Today it was so cold in Los Angeles that

TimFox · Dec 7, 2013

I was on a jobsite in Saudi Arabia, and told my associates that in Illinois, we had two seasons: winter and road construction.
They replied that things were the same in Saudi: only there it was summer and road construction.
Take your pick.
Just remember that when it gets really hot, and you're down to your underwear, and you are still hot, that removing your underwear will not make you cooler.
In adult-rated climates, however, one can always add layers during cold spells.

Sirius Glass · Dec 7, 2013

Truzi said:
In the Greater Cleveland Area, every winter people act as if they've never seen snow before. I've begun to sarcastically reassure these people that they'll get used to it after they've lived here a couple years. When they tell me they grew up here, I then ask why the hell they are freaking out. (I grew up here too.)

In the Middle Atlantic states there are several things what happen when there is a forecast of impending snow:

The minimum acceptable speed on all roads regardless of road width or pavement surface is 70 miles per hour.
When snow does appear all cars must stop at the base of icy hills. It is imperative that they start up without any momentum and proceed up the hills with wheels spinning. When the reach the point that the vehicle starts to slide down hill, the accelerator is pushed to the floor and the steering wheel is whipped left and right as quickly as possible.
Stopping on snow or ice requires full force be repeated applied to the brake pedal.
Snow tires and chains are not permitted. The only legal winter tires are smooth trendy designer tires.
On the first report of impending snow, everyone rushes [see #1] to the stores and to buy out milk, bread and toilet paper. The best that I can figure is that the cause for these actions are based on a pagan ceremony that must be done in every household. The ceremony involves making french toast and causes great gastric distress. Frankly if the ceremony with the french toast causes such explosive evacuations, why anyone would even consider conducting the pagan ceremony?

Thomas Bertilsson · Dec 7, 2013

TimFox said:
Just remember that when it gets really hot, and you're down to your underwear, and you are still hot, that removing your underwear will not make you cooler.

Best advice all day, but what about empathy? Other people might get downright chilled as an effect of removing our underpants, which may or may not have a good effect on society and our future careers as inmates.

TimFox · Dec 7, 2013

Sirius Glass said:
In the Middle Atlantic states there are several things what happen when there is a forecast of impending snow:

The minimum acceptable speed on all roads regardless of road width or pavement surface is 70 miles per hour.

When snow does appear all cars must stop at the base of icy hills. It is imperative that they start up without any momentum and proceed up the hills with wheels spinning. When the reach the point that the vehicle starts to slide down hill, the accelerator is pushed to the floor and the steering wheel is whipped left and right as quickly as possible.

Stopping on snow or ice requires full force be repeated applied to the brake pedal.

Snow tires and chains are not permitted. The only legal winter tires are smooth trendy designer tires.

On the first report of impending snow, everyone rushes [see #1] to the stores and to buy out milk, bread and toilet paper. The best that I can figure is that the cause for these actions are based on a pagan ceremony that must be done in every household. The ceremony involves making french toast and causes great gastric distress. Frankly if the ceremony with the french toast causes such explosive evacuations, why anyone would even consider conducting the pagan ceremony?

Only slightly different in Illinois: here we have a public holiday (a floating feast) called "What's all this white s***? day" where the drivers go out, drive crazy, and ask that question, not having seen snow for roughly eight months.

Ken Nadvornick · Dec 7, 2013

Thomas Bertilsson said:
...the span can be as wide as 145 degrees F. That's 80 degrees C to all you civilized people.

Mars is like that, too.

Ken

Thomas Bertilsson · Dec 7, 2013

Ken Nadvornick said:
Mars is like that, too.

Ken

Civilized?

Ken Nadvornick · Dec 7, 2013

Cold.

But it truly wouldn't surprise me one iota if someday we see a picture of one of those little Curiosity-dug trenches in the dirt, but with an old rusty nail sticking out of the bottom.

:w00t:

Ken

hoffy · Dec 7, 2013

Dr Croubie said:
Lightweights.
Here in adelaide we can't have convertibles. If you're in the sun for 20 consecutive minutes the top of your head catches fire. (but it gets worse in summer)

Well played sir! Adelaide is the only place I have ever seen people with black complexions using spf 30+ sunscreens...

redrockcoulee · Dec 7, 2013

Thomas Bertilsson said:
I read somewhere that the US Midwest has some of the largest temperature spans anywhere on the planet. With possible -30*F or even -40*F it it's really freaking cold, and more than +100*F in the summer with sticky humidity, the span can be as wide as 145 degrees F. That's 80 degrees C to all you civilized people.

That is about our temperature range from -40 C to +43 C but anything about 38 or below -30 is unusual which is what it was this morning -34C but we are sending it east to Regina and by Monday is supposed to be -5C. With a strong chinook we can get a change of 40 degrees in a day from -20 to +20. Sure wished that would happen today.

lxdude · Dec 7, 2013

semi-ambivalent said:
TMI

Most people say TMI is when I go without!

flatulent1 · Dec 7, 2013

Ken Nadvornick said:
Translation for Seattle...

"If you don't suffer through the 48 weeks, you won't really appreciate the 4 weeks."

Ken

You get FOUR weeks of summer up in Monroe? We only get three in Shoreline.

Wayne · Dec 7, 2013

I shoveled and plowed 6 hours a day Monday-Wednesday and right now its 22 below

winger · Dec 7, 2013

Ken, yes, exactly - it was sunny today and that made all the difference. I took the dogs out this morning and thought it seemed remarkably warm (no jacket, either, T-neck and sweatshirt, jeans, sneakers). Checked the thermometer when I came in and it was 3. But it was sunny! And not windy. It warmed up to a whopping 15F today, too.

