celsius not Farenheit so its a lot colder than you think. All I can say from little old New Zealand where the worst we have had was -26c is omg how on earth do you survive and functions when its -50 or below....

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    1. timFebruary 6, 2019 at 12:15 PM

      -40 is -40... and anything below that is freaking cold...

      How do we survive? Stay inside and crank up the heat? Which is probably one of the reasons we have one of the higher CO2 emissions per capita...

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    2. timFebruary 6, 2019 at 12:17 PM

      Also, big warm coats.

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    3. timFebruary 6, 2019 at 12:36 PM

      and hot chocolate...

      This week my partner, Amanda, keeps shouting; "IT'S HOT CHOCOLATE TIME, MOTHERFü¢KER!"

      (which is a reference to this cartoon from the Oatmeal):

      https://theoatmeal.com/comics/log_out

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  6. timFebruary 7, 2019 at 2:19 PM

    Some pics of us out and about in the snow...

    https://bikegeekbrown.blogspot.com/2019/02/frosty-february.html

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  7. Fitz-BadgerFebruary 7, 2019 at 7:41 PM

    Well, Oregon is nothing like the Saskatchewan, but we are having a bit of a cold snap. Highs only in the 30 degrees F range. We actually got an inch or so of snow the other day, mostly melted off by now. More snow expected over the weekend and into next week. We've had a mild Winter up til now (mostly above average temps I think). I like the cooler weather, but I think your temps would take some getting used to for me.

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    1. timFebruary 7, 2019 at 9:28 PM

      I need to get used to them every year... and I've been living here since 1982!

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  8. DeanMFebruary 8, 2019 at 8:34 AM

    Wow! Well, we got about 4 inches of snow on Monday...it's something for the Puget Sound area anyway. :)

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    1. timFebruary 8, 2019 at 8:38 AM

      Yikes! Did it stay, or has it all melted!?

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