Call this cold? This is nothing!

[imomus]

Today, Sunday, is an exceptional day here in Berlin: the temperature is forecast to go above zero -- the only time it'll do that this week. A maximum of plus one centigrade is anticipated (wth a "glow"). Here's the view from my kitchen window at the moment:



Think that's cold? Have a listen to Francine Stock's 90 minute radio documentary about the Frost Fairs held on the Thames when it froze over. The first was in 1608, the last in 1814. The Thames has frozen over completely about twenty-five times in the past thousand years. A half to two thirds of those freezes happened in the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries, the "Little Ice Age", when ice from the Arctic crept as far south as the northern isles of Scotland, and polar bears jumped off ice floes and terrorized the crofters. In 1740 it was so cold in London that trees cracked apart "with the sound of artillery fire".

But don't let the soothing sounds played by Norwegian musician Terje Isungset on thousand-year-old glacier ice lull you into a false sense of security. Nothing that happens in Britain is really cold. For real cold we have to go to Siberia.



Britain's Little Ice Age would be considered a summer holiday in Yakutsk, the world's coldest city, where it's currently minus 38 centigrade, with light snow, 67% humidity, and overcast skies. A journalist from The Independent went to Yakutsk last winter. At first, the minus 40 cold didn't feel too bad. Then he stepped out of his hotel:

"The first place to suffer is the exposed skin on my face, which begins to sting, and then experience shooting pains, before going numb, which is apparently dangerous, because it means blood flow to the skin has stopped. Then the cold penetrates the double layer of gloves and sets to work on chilling my fingers. The woolly hat and padded hood are no match for minus 43C either, and my ears begin to sting. Next to succumb are the legs. Finally, I find myself with severe pain all across my body and have to return indoors. I look at my watch. I have been outside for 13 minutes."

Here's what happens to your hands at that kind of temperature:

[Error: unknown template video]

In fact, if you're heading to Siberia, you might want to bear in mind this little chart:

Up to minus 40C it's absolutely fine (according to the Siberians).
At minus 50C diesel fuel freezes. (Bear in mind that if your car engine stops, you may well die.)
When it gets past minus 52C they close the schools.
At about minus 60C it becomes difficult to breathe.
At minus 65C birds die of cold in mid-flight.
Minus 71C is the minimum temperature recorded in Oymyakon.



Ah yes, Oymyakon. If you think Yakutsk is cold, do what this Sky News reporter did. Travel east from Yakutsk for three days (800 kilometers) and, a few hundred miles south of the Arctic circle, you'll reach Oymyakon:

[Error: unknown template video]

People in Oymyakon eat only reindeer meat and horsemeat, no vegetables. They wear only fur -- artificial fabrics are no good at all.

I won't say I've been to Oymyakon, but every time I fly from Europe to Japan I see places in the vicinity from 30,000 feet up in the air. I always wonder how there can be a squeeze on space on the planet when there's all that empty territory down there in Siberia. I suppose the Oymyakons share my puzzlement. Minus 40? That's nothing.

Comments

[heartbeeps.livejournal.com]

A great post, Nick. I would absolutely love to visit Oymyakon. The coldest temperatures I've ever experienced were in the mid -20s around this time three years ago in Gdansk. How about yourself?

[imomus.livejournal.com]

I lived in Montreal in the mid-70s, and I suppose the average winter temperatures there might have been minus ten or so.

In 2004 I visited Izhevsk, near the Ural mountains that divide Russia from Siberia. It was March (http://imomus.livejournal.com/17252.html), so it wasn't terribly cold, but I'd guess it was minus 10 or so.

Actually, Berlin hit minus 20 or so in early 2005 -- ironically I was "protected" from this cold snap by being stationed in Hokkaido at the time, where I was working as a sound artist at the university. Hakodate was, again, about minus ten, so I missed the minus 20 stuff back home in Berlin.

[imomus.livejournal.com]

I may have got that wrong -- Berlin's cold snap was in January 2006 (http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2006/jan/24/weather.germany), when I escaped it by being in Osaka with Hisae.

