I remember once It was about 25 below and a beautiful sunny day, no wind and as clear a sky as you could get. I built a trailer to pull things with and I connected it to my truck via a drift pin. The tounge was on my truck and the twin plates were on the trailer. I welded the tounge to my truck hitch and the plates to the trailer and let them set 20 minutes outside befor going back out of the garage. I used to weld so I knew I had to turn the amperage up and use a thick rod to get a good weld so it didn’t break later on going down the road, so I really put the oats too it. I went back outside and seen the twin plates on the trailer were on straight but the single plate on the truck hitch was accidently welded on at an angle. I thought ok I’ll go back inside and get a 2′ long cresent wrench and a pipe and just bend it back up. I put the wrench and pipe on the plate and pulled up and it snapped clean off, the weld didn’t break, the metal right next to it just sheared in a clean line. I know its because the weld and the metal next to it cooled so fast it crystalized but it happened in only 20 minutes, this plate was 1/2″ thick, thats cold! It went from red hot to a clean break in that amount of time.
Another time the weather forcast said 25 degrees below and 35 mph winds tonight so I sat inside and heard the wind blow and felt the temps drop because the furnace was working overtime. I heard limbs breaking because they lost thier elasticity and the frost was as thick on the inside of the windows as it was on the outside. I woke up in the morning to go to work and listened to the weather and it said it got to 37 below and 39 mph winds and that put the windchill to 103 below. I got to my car to go to work and anyone whos been through severe cold like the upper mid-west has, knows you take it easy on the door handles on your car or it litteraly might come off the door. I pushed the button and pulled easily on the handle and pulled the door open. I thought good deal, ok for now. I knew setting on the seats was going to be cold even with long underwear on so I put my hand on the seat to cushion myself from the shock of the cold and my hand went right through the vinyl on the seat, right through. This got my attention so I reached over to the dash to cushion my posterior from the cold seat and again my hand went right throught the vinyl on the dashboard. All this happened and to my surprise I turned the engine over and my car started and ran, After this cold spell I’ve always run AC plugs. I let it warm up a little and put it in gear and started to drive. I then felt a thump thump thump, I thought a tire had gone flat loosing its pressure because of the severe cold. I pulled over and walked around the car and all the tires were up and had pressure. I got back in the car and started driving then realized after 3 blocks that I was litterly driving the flat-spot out of the tire from it sitting over night. It was so cold that it took 3 blocks for the tire to become pliable enough to get rid of the flatspot from sitting on the flat road all night. Welcome to upper mid-west in winter everybody. Whats your memories of severe cold here in the upper mid-west?
. It was about 3:30 am by the time we got all of our stuff inside. The next morning we awoke to -44. Nature was calling and much to my dismay I had to go out to the outhouse to sit on the throne. Let me tell you when it is that cold you wait until you have a snapping turtle head before you attempt clear the pipes. No magazine time that day. When I lifted the toilet seat, sometime in the fall a spider had made a web across the bottom of the seat, and it had frosted over several times, so many times in fact that I had to punch and break out the web so I could make my deposit. It warmed to a balmy -25 that day and only I and one other guy were brave enough to go riding. The trails were perfect and we were pretty much the only ones out. Just a small spot of frostbite to show for it. The rest of the clan played cards, and made it a drinking weekend. Fun Times. Did I mention my wife called me an idiot before we left?
