<p>Its 45f here and sunny. Expected to continue through Sunday.
Some ski resorts in Wa are struggling with lower than normal snow pack.</p>
<p>It’s a balmy 3 degrees in Albany. 
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<p>Sunday - 37 with freezing drizzle and Monday 44 with snow. At least it will be warm enough for the salt to work. Then Tuesday we plunge back to 5 degrees. Wacky, wacky weather.</p>
<p>Just to be clear, it’s presently +18 in Minneapolis-St. Paul, same as in Philadelphia and several degrees warmer than Boston, Pittsburgh, or Cleveland. The predicted -50 for next Monday cited by the OP is wind chill, not air temperature. Air temperatures will be plenty cold enough, -8 daytime high on Monday with an overnight low of -27, then a daytime high of -13 on Tuesday with an overnight low of -22 before we start a warming trend that is expected to take us up to around +28 to +30 by next weekend. This is fairly typical. It does occasionally hit -20 in the Twin Cities, but rarely for more than 2-3 days at a time, and rarely more than a couple of times per winter. The northern parts of the state tend to get much colder, more frequently and for longer periods of time.</p>
<p>The big concern that prompted to Governor to close the schools, as I understand it, is that sometimes when it’s very cold the school buses won’t start, and kids are left standing in the cold for dangerously long periods of time. I remember this phenomenon from my own childhood in northern Michigan; the school bus was punctual to the minute, except on the coldest days when it might run 15-20 minutes late.</p>
<p>It will be interesting to see how the extreme cold affects the 49ers v. Packers NFL playoff game on Sunday at Lambeau Field in Green Bay. They’re saying it could be the coldest NFL game ever.</p>
<p>Someone asked about pipes. It’s always a concern here. S1 just bought a (new to him) house. 2 weeks ago they finally got lp gas delivered and heat on, and then the kitchen pipes froze! After crawling (cave style) through 2 crawlspaces with 18" clearance, he found an uninsulated area…with an unplugged heat light shining on the pipes…so ummm the owners knew this was a problem.</p>
<p>We leave the cabinet doors open and the sink dripping. Have 3 rentals and tell and tell them this. Hopefully they are listening!</p>
<p>Pipes aren’t an issue for most houses here because they are indoors, where the heat is on. They don’t run on exterior walls, as mentioned above, and most homes have basements, which are cooler than the first floor, but are still heated to well above freezing.</p>
<p>The pipe in my laundry room runs under a crawl space and we’ve had problems with it freezing in the past. Since we added a deck along that wall no problem, though I have no idea if that is why. We used to thaw it out with a utility lamp under the sink. I might drip the laundry room sink tonight - just to be on the safe side.</p>
<p>Possible “cold” days for school here in the Chicago area Mon as well. I remember back in high school when it was -25 and -80 windchill. That was truly scary. They closed the mall even and they don’t do that for anything! Hope we don’t get that cold again. </p>
<p>We sometimes have problems with freezing pipes but only those that are on outside walls. Keep them dripping and they are usually good.</p>
<p>I know why my son wants to go to college in a warm part of the country! I may just have to follow him.</p>
<p>The low temp here in upper CT last night was -13 with the ‘real feel’ of -22. I did not leave my apartment!</p>
<p>I like to complain about extreme weather so I’ll check this topic. I’m starting a new job on Monday and the forecast right now is a high of -14F and low of -23F. After windchill is factored in could be -40 or -50F. The company sent out a warning to either everyone starting on Monday (probably almost 100 people - the company has everyone joining the company start on the first Monday of the month) assuring us that it’s unusual, and urging us to try to arrange rides instead of biking to work or taking the bus so we minimize amount of time outside. Also told us where to park to minimize the amount of time we spend outside walking. They also tried to assure us that this is abnormally cold and thy we didn’t all make a horrible mistake coming here.</p>
<p>If I say where it’ll give away where I work but I’ll say I’m near Minnesota.</p>
<p>Just checked, all public schools are closed Monday in the city.</p>
<p>V- bet I know. I have weather widgets for Tampa, Madison (old hometown, lived further north for 30 years) and Seattle. The coldest in years temps in central Florida are only low 50’s-40 degrees warmer than WI today. I can handle that. Have lived through more than half a century of various WI winters. </p>
<p>When son was in first grade I took him to school as usual but discovered the 25 below (actual) temps meant closed schools. It was because of kids waiting for buses in extremely cold weather. He had a friend over instead. I also remember outdoor recess unless the wind chill was below 20 or so- mandatory hat/mittens(gloves)/boots/snowpants for kids.</p>
<p>Coldest stretch of weather here since the 90s. Not so bad as some, but we will have about -10 low and single digit highs, with windchills in the-30s.