[imomus.livejournal.com]

Ah yes, here I am in January 2006 asking Why are Japanese houses so cold? (http://imomus.livejournal.com/168063.html) I'm glad not to be in Berlin, but no matter how cold it gets in Berlin I'm never as cold as I am in Japan, because they don't heat their houses properly in Japan.

[heartbeeps.livejournal.com]

That sounds about right, I suppose Berlin's cold snap was also Gdansk's. I was visiting Gdansk from Wroclaw and it's the only time I've ever seen frozen sea.

(http://www.flickr.com/photos/heartbeeps/451045273/)

[bonsai-human.livejournal.com]

New Zealand is the same. The coldest it has been in Auckland in my living memory was 6 degrees during the day and 0 overnight, but even at around 12 it feels freezing because there is insufficient heating and insulation. Don't even get me started on the soundproofing consequences of this.

I suspect the colonisers assumed the climate would be tropical...

Izhevsk

[virtuozzo.livejournal.com]

Hey, Momus!
What were you doing in Izhevsk? I grew up in Izhevsk - 0-16. The average winter temperature used to be around -15 -20 C. when it was -25, it was considered cold and lower 8 (out of 10) school classes would be closed - and kids would gladly go ride nordic skis and sleds :)

Re: Izhevsk

[imomus.livejournal.com]

I played a music show (http://imomus.livejournal.com/17252.html) in Izhevsk in 2004!

[(Anonymous)]

hello from Moscow ) and thanks for interesting report)) today is only -14)

[van-der-tanya.livejournal.com]

i forget to login)

[imomus.livejournal.com]

There's a funny bit at the end of the Independent article I link:

"I get a last blast of Yakutsk air at the airport, where we have to walk to the plane and are then forced to wait for 10 minutes on the tarmac before we are allowed to board. As we taxi down the icy runway in preparation for take-off, the pilot announces that the current temperature in Moscow is minus 4C. The burly Siberian sitting next to me whoops with delight and takes another swig from the bottle of whisky he'ss brought on board. "We're flying into tropical heat!""

[van-der-tanya.livejournal.com]

nice)) however some of us prefer another tropics)

[kumakouji.livejournal.com]

Have you heard of a substance called Aerogel (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aerogel)?



It's used for insulation against the sort of extreme temperatures you'd encounter in space (-100C and above). It's nicknamed frozen smoke because it looks like smoke but it's actually a solid gel. You could probably have a hat made of pure Aerogel. It would be the spookiest looking hat ever.

[imomus.livejournal.com]

I like how they've got an eskimo to test it!

[(Anonymous)]

They friggin had that SAME friggin picture in the 200- book of world records. I was nigh on an infant when I read that. I've had several years of both biology and physics since then. I couldn't tell you squat about Newton's theory of motion, which is more than I could tell you about anything to do with genetics past X and Y chromosomes (at least I can name the guy who discovered the theories of motion -- by the way, do X and Y chromosomes still exist in the scientific community? things move fast these days...)

But I can tell you all there is to know about Aerogel.

Either Science sucks or I do.

Yours befuddled,
David Leon

[diesel-pioneer.livejournal.com]

They had the same photo in the 1998 book, too.

[(Anonymous)]

That was it.
-D.L.

[lord-whimsy.livejournal.com]

Yeah. Great stuff.

[craig-pulsar.livejournal.com]

Thanks for brining aerogels to my attention. What a cool substance!

[eptified.livejournal.com]

I feel similarly, and am surprised to see this viewpoint coming from a stick-figure like yourself - along with the usual deterministic flotilla (sensitivity, artistic passion, sexual prowess, etc) you people tend to faint in a stiff breeze

[imomus.livejournal.com]

I am a hardy Scot! My ancestors come from this place:



...which is 60 degrees north! For comparison, Oymyakon is 63 degrees north.

[kineticfactory.livejournal.com]

Though, to be fair, Scotland does have the Gulf Stream warming it.

