Friday, February 20, 2015

Colder than _________?

Quick name all the  cities in the world you can think of that are known for their cold weather and check out their temperatures from last night.    Here's the list I came up with:

Cold Cities Listed in Order by Latitude
for comparison's sake, Washington DC is 38.8951ºN

Fairbanks:   (64.8436ºN), 21ºF
North Pole, Alaska:   (64.7511ºN), 20ºF
Nome, Alaska:   (64.5039ºN), 17ºF
Reykjavik: (64.1333ºN),  30ºF
Anchorage: (61.2167º N), 32ºF
Helsinki:  (60.1708º N), 36ºF
Oslo:  (59.9500ºN), 41ºF
Saint Petersburg: (59.9500ºN),   37ºF
Stockholm:  (59.3294ºN),  41ºF
Glasgow: (55.8580ºN),  38ºF
Moscow:  ( 55.7500ºN), 30ºF
Copenhagen:  (55.6761ºN), 37ºF
Calgary:  (51.0486ºN), 45ºF
Bozeman:  (45.6778ºN), 46ºF
Boston:   ( 42.3601ºN), 17ºF


You'll notice that most of these cities  are 17º+ further North in latitude than Washington DC (with the exception of the American cities), which means at minimum most of the listed cities are 1200 miles further away (Moscow) from the equator than Washington DC  and the most northern cities listed (like Fairbanks) are 2200 miles further from the equator than we are!

But look at the temperature  here in the Washington DC area this morning:


0ºF!!!

That makes the temperature here more akin to these Siberian cities:
Perm, Russia (SIBERIA): (58.0000ºN),   -6ºF
Krasnoyarsk, Russia (SIBERIA): (56.0167ºN), -13ºF

and my frigid hometown:
Minneapolis:     (44.9778ºN), 5ºF

But thankfully not quite as cold
South Pole, Antarctica: (90ºS),    -48ºF


The Washington Post declared that "the Eastern US is by far the coldest place in the world compared to average today".   Another article declared that today's cold breaks a 120-year-old temperature record!






What can I say?   It feels like the winters of my childhood.  

Except that Minneapolis is slightly warmer today and  school here is canceled again for today (which is a very rare occasion in my home state).  Our county has literally had one single day of school all week (Thursday) and even though only 1/5 of my kids goes to public school, it seriously messes with our routine when school is canceled.

On the bright side though, my kids have figured out how to harness the  dry powdery snow and make a  cool sledding track.  The cold doesn't seem to keep them inside or slow them down a bit…




and you will probably not be surprised to hear, that despite it being the coldest day in 120+ years,  that Adam is still wearing shorts.




1 comment:

Scott said...

I've been to Perm, Russia, and lived in Siberia. And it is indeed very cold here today. Cville was -2 this morning.

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