What's the coldest weather you've walked a meaningful distance in?

[DC Al Fine]

-30C or so.

[The Free North]

-25 F in Montreal...that was a lot of fun

[Mr. Illini]

We had a high of -7 last year and I still went to class. It wasn't that bad. The midwest has made a polar bear of me.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

Take a look at the RealFeel. Guess who was just walk around in that for Ingress?

[TNF]

Did door to door canvassing (i.e. walked a few miles a night) in Chicago last March. It was probably around 20-30 degrees, but lower with windchill, I would guess.

Right now of course the weather is much worse (I think I saw somewhere that in the city it was -22 when you factor in the windchill), but thankfully I have two jobs where I work inside now and don't have to deal with the elements.

[Fmr President & Senator Polnut]

-25 with wind-chill in Illinois back in '05-'06 - walking to and from the campus

[Ban my account ffs!]

I've experienced air temperatures somewhere around -50°F (-46°C).  But that was just to say I did it.  The official temp in town was -48°F but we had -52°F at our house.  I remember because it was the day one of my former cats was born in my bedroom closet... February 2nd, 1996.  RIP Grizzy Bear

He looked like this
(I miss the Nizzle fo shizzle.  We pretended he was African French Canadian to up the diversity cred of our household)

[Storebought]

Usually between 20 and 25 F. It never gets lower than that in central TX or south LA.

[morgieb]

What makes America get so cold? My city never gets below 10 degrees C in daylight and hasn't snown in about 200 years. Yet I'm hearing of temperatures (particularly in the Midwest) get below 0 degrees F.

[checkers]

I feel like American weather is really extreme in general. I live in a "hot city", and yet I've never experienced anything like what some of the Texans and Californians were describing in the heat thread - and yet, particularly in Texas, there's snow in winter, which has never happened where I live.

It seems bizarre for the Northern hemisphere too - I remember reading somewhere that the Twin Cities were roughly on the same latitude as Venice. I've been to Venice in winter and it was hardly some Fargoesque hellscape. I have no idea why though.

[muon2]

I feel like American weather is really extreme in general. I live in a "hot city", and yet I've never experienced anything like what some of the Texans and Californians were describing in the heat thread - and yet, particularly in Texas, there's snow in winter, which has never happened where I live.

It seems bizarre for the Northern hemisphere too - I remember reading somewhere that the Twin Cities were roughly on the same latitude as Venice. I've been to Venice in winter and it was hardly some Fargoesque hellscape. I have no idea why though.

The Twin Cities are also about the same latitude as Harbin China which is nicknamed the Ice City. Average Harbin lows in Jan are -24 C, which is colder than Mpls at -14 C. However Mpls has a colder record at -41 C vs -38 C in Harbin. Both have average Jul highs of about 28 C.

[checkers]

I feel like American weather is really extreme in general. I live in a "hot city", and yet I've never experienced anything like what some of the Texans and Californians were describing in the heat thread - and yet, particularly in Texas, there's snow in winter, which has never happened where I live.

It seems bizarre for the Northern hemisphere too - I remember reading somewhere that the Twin Cities were roughly on the same latitude as Venice. I've been to Venice in winter and it was hardly some Fargoesque hellscape. I have no idea why though.

The Twin Cities are also about the same latitude as Harbin China which is nicknamed the Ice City. Average Harbin lows in Jan are -24 C, which is colder than Mpls at -14 C. However Mpls has a colder record at -41 C vs -38 C in Harbin. Both have average Jul highs of about 28 C.

I wasn't aware that Harbin was on the same latitude as Minneapolis, but I should have remembered that Asian cities at similar latitudes to Europe tend to be far colder. I suppose Europe must be unusually warm - probably due to the fact that it's relatively costal.

[muon2]

I feel like American weather is really extreme in general. I live in a "hot city", and yet I've never experienced anything like what some of the Texans and Californians were describing in the heat thread - and yet, particularly in Texas, there's snow in winter, which has never happened where I live.

It seems bizarre for the Northern hemisphere too - I remember reading somewhere that the Twin Cities were roughly on the same latitude as Venice. I've been to Venice in winter and it was hardly some Fargoesque hellscape. I have no idea why though.

The Twin Cities are also about the same latitude as Harbin China which is nicknamed the Ice City. Average Harbin lows in Jan are -24 C, which is colder than Mpls at -14 C. However Mpls has a colder record at -41 C vs -38 C in Harbin. Both have average Jul highs of about 28 C.

I wasn't aware that Harbin was on the same latitude as Minneapolis, but I should have remembered that Asian cities at similar latitudes to Europe tend to be far colder. I suppose Europe must be unusually warm - probably due to the fact that it's relatively costal.

Europe benefits from the warm Gulf Stream current crossing the Atlantic and moderating temperatures. Seattle, Vancouver, and Juneau AK benefit from the same circulation pattern in the Pacific. The Cascade Range prevents the mild ocean air from moving as far inland as it does in Europe.

[🦀🎂🦀🎂]

I jumped in a fountain when drunk, then had to walk home as my clothes started to freeze around me in the Yorkshire winter night. I couldn't work out the temperature, but I certainly regretted my escapades as I stumbled home.

[Sol]

Yeah, it's the continental climate stuff. And awful heat and humidity goes pretty far north too-Chicago is very hot in the summer.

[Ban my account ffs!]

The US has extreme weather because of

1) the mountains in the west prevent all but the strongest Pacific air masses from getting past the mountains.

2) the coldish water for the tropics south of North America casts a rain shadow across the SW US and NW Mexico.  This promotes higher pressure in the west which allows a more north-south and vice versa flow across the east...with the south being an extremely warm sea and the north being a part of the polar vortex.  This creates a hell of a clash seen nowhere else on earth.

3) the Great Lakes change everything.  In summer, convective storms avoid the cold, stable lakes like the plague.  You'll see storm complexes race west to east across the Dakotas and then move southeast around the lakes.  They also feed storms in winter, hence the legend of the "Witch of November"