It's so cold that...

It’s Wicked Cold! It’s So Cold That…

It’s a New England slang, ‘wicked’. When it’s wicked cold, what we really mean to say is that it’s the coldest of cold! Wicked. I don’t think it’s used outside the New England region, so my apologies. Anyway, at the present time, it’s wicked cold in a large part of the country. It reminded me of this original post which coincidentally was published nearly to the exact day, 5 years ago. I’ve lopped off the old comments so that you all can add fresh reports of how the cold is affecting your region during this cold spell.

Also, you might want to add your own ending to the phrase, “It’s so cold that…”

It’s so wicked cold that…

You have to break the smoke off your chimney.

When I put on my coat to take out the garbage it didn’t want to go.

Your eyes freeze shut when you blink.

We had to chisel the dog off a lamp-post.

My long-johns are hiding.

Your coat needs a coat.

My internet froze.

The optician is giving away free ice scrapers with every new pair of eyeglasses.

We had to chop up the piano for firewood – but we only got two chords.

My mail broke when I tried to pry open the envelope.

The mercury in the thermometer is just – GONE!

There was a knock at my door โ€“ it was my thermometer wanting to come in.

I saw a politician with his hands in his OWN pockets.

The car had to be pushed into the heated garage to thaw out for a few hours before it would start.

So cold here that I had to wear my leather flip flops to go check the surf. (‘Kulafarmer’ in Maui)

Itโ€™s so cold that the lake thought it was funny and just cracked up.

It got so cold our words froze as we spoke.

[ Read:

Windchill Frostbite Chart

โ€˜Mr. Heater Buddyโ€™ for Winter Survival Preparedness

Best Gloves With Thinsulate For Cold Weather Outdoors

COLD Weather Survival: Clothing

42 Comments

  1. OK, OK, don’t yell at me…
    Cold as the ex-wife’s (fill in the blank) ๐Ÿ–ค๐Ÿ’”โค๏ธโ€๐Ÿฉน

    1. Oh. You mean like “Absolute Zero” type cold. Well, yeah, been in that too.

  2. It’s so cold here, I saw the Wicked Witch of the West out behind the barn, dipping her toes in hot coffee!

  3. I have to compliment the outdoor MIME greeter at Walmart. He hasn’t moved for hours.

  4. It’s so cold here in North Idaho, I have ice cycles on my mustache. It’s going to be between 11 and 15 below here tonight, with a wind chill of minus 29. Thank goodness it’s not going to get too cold, I might have to turn on the heat. Guess I’ll have to just snuggle up to the old lady tonight.

  5. Its so cold, the local flasher is just showing pictures of himself.

  6. If you miss the good old days, remember the frost on the outhouse walls and the cold draft. Even the SEARS pages were stiff to use. The thirty feet to the house were covered at Olympic speed.

    1. Remember the outhouse having a layer of ice on everything because we had been in the fog for weeks and it froze every night

  7. When I left the house today the KEE birds were out. They sit in trees and on electric lines, ruffle their feathers saying KEE, KEE, KEERRRIIIST it’s cold. It was 11 below but it warmed up to 7 below by noon. Three snowstorms over a ten-day period dropping over three-feet total of snow.

    1. Old Alaskan, I must be up close to you. I just came down from north and the +5 it is at my place makes it feel like a heat wave. Had to bring my tractor down just to clear the snow at my home. My comment about the whiskey was really tongue in cheek, but the bottles were frosted up when I got to my cabin last week. It was -14* outside when I got there but -20*F inside the cabin. I had to leave the door open to warm it up until the stove caught up :-) Liked the KEE birds.

  8. Anticipation….We’re in the wait and see mode. Forty degrees out, dense fog on the mountain, all outside surfaces are dripping wet. Have seen this setup before…this forebodes a flash freeze covering everything with a micro-thin coating of ice minutes after the cold front hits. The other possibility will be rain falling as the front hits and a thicker coating of ice. Either scenario makes for treacherous travel by foot or vehicle.

