How Cold Is It? (2009)

 Originally published as a Facebook Note on January 16, 2009. Photos by Jane Nesmith. The record was broken January 30, 2019.

Below 0 (photo by Jane Nesmith)

We set a record low temperature in Cedar Rapids yesterday morning, -29. Being blest with a long but unreliable memory, I had thought it had been colder in 1996, but, no, just looked it up and it only got to -25 then. So we are the champions, my friends.

How cool, no pun intended, to make history. I mean, have you ever considered how lame a temperature -5 is, for example? It's uncomfortably, inconveniently cold, but not memorably cold. However, this week, it has been memorably, historically cold.

I've been walking to work anyway, because why sit in a cold car for 5 minutes when I can at least be moving? I figured out that, with down and Thinsulate, if I wrap myself in enough layers it's not too bad, as long as I keep moving. And as I suggest above, there is a bit of self-glorification in being out in such ridiculous weather.

The boys are home from school today, for the third day in a row. Have you heard of towns in the South that get paralyzed when there's any winter weather? Here in Iowa, we're not quite the South, so only the schools get paralyzed, while the rest of life goes on as usual. Today Robbie performed an experiment he read about in the newspaper. Boil a small amount of water on the stove, then throw it outside into the cold air. The water evaporated in a huge puff of water before it hit the ground. It was awesome, so much so that he did it again.  And I bet it doesn't work at a measly -5.

Well, this little interlude can't last forever, except perhaps on Mars. It's already above -10 today, and eventually is expected to get above 0. We may even crack freezing early next week. Perhaps they'll even hold school.

SEE ALSO: Jane Nesmith, "How to Survive Iowa Cold," Nesmith Family Blog, 14 January 2009


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