[imomus.livejournal.com]

Yes, the latitudes are pretty misleading, actually.

[brokenjunior.livejournal.com]

At minus 50C diesel fuel freezes. (Bear in mind that if your car engine stops, you may well die.)



I remember seeing a documentary about Siberian truck drivers: their solution was to make a bonfire under their trucks, each time they were forced to have a longer stop ... hmmm ...

[imomus.livejournal.com]

Well, they never go alone -- always two trucks together, in case one breaks down, which means certain death.

[kineticfactory.livejournal.com]

When I moved to the UK, I was expecting it to be snowy all winter, with the sort of conditions in which children could make snowmen and have snowball fights, were they not all confined to playing XBox games indoors out of fear of paedophiles/gangs/&c. I was quite surprised that you only ever get a light dusting of snow, once or twice a year if you're lucky, in London, and it's always gone by midafternoon. But still, one sees old-fashioned Christmas cards and picture books with images of kids in woollen mittens and hats ice skating, making snowmen, tobogganing, and so on. I wonder where they're from. Did Britain really have white winters during Victorian/Edwardian times (to which most "timeless" images of childhood in the English-speaking world belong)? Are these images originally from America/Canada/Germany? After all, Christmas as we know it is a largely German idea, brought over with Queen Victoria, so why not "winter" (in all its snowiness) itself?

(In Australia, winter is like a British autumn, Christmas is in the midst of a summer heatwave, and snow may only be found on a few high mountains which constitute the country's ski resorts, so the whole idea of snow seems vaguely mythological. Hence Australians in Britain tend to get inordinately excited the first few times they see snow.)

[meadelante.livejournal.com]

Its been 25C here in Arizona. I wouldn't have it any other way;.

[evil-heat.livejournal.com]

fascinating stuff. i live in kiev but my girlfriend is from siberia; somewhere that seems very cold and also very cool

[(Anonymous)]

Mr. Currie, you put me to shame. I was tramping around Potsdamer Platz today (it's 5AM. By today I mean yesterday) showing American friends-of-friends around Berlin, and I dared to do a little dance to warm myself up, all the whilst singing "it's cooooold, it's cooooold" in an off-tune key somewhat resembling E major. For this I duly apologise.

Me dad was in Siberia once. He tells me his breath was blown by the wind into his beard, formed beads of water, and froze. I can't even friggin muster enough hairs for beard. Haven't even flown to Japan. I want to be you two...

Yours admiringly,
David Leon

[lord-whimsy.livejournal.com]

It's all that damned landmass! No ocean or maritime climate to regulate it. Similar thing happens in North America's interior. Europeans were initially shocked how harsh our winters were. I've noticed that spring tends to come a bit earlier to parts of northern Europe; I'd be surrounded by tulips in Paris and come home to bare trees and frozen earth.

The tundra swans are down from the Arctic, and are hanging out on the icy lakes. It's downright balmy here (20 degrees F)

[lord-whimsy.livejournal.com]

Recommended viewing for early North American winters is Black Robe:

Greetings from 55416

[(Anonymous)]

A whopping high of -5C here today: as I said to Nellie last night, BREAK OUT THE BEACHWEAR.

speak your brains

[(Anonymous)]

As i trugded up to the glorious Shakespeare's Head in Brighton earlier this eve some vox pop idiot said " and they think its global warming,!" I just said its a very mild winter.

maf

[(Anonymous)]

how curious that diesel freezes at -50 but two degrees less than that and te authorities are concerned and close the schools!
DC

[funazushi.livejournal.com]

This reminds me of a trip I once made on the Trans-Siberian railway in the winter many years ago. At each stop, where we would replenish our food and drink stocks, we would be met by locals wearing valenkis or felt boots. They were massive, but then again so were the locals. I have often wondered about these boots and whether they would be practical for our Canadian winters.

[thomascott.livejournal.com]

I experienced temperatures of around minus 25 in Toronto, with the wind-chill making it seem about ten degrees colder
Wind-chill is an enormous factor in terms of the tolerability of cold, making a bearable ambient temperature lethal.