    Turned the chickens out for last chance to forage. Chicken house is ready with brooder lamps hanging to cut the chill when it hits. Cancelled plan to go to town early this morning for last minute pre-Christmas items…I’m not taking the chance on not being able to make it back up the mountain.

    Wife is moderately better…getting around by herself with the help of a walker. Everyone’s tired. Could be worse…I’m not complaining.

    Guess I’ll make one more pass outside to make sure I haven’t overlooked anything that needs tending before the cold blast hits. Y’all have a good’n……….

    1. Stay safe Dennis, wishing you a Merry Christmas old man!
      Cheers!
      ๐Ÿ˜Ž๐Ÿค™๐Ÿป

    2. Dennis:
      Great to hear the Better 1/2 is doing better.
      As far as “Wicked Cold” heck it’s been in the mid 20’s for the past week-n 1/2 with single digit numbers at night. Have not even turned on the Furnaces, wood Stoves are a wonderful thing….. 70-75 in the house all the time, no problem.
      PS: as a Prepper is this sort of thing we prepare for????
      Stay Home, don’t travel (Grandma will understand), have a WONDERFUL day with those you have with you.
      Ohhhh and BTW, Life is good here on Lighting Point.
      Merry Christmas.

      1. NRP & Blue, Kula….

        Cold front just moving through. At 11:40 temp was 41 degrees, wind calm. 11:50 temp is 32 degrees, wind about 15 mph out of the NW and moderate sleet falling. Temps will keep falling and wins pick up even more. They say minus 0 before midnight with wind chills around -30 or lower.

        Life is good on the mountain.

        1. …..now, 12:05, 28 degrees, heavy but very fine, dry, powdery snow with wind gusts 30 mph+. All within a 30-minute time frame.

        2. Dennis to come in – during evening here. sounds like you about 12 hours ahead of us.. got to finish chores up to get all last minute things done before lock everything down..

        3. ….2:30 PM….12 degrees…windchill -6 degrees….dry powder still falling.

        4. A neighbor posted pic of thermometer with Zero reading this am, they live miles away in asphalt covered area…

    1. Thanks for Moose perspective.LOL
      Glad you are able to post.

    2. Think outside the sculpture Moose, that’s kid stuff. You should be 3-D printing an igloo.

  9. One time I got tickets to The Tonight Show it was winter 1986 and Johnny Carson was still hosting it. Does anyone remember his old pause bit with Ed McMahon during the monologue? Johnny: “Today it is so cold in California….” Ed with audience: “How cold is it?” Johnny: “It’s so cold that Californians are untying their sweaters from around their neck and they are wearing them.”

  10. The Blizzard of ’79 taught me so much. I learned that at -40, C and F are the same. And I learned that ultra-frozen powder snow has zero compressive strength or adhesion. My mother was having a nic-fit and sent me next door to bum a cigarette. There was a ten foot snow drift between the two properties. Yup. Made it to the top, then fell straight down into it. Thank God for addictions because they came looking for me within a few minutes.

  11. 4:30 Mtn time, it’s 2f on the continental divide, but the sun is about to go down and get colder. I-70 is a standstill at the tunnels. Gotta love travelling in the Rockies.

    1. Minerjim,

      5:38 PM central. 0 degrees F, 35 mph wind speed, wind gusts to 60 mph according to Ventusky. -31 F wind chill. Luckily, the snow stopped with only around an inch of powder.

      Chickens went back to roost about mid-day. I closed them up with brooder lamps going. They should make it all right.

      1. Dennis,
        Sounds like you missed the real bad stuff. Took us 9 hrs for a 4-1/2 hr trip to the Mile High. -14f on the Frint Range with wind. At least you are home for this, I hate being away from my AO during bad weather and holidays. But the good Lord saw us here safely, so we will make the most of the visit. Head back Monday in warmer weather. Merry Christmas to you and all.!

