Below-zero: been there, done that

The short cold snap we are coming out of really isn’t any worse or longer than what we’ve been through before.

Time has distorted memory somewhat, so I went back to the official Minneapolis weather statistics for January 1977 and partially confirmed what I had remembered: it was very cold then.

From Jan. 2 to Jan. 19 – 18 straight days – the low temperature of the day was below zero, often more than 20-below. Within that period, there was a four-day stretch when the daytime high temperature didn’t even get above zero, plus two other days that the high was -11.

I was only surprised to learn that it wasn’t quite as bad as I thought I’d remembered slugging off to college classes each day in an old car that miraculously started. I had been saying it didn’t get above zero at all for three straight weeks, but that stats let me down.

Also at that time, the United States was also in the midst of an “energy crisis.” Now doubting my memory, I think daylight savings time was started early that year, or perhaps even extended to two hours. Maybe that was a different year.

I also remember a four-day school week being imposed around that time, also meant to save energy by having fewer days that public buildings were at full heating capacity.

In going through this week’s cold spell, I again thought of the mountain books I read and how climbers will spend several days at a time huddled in a tent at high altitude to wait out a blizzard.

I know they do this by choice, and then realized most of the climbers I’ve read about live in moderate climates and subject themselves to this extreme only on expeditions. I then further realized that we also go through this by the choice of living here.