S lives in Anchorage, and it is very often warmer there than it is here on the plains. They have a very long, dark, snowy winter, but actually not that severely cold. (Highs in the 30s there this week. . .)
I hate cold and snow. I keep dreaming of retiring to a warmer place.</p>
<p>Here is southern Indiana we’re expecting a high of -5 to -9 on Monday with it going all the way up to 8 on Tuesday. The tricky part will be the 9-12 inches of snow headed our way on Sunday. </p>
<p>H and I always reference the first Christmas Eve he spent with my family–1983. JCC’s mom–I think we’re talking about the same year. It was about -20 with wind chills in the -80 range. My family lived in the Chicago area back then. I feel for those of you facing those temps in the next week.</p>
<p>It’s warmed up to two degrees here - temperatures will plummet later. I just went to the store with DS and he was wearing shorts. I told him it’s a good thing he’s 21 or I would be arrested for child abuse. I WILL insist he put on long pants when the whole family goes out to shovel in a few minutes.</p>
<p>1983 sounds like one of the cold ones I remember. Then boyfriend (H for decades now) and I took his recently from India sister to the Northern Chicago suburbs so she could take a licensing exam. It was 25 below- and we didn’t find out until morning that her corner room heat did not work! She was too new to the country to know she should have complained and gotten it fixed or another room.</p>
<p>Right now there’s only a 30 degree difference…</p>
<p>Mantra- spring is coming, spring is… The days ARE getting longer as well.</p>
<p>In January of 1994, on the 13-16, it was one of the coldest weeks in Detroit history with lows around -20 and highs below 0. I remember it vividly because it is the week Barnardgirl was born. To take her home from the hospital, I had to dress her in a onesie, pajamas, a layette gown, quilted bunting and they made me put two baby comforters over the top of her car seat to put her in the car which had to be warmed up before they’d let me leave! It was a pretty rough couple weeks when we were first home. Definitely couldn’t take her for a walk in the stroller! Most people with colicky kids said “take them for a drive” but she had to be so bundled up to leave the house it just made her dry harder. Ugh. I was definitely glad I didn’t have to leave for work though :)</p>
<p>It was a gorgeous day to be out - sunny and 80. Played some tennis. Took a walk. Burbank recorded a record high for Jan. 2 - 85.</p>
<p>In Boston, the forecast for Monday is 59F.<br>
Which is absurd for January. It’s 7F now.</p>
<p>Almost a decade ago now, I spent 7 months working in MN.<br>
It was cold, but not Rodeo Song cold.</p>
<p>I never thought about pipes freezing, I was told I only had to worry about that if I have my heat off and the water goes unused. We have a crawl so not sure how well heated our plumbing is down there. Do I need to be concerned?</p>
<p>Most of our crawl space is inaccessible because the previous owners built an addition over the entrance and now there is a beam where it used to be with only 2" of clearance, so I have no idea what the story is down there. Something on our never ending list of things to fix.</p>
<p>When H was growing up in Northern MN, he would sometimes pray for -20 below temps. Why? Because if the actual temp (not windchill) hit -20 below, then would his Dad would drive him on his paper route before school started!</p>
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<p>H just got home and told me he got an email this afternoon from the Packers saying he could get an indoor club seat for a whopping $629/ticket; it would include a two-hour indoors tailgate. We passed; he went to a game in November at Lambeau that was the coldest November game at Lambeau in 30 years. He learned his lesson then (kind of - he went to the Monday night Bears/Cowboys game at Soldier Field at the beginning of December, and by the time they left the game, it was 0°).</p>