  12. It’s so cold, that our “on demand” hot water heater isn’t responding to our demands for hot water. Cold water still works, though. Oh well, cold water is invigorating and…..cold. Thank goodness for a wood cookstove and a big water bath canner. Voila – hot water on demand! Showers are a bit tricky, though…

  13. Lost power during the early morning for a few hours. Storm started overnight when our typical southwest wind turned 180^. Howling dry northeast wind gusted up to 50 mph last night. Calmed down to 40 mph all day. 20F with 10F wind chill today when normal day temp is rainy mid-50s in late December. Fed out buckets of feed soaked in warm water. Then lots of buckets of warm water. Thatโ€™s my cardio for the day. Wildly variable jet stream typical of GSM. Only 30 more years to go.

  14. Colder than a banker’s heart with Granny’s last 40 acres…

    Hit down south about 3:45. Not as bad as folks like Dennis, but enough to get a lot of people’s attention. Winds about 15-20mph and the temps dropped 20 degrees in 30 minutes. Bayous will have a layer of ice on them tomorrow.

  15. – West Texas, temps here during the day 8 F, wind chill around -10; now that it’s dark, -4, wind beginning to die down. Still pretty durn cold. No snow around here, though.
    – Papa S.

  16. Its so cold that my truck is overheating.

    True story. Way back when I was younger with my new ’96 Powerstoke Diesel I made a move up to Alaska. I drove up from one of those states getting hit with storm right now. It was -40 when I rolled through Tok and my truck kept overheating. How can that be? It -40 how could the engine possibly make that much heat? If I slowed down to try to figure out what was up, the temp would start coming down. So I drive a couple miles and the temp started rising pretty quick. Finally I notice everyone I’m passing has big dangly blankets over their grills. I finally figured out that at speed my radiator with antifreeze was freezing up and there was no circulation to the engine. Found an old Army blanket in the back seat, raised the hood and jammed it down on the blanket. Problem solved. Nowadays my truck is old enough to drink. Cardboard in front of the radiator this time of year.

  17. -7 overnight and -28 windchill on my hill. The furnace couldn’t keep up until I realized the crawl space was open. We’re hovering at 58 in the house after I closed that. I was out in the chicken coop every two hours or so to give them water. Yes, I had a heated waterer but it wasn’t keeping up. There was snow IN their coop.

    They had a heater in the coop but instead they were huddled against the north wall, where the wind was hitting. I chased them into the bin with the heater and they haven’t come out yet.

    Interesting experience. I’ve seen cold before, but not 55 mph winds and humidity on top of it. My gloves and boots are somewhere in a box. It’ll be (that) cold again today, then it’ll warm up. Theoretically. At least I’m getting an idea where my preparations need some help.

  18. When the radiator freezes almost solid there is NO water circulating and it absolutely overheated. Couldn’t believe it myself, but I was there. :-)

  19. When SHTF, you can’t remember to do everything, you just can’t. Case in point, my 4240 fuel is gelatin. I thought my brother added non-gel and He thought I did. After 4hrs of gnashing teeth, a whole bunch of cuss words and frozen finger, it still won’t start. Plugged in, battery charger on high, then we discover the fuel issue. Now have a tank heater on it but it’s gonna be dark in 2 hrs. Oh well, there’s always tomorrow.

    People here, who have there head up their a–s, got hurt. Frostbite, exposure, and fat and out of shape. No fatalities, but several ER visits. This kind of weather can kill you, if your stupid, which alot of people are. -10, out shoveling snow in sweat pants and tennis shoes? Cell phone froze and they sat in that rig until they froze! 2 heart attacks that I know of for digging out.

    5in of snow last night with more tonight. At least the wind has stopped and it has warmed up to +15. Everyone of my prepper friends did just fine, small issues, nothing major.

  20. It’s sooo cold…..,
    ….My hot toddy came with a wind chill warning.

  21. It is soo cold,
    I just broke the door handle on the farm truck…..
    and the passenger door just as frozen shut.
    GREAT

Comments are closed.