[lord-whimsy.livejournal.com]

I've been up to my waist in cedar swamps when the wind chill was 7 degrees f. Had to break the ice with a stick as we made our way through the cold water. My trousers froze solid, and I had to crack them at the knee so I could make the nine mile trek back to my vehicle.

(It was the fastest way out of the swamp, and the daylight was quickly fading. Nearly impossible to negotiate acres of blowdown in the dark.)

[funazushi.livejournal.com]

I walk about 40 minutes to work everyday, and find temperatures in the minus 20 range aren't bad if you are dressed properly (perhaps with some fancy Russian felt boots). But it does depend on which way the wind is blowing. Getting those temperatures in the face makes things pretty uncomfortable.

Now as a point of comparison, school children in Toronto are kept indoors for recess only if it is below minus 28. I think they have only closed the schools once in my lifetime, and that was when they called in the army to deal with a blizzard.

[(Anonymous)]

Your article coincides nicely with the documentaries that German tv channel Phoenix aired today. They focused on Sibiria and Jakutsk, citing some of the facts that you also mentioned.

I loved the images of the frozen over lakes, and the surreal atmosphere of them. I don't think I'd like to visit, though. The upcoming -15° C the weather report prognosed are enough to keep my hidden under my blankets.

[cap-scaleman.livejournal.com]

Isn't it wonderful how some people still live in these parts of the world? Unlike us spoiled western folks...

[sm255.livejournal.com]

One of the hardest things about my 12 years living in England is my inability to stop longing for Canadian winters. The squinchy sound of boots on cold snow in the sky snippet triggered such nostalgia - there's a whole lifestyle, a whole lore and a whole suite of sensual and physical memories that's been cut out of my life since I moved to a land without winter. England doesn't have winters - it just remains dull brown November until March. The dramatic reduction of hours of daylight, without the mitigation of the dazzling light of a blanket of snow makes me crazed, still.

[the23.livejournal.com]

the squeeze on space/population growth/depletion of natural resources is vastly overexaggerated seemingly as a matter of course.

given siberia also gets pretty warm in the summer we really should stop complaining about the weather in this country. it's not as if we are short of things to moan about.

That's nothing.

[pay-option07.livejournal.com]

http://www.21stcenturysciencetech.com/Articles%202007/20_1-2_CO2_Scandal.pdf

Page 9 of 15 has the temperature variations for the last 10,000 years, and quite a rebuttal for present CO2 emission gradients standards data.

Not quite that cold here!

[(Anonymous)]

Greetings from Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada!
It was -40 degrees C (with windchill) here today.
I had to drive the car around a bit to keep it from freezing
solid.

[solo01.livejournal.com]

Hi!
I am from Russia, I lived in Yakutia 10 years, next to Oymyakon. Really, it was very funny.
Every morning, before use a car, drivers put a blowtorch under car engine. After it they left - to clean teeth and shave oneself. In 15-20 minutes a car engine was good to use.
Indeed our schools did not work only at -52C. Otherwise I walked in school every day. It is fully normal to conduct a lot of time outside at -35C. It was considered warmly.
In winter season heavy trucks, bulldozers and other heavy technique are not turned off at night. In the morning it will impossible to switch on. An indeed diesel fuel becomes thick - as condensed milk with sugar. Difficultly even to stir him a stick in a barrel. Metal instruments become fragile as glass.
At this time, if to breathe through a nose only, it is possible easily to get damages from frost in the nose. As if a burn, it's better to close a face a woolen. But only when it will be cold - below -40.
Indeed, clothes are preferable from natural fur only. Synthetic materials do not work almost.
But not all so awfully! When I lived there, I found it fully normal. Moreover, these were very happy years.

[imomus.livejournal.com]

Nice to hear from a real Oymyakon! (Well, a Yakutian!) To us, these places sound like planets in another galaxy.

[detura.livejournal.com]

I grew up in Yakutsk and there is a reason I live in the desert now))) Thanks for the post!