Does extreme cold feel different from plain cold?

[raccoon]

I've never experience colder weather than about 0 Fahrenheit.

Does 40 below feel colder than 20 below? Etc. I expect it does but would like to hear from someone who knows.

[skygazer]

1. Well, in my experience

There comes a point when it's so cold that you can feel the air going into your lungs and it's sort of painful. A lot depends on whether the wind is blowing - extreme cold with no wind is bearable if you're dressed for it - wind adds a whole new dimension to cold.

However, the colder it is, the less moisture is in the air and sometimes it feels colder when it's above freezing than it does when it's below just because of the moisture content.

[QMPMom]

2. -40 is painful. Once you've experienced -40

degrees, -20 feels like a heat wave. I thought I was going to die my first winter in northern Canada. I still hate the winters up here.

[LaraMN]

3. It takes your breath away and makes your chest burn.

But I don't know that -40 feels much different than -20. It just makes it even harder for the furnace to keep the house at a tolerable temperature.

[GirlinContempt]

4. Yes.

It feels colder.

[philosophie_en_rose]

5. Yes. It hurts.

Exposed skin feels burned. It's sometimes hard to breathe.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

6. Yes, extreme cold is well, extreme

Back in the days when Minnesota had real winters, I used to be willing to walk to the store (six blocks) if it was down to -10°. Beyond that, the cold entered a whole new dimension.

Others have mentioned that it can hurt to breathe. If you breathe in through your nose, you can feel every cell on the inside of your nose. Your hands and feet get real cold real fast unless they're covered in layers (as in gloves inside of mittens). At -40° wind chill, you can develop frostbite.

If you wear glasses, stepping into a warm house from -20° will cause your glasses to frost over, or, you may find when you try to take them off, that they have frozen to your face.

When it's really, really cold, the snow crunches under your feet. Exhaust from cars plummets straight down from the exhaust pipe and spreads out close to the ground. Supposedly at -50°, spit freezes before it hits the ground, but I've never experienced that.

[jpgray]

14. What happened to our winters, anyway?

I miss having the stuff in my nose instantly freeze up. :P

[Lydia Leftcoast]

21. I don't know--when I left MN in 1984

the winters were normal, i.e. nasty. I nearly froze my hands by wearing insufficient gloves downtown one windy day and had to duck into a store to buy some ski gloves, we had two consecutive 18" blizzards, and it snowed significantly on April 30.

I moved back from Oregon in 2003, and I bought two pairs of boots (one black, one brown) in anticipation of trudging through snowdrifts. I think I've worn them three times in three years. There's enough snow for Land's End suede shoes, but not for the boots.

[HughBeaumont]

7. Ask Minnesotans and Clevelanders.

We know and live extreme cold. So cold it makes your skin, eyes and lungs burn. At least 6 months out of the year we deal with this, topped off with very little sunshine and arctic freezing wind blowing the cold off the lake. It makes winters depressing and unbearable.

[raccoon]

8. It's a shame to have to endure that, and not be living in Canada. IMO. nt

[Zookeeper]

23. I would guess...

that Cleveland is a lot like Detroit, where I grew up. I remember that winter days were frequently overcast. Here in Minnesota, we get a lot of very sunny January and February days. It's quite bright when we have snow.

But, I'll bet we're colder than you are...:hi:

[HughBeaumont]

24. I wouldn't want to find out.

I've seen on TV how cold Minnesota can get.

The Cleveland snow glare is another issue. When it's sunny and freezing, not even sunglasses can help.

Nonetheless, it's freaking miserable here at least 4 months out of the year. Walking to lunch and to the train station at Tower City is literally unbearable. These buildings turn the walk into a sub-arctic wind tunnel.

[Zookeeper]

25. Wind really does make a big difference...

I lived in S.F. for ten years, and was cold most of the time because of the wind. Otherwise, it was perfect, never too hot or too cold.

