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Tarheel

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10 hours ago, oldtimer said:

It is interesting how snow absorbs sound and makes it quiet, except for the sound of snow hitting things.

Sometimes I'll go for a walk in the snow at night, it's eerie how quiet it is, but the sound of me walking through it sounds amplified.

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Even at 72 I prefer dressing warmly for cold snowy weather to being forced indoors to air conditioned “comfort” to avoid hot humid weather that would be intolerable even if totally nude in my back yard, which the neighbors petitioned against.  Luckily, they dropped their complaint, citing a lack of evidence, at least any that would stand up in court.

 

Garments can be added as needed for the cold, but subtraction for the heat can only go so far.

 

 

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On 1/27/2021 at 12:41 AM, Ceptorman said:

Sometimes I'll go for a walk in the snow at night, it's eerie how quiet it is, but the sound of me walking through it sounds amplified.

 

You can sort of estimate the temperature by the sound of the snow.  As it gets colder and colder, the snow starts to chirp when you walk on it.  When it’s really cold, it almost squeaks.

 

What I used to hate was when you’d get into your car, and the car seat feels almost like a block of wood, and with the old cars with cable-operated heating/cooling controls, the lever was hard or impossible to move.  That’s why you’d always be sure to put the lever in the Defrost position when you park.  That way, your windows would clear of ice much quicker than if you’d left the lever in the Heater range, so you could drive away sooner.  

 

In Eastern Canada, Quebec and Ontario mostly, the parking brake on nearly every car is seized up.  This is because nobody applies them in the winter, in case they freeze up and won’t release.  Then nobody uses them in the summer either, out of habit, so if you step on that little pedal to the left of the big brake pedal, it won’t budge.  Normal!

 

Be sure to plug in your car, or it won’t start in the morning.  Also, be sure not to face it parking into the wind.  If you did, it would have got so cold from the wind blowing in through the grille that it probably wouldn’t start.  Of course, most of this relates to cars built in the 20th Century, before modern ignition and fuel injection systems.  Back then, it would sometimes hit -40 C/F at night for a week at a time, and it there was a cold snap, it could stay at minus 40 C/F during the day, day after day.

 

Remember when Spring Thaw was a thing?  The first time the temperature went above freezing, after months of subzero weather, it almost seemed strange.  As I’ve mentioned before, in Barrie, a small city about 80km/50 miles north of Toronto, is on Lake Simcoe, which is big enough to have a boating scene.  To show everyone that the ice is thick enough that you can go on it safely in order to go ice fishing, the city would tow a scrap car onto the ice near the city dock.  There could be a hundred or more ice fishing huts dotted across the ice, as far as a mile from the dock.

 

As Spring approached, the ice would gradually get thinner, then the anticipation would start.  People walking in town would ask each other, “Has the car gone through the ice yet?”, because that marks the end of ice fishing season and is the earliest sign of Spring in that town.  Finally, the long Winter is beginning to end!

 

After 20 years of living in Victoria, all that sounds like it’s news from Siberia.  I hear we’ve had some frosty windows on cars here, but I don’t have to head out that early, so I haven’t heard the sound of ice scrapers on car windows.  I don’t think we’ve had more than a handful of subzero nights, which is just fine with me.

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Biggest problem we'd have was when it snowed.  You'd park your warm car for the night and the first snow that hit it would melt and run down the sides.  It inevitably would get on and in the door lock cylinder and you couldn't put your key in to unlock the door.  This was prior to keyless entry naturally.   Depending on the amount of snow/ice you had sometimes you could get the cylinder thawed out enough to unlock the door but the door itself would be frozen to the body.  Good times.

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9 hours ago, Islander said:

 

You can sort of estimate the temperature by the sound of the snow.  As it gets colder and colder, the snow starts to chirp when you walk on it.  When it’s really cold, it almost squeaks.

 

What I used to hate was when you’d get into your car, and the car seat feels almost like a block of wood, and with the old cars with cable-operated heating/cooling controls, the lever was hard of impossible to move.  That’s why you’d always be sure to put the lever in the Defrost position.  That way, your windows would clear of ice much quicker than if you’d left the lever in the Heater range, so you could drive away sooner.  

 

In Eastern Canada, Quebec and Ontario mostly, the parking brake on nearly every car is seized up.  This is because nobody applies them in the winter, in case they freeze up and won’t release.  Then nobody uses them in the summer either, out of habit, so if you step on that little pedal to the left of the big brake pedal, it won’t budge.  Normal!

 

Be sure to plug in your car, or it won’t start I’m the morning.  Also, be sure not to face it parking into the wind.  If you did, it would have got so cold from the wind blowing in through the grille that it probably wouldn’t start.  Of course, most of this relates to cars built in the 20th Century, before modern ignition and fuel injection systems.  Back then, it would sometimes hit -40 C/F at night for a week at a time, and it there was a cold snap, it could stay at minus 40 C/F during the day, day after day.

 

Remember when Spring Thaw was a thing?  The first time the temperature went above freezing, after months of subzero weather, it almost seemed strange.  As I’ve mentioned before, in Barrie, a small city about 80km/50 miles north of Toronto, is on Lake Simcoe, which is big enough to have a boating scene.  To show everyone that the ice is thick enough that you can go on it safely in order to go ice fishing, the city would tow a scrap car onto the ice near the city dock.  There could be a hundred or more ice fishing huts dotted across the ice, as far as a mile from the dock.

 

As Spring approached, the ice would gradually get thinner, then the anticipation would start.  People walking in town would ask each other, “Has the car gone through the ice yet?”, because that marks the end of ice fishing season and is the earliest sign of Spring in that town.  Finally, the long Winter is beginning to end!

 

After 20 years of living in Victoria, all that sounds like it’s news from Siberia.  I hear we’ve had some frosty windows on cars here, but I don’t have to head out that early, so I haven’t heard the sound of ice scrapers on car windows.  I don’t think we’ve had more than a handful of subzero nights, which is just fine with me.

I liked your "squeaky snow" theory! 

I was snowmobiling with about 12 people in the late 90s in Mercer Wisconsin. The temp hit -50. I've been in -50 windchill temps before, but not an actual temp that cold. It was odd at how sounds can change with temp, even our suits sounded different from that extreme cold. Even the sleds ran different, maybe better. We had 4 practically brand new vehicles, and I was in a new Chevy HD 4x4 with a cold climate package. None of our vehicles would start that morning the cold rolled in. My truck had 2 batteries and they both went dead. Probably 10am, while we were trying to get a new truck started, the old lady cleaning the rooms at The 51, drove up in her 1969 Nova, and said you boys need an engine block heater!

The last 2 days there we kept one vehicle running constantly, and warmed my truck up every couple hours. 

I hope I never encounter temps like that again. 

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Snow/cold temp stories?  Spent a week in it during Ohio's blizzard of '78.  Want some stories?  Neither do I but I've never seen anything like it and prolly never will again.  Did help a nurse who lived out in the country deliver her neighbor's baby, helped pop countless cars out of 10' drifts w/a tow truck,  checked on older people who's single story country homes were  almost drifted over and tons of other stuff.  Funny that so many people thought Army trucks had heaters in them.  hahahaha

 

This is from Mansfield about 25 minutes West.  Had enough cold & snow for the rest of my life that week.  

 

Funny to look back on it today.  Cabin Fever?  EVERYone had it and all I wanted to do was crawl in my nice warm bed!   Time to make some coffee and try to schedule my Covid vaccine!  Ugh! 

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