Okay, I think I’m finished complaining about the cold.
This article by BBC News (which I often prefer to our own):
“The coldest place on Earth has been measured by satellite to be a bitter minus 93.2 Celsius (-135.8F). As one might expect, it is in the heart of Antarctica, and was recorded on 10 August, 2010.
The previous record low of minus 89.2C was also measured in Antarctica. This occurred at the Russian Vostok base on 21 July, 1983.
‘These very low temperatures are hard to imagine, I know,” said Ted Scambos from the US National Snow and Ice Data Center in Boulder, Colorado. ‘The way I like to put it is that it’s almost as cold below freezing as boiling water is above freezing. The new low is a good 50 degrees colder than temperatures in Alaska or Siberia, and about 30 degrees colder than the summit of Greenland.
‘It makes the cold snap being experienced in some places in North America right now seem very tame by comparison,” he told BBC News.”
I’ll take a California cold snap any day.
I’m not sure about the good science of that temp measurement from outer space. Guinness says it doesn’t count as a world record unless there’s a thermometer on the ground. I can’t picture how glass and mercury would take that kind of drop. Then I remembered your blog about all that fantastic science you installed on your mountain. Which, I hope and pray, will never be so dramatically tested! Stay unfrozen dear one.
I console myself with comparing our rare cold snaps to what’s been happening back East; or remembering New England and Utah winters! 😉