I don't mind very cold days here, but if it's windy I head indoors. :yoiks:

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

9. Certainly.

Does 120 degrees farenheit feel different than 100 degrees farenheit?

You bet.

[grace0418]

10. It's awful. It makes the inside of your nostrils burn when you breathe. In fact,

it makes in hard to breathe altogether, like your lungs are rejecting such cold air. I do not like extreme cold.

[freethought]

11. Here's my experience

I was in the Chicago area in the mid 90s. During that particular winter a pattern in the jet stream
caused a huge mass of artic air to move down over the midwest. High winds didn't help the situation either. Still air could be -15 Degrees F. Then add wind chill factor. Stories on the local news stations were filled the elderly dying of or coming close to dying of hypothermia. Homeless people were found literally frozen solid.
The situation at my workplace became so bad that they kept everyone home for a few days. Many of our trucks didn't have block heaters and would not start after a night or two in such cold. If you did work outside like I had to, you would spend about 15-20 minutes working and heading back into a heated room for a 20 minute warm-up.
When it gets that cold, it actually BURNS you. If the wind blows against exposed areas like your nose and cheeks, it creates a stinging sensation. It is almost surreal. Another thing that happens is that it sucks energy out your body. I would come home and as tired and beat as if I was doing any type of hard physical labor during the hot weather. Some people would have problems with their nose bleeding during this weather.
Some years later, I was making plans for a fishing trip for my father and I to Alaska. In requesting brochures from various outfitters I came across an outfitter that was located not at all far from the Artic Circle. They outfitted for caribou hunts, lake fishing for Artic Char, and a variety of other adventures. One of their specialties was a trip/course in extreme cold weather survival and Artic weather camping in the height of the Artic winter. Needless to say I passed on that trip.

[raccoon]

26. "Homeless people were found literally frozen solid. "

I have often wondered about that. It would seem that in areas with harsh winters, that would happen a lot.

[eyepaddle]

12. As somebody who's gone camping in -40,

yes, it really does make a difference. The clothing that once kept the cold at bay no longer does the trick. A stockong hat over a balaclava still lets the cold seep into your skull. Mostly the difference is PAIN. You'd experience the same pain at warmer temepratures, but would not generally be out long enough to feel it.

Odd thing is I love the cold--I left Minnesota to go to Antartcica so I could feel some world class cold. When I go tthere, rather than "getting used to it" I got shattered by it. Brrrrrrrrrr. Don't get me wrong, I still functioned, and got all my work done, even -10 F started to seem warm--but I now no longer wish to test my limits, I have found them.

[jpgray]

13. Yes. I once walked home in -40 from school

Your extremities start to hurt, but as long as they keep hurting, you're actually doing okay. :crazy:

[Taverner]

15. OK take one chunk of dry ice and one chunk of regular ice

Hold your right hand on the regular ice - this is cold
Hold your left hand on the dry ice - this is extreme cold

[ElsewheresDaughter]

16. hell yeah...when it gets near the teens and zero i feel it to my bones

and it hurts

[ghostsofgiants]

17. Oh god, yes.

:scared:

[The2ndWheel]

18. I could sweat in absolute zero, so

Might be fun to find out.

[u4ic]

19. Hell, yeah!

(as someone whose lowest temperature experience was -64F, and that's without any wind chill)

I'd take -20 over -40 any day.

Actually, I'd take 0 over -20. I can still get away with not wearing layers in that weather...

[SteppingRazor]

20. Of course!

Does 20 degrees feel different than 60 degrees? :shrug:

I think the big difference is in just how quickly the cold affects you. Walk outside barefoot in shorts and a T-shirt in 20-degree weather and you'll say, "Shit, it's cold!" and run back inside. Do the same in 40-below, and your feet will be grayish-black before you get back to the door.

[billyskank]

22. I have heard that extreme cold can be like burning

I do know from physics labs (not direct experience, mind) that exposure to liquid nitrogen can cause burns.