I agree, Truzi - you can always add layers to get warm - there's only so much that can come off to stay cool.

In winter, I only get tired of cleaning snow off my car by about March (in New England anyway, no clue how IA will be) and that's usually right when it starts warming up. By the time it gets to be 80F, I'm wishing for that snow back.

I saw one of those "You might be a New Englander if…" lists and it included something about scraping ice off your windshield in the morning and using the AC in the car later the same day. Yup, BTDT.

I was born in Sitka, AK and the joke there is that the rainy season lasts from Jan 1 to Dec 31. Wellies (the boots) are called "Sitka Slippers" by my parents.

benveniste · Dec 7, 2013

... that the L.A. Police and Politicians had their hands in their own pockets?

grahamp · Dec 7, 2013

Being a transplanted Brit, I still tend to think in Celsius. It is priceless to see the expression on people's faces when I forget to convert the temperature and say 'it's going to be below zero tonight'!

Tom1956 · Dec 8, 2013

grahamp said:
Being a transplanted Brit, I still tend to think in Celsius. It is priceless to see the expression on people's faces when I forget to convert the temperature and say 'it's going to be below zero tonight'!

Well maybe one day the rest of the world will progress and switch over to the American system of weights and measures.

StoneNYC · Dec 8, 2013

Today it was so cold in Los Angeles that

Tom1956 said:
Well maybe one day the rest of the world will progress and switch over to the American system of weights and measures.

One thing we will never agree on.... I think the us system if measured is moronic and I can't wait till they switch... I don't know what we are waiting for it's so dumb... Why is freezing 32.... It should be 0.... And why do we work in initial base of 12 (or is it 16 for volume and only 12 for distance?) when we add in a 10 base system....

Dumb dumb dunb...

lxdude · Dec 8, 2013

benveniste said:
... that the L.A. Police and Politicians had their hands in their own pockets?

Naw, not THAT cold!

Tom1956 · Dec 8, 2013

That's OK, Stone ole' buddy. Let's compromise. When it's 50 degrees up there in Connecticut, you take your shirt off and wipe your brow with it. And when it's 50 degrees here, I'm going out in the woods with my maul and split me some firewood. Deal?

Truzi · Dec 8, 2013

StoneNYC said:
One thing we will never agree on.... I think the us system if measured is moronic and I can't wait till they switch... I don't know what we are waiting for it's so dumb... Why is freezing 32.... It should be 0.... And why do we work in initial base of 12 (or is it 16 for volume and only 12 for distance?) when we add in a 10 base system....

Dumb dumb dunb...

We were supposed to have switched in the 80s. It didn't quite work out. BTW, 0 degrees is as arbitrary as 32 (unless we're talking Kelvin). It is the increments where metric makes more sense.

hoffy · Dec 8, 2013

Truzi said:
We were supposed to have switched in the 80s. It didn't quite work out. BTW, 0 degrees is as arbitrary as 32 (unless we're talking Kelvin). It is the increments where metric makes more sense.

0 for the freezing point of water and 100 for the boiling point is hardly arbitrary. Seems pretty well thought out to me.

Truzi · Dec 8, 2013

hoffy said:
0 for the freezing point of water and 100 for the boiling point is hardly arbitrary. Seems pretty well thought out to me.

Why is 100 the boiling point of water? Why not 1,000?
Why does freezing have to be zero, especially since it is not "absolute zero" as in the Kelvin scale. In other words, there is something below it.
Why water? At the typical temperature ranges we experience, water is a convenient thing to measure due to freezing/boiling points, and it is abundant, but it certainly is not some non-arbitrary choice.

The Fahrenheit scale used the freezing point of salt-water (brine) as 0. Considering the majority of water on this planet is brine (though a different salt than what Fahrenheit used), why would that be more arbitrary than anything else? The other points in the Fahrenheit scale were (to me) odd choices, but that is beyond the point.
Celsius also chose to standardize on water, and to call it's freezing point 100 and it's boiling point 0 (now reversed). Keeping the divisions base-10, and using three phases of water for the points of standardization, is more consistent - and as you said, well thought out.
It is, none-the-less, arbitrary.

lxdude · Dec 8, 2013

Water is used because it is universal, and pure water is used because it is easy to make through distillation. Brine must be of a specified salt, and the salt must be itself pure, both of which complicate things needlessly. Then the brine would have to be fully saturated to be consistent, and that varies with temperature- more complication.
Elevation of course lowers the boiling point, but that can be corrected mathematically.

I don't see how using a known, consistent, reproducible reference is arbitrary, except that any type of measurement can be considered arbitrary on some level.

lxdude · Dec 8, 2013

Truzi said:
Why is 100 the boiling point of water? Why not 1,000?
Why does freezing have to be zero, especially since it is not "absolute zero" as in the Kelvin scale. In other words, there is something below it.
Why water? At the typical temperature ranges we experience, water is a convenient thing to measure due to freezing/boiling points, and it is abundant, but it certainly is not some non-arbitrary choice.

I don't mind if people engage in mental masturbation. I just don't want to watch them do it.

VaryaV · Dec 8, 2013

LOL - this thread is hysterical!

I see you guys are in prime form! Thank god things haven't changed!

Today it was so cold in Los Angeles that

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