Cold Weather - Part 2

If you have ever wondered what the term “bone chilling cold” means, come to Minneapolis today. Seriously, the words bone chilling and mind numbing have definitely come to mind today.

Forecast for today:

The Twin Cities Metro area and the rest of Minnesota is under a WIND-CHILL WARNING until noon for Wind-Chill temperatures down to -45 below which means frostbite is possible in just a matter of minutes to exposed
skin. Winds in the Metro will be from the Northwest at 10 to 20 mph this morning
then decrease to less than 15 mph this afternoon producing Wind-Chill
temperatures of -20 below. Skies will be sunny today with increasing clouds late
this afternoon. Temperatures will be near -14 below ( Wind-Chill -38 below ) at
8 A.M. then -8 below ( Wind-Chill -30 below ) at noon and 0 degrees ( Wind-Chill
-18 below ) at 5 P.M. Sunset tonight is 5:17 P.M. Jonathan Yuhas KARE 11
1/30/2008 5:25 A.M.

And you know how I said that, well, -1, -15, doesn’t really make that much difference? Well, there is the one factor that can change that…wind. It was 40-42F Monday. Great day. I scheduled things to be able to get a nice run in outside. I wish I had gone more than the 4 miles I did. It felt great. I met up with a friend on Monday evening, we watched a movie then went for a drink…1 block from his house. The walk there was fine. The walk back, 2 hours later…sucked!! The winds were coming up, it was getting cold and by morning it was bitter. The winds were gusting to 35 mph yesterday. Today, so far, it’s not THAT windy, but it was enough this morning that the cold was almost unbearable. I didn’t want to crawl out of bed at 5:15 to go to the gym. I didn’t want to get into my car and wish for it to warm up when there was no way it was every going to actually feel warm…I didn’t want to go from my car into the gym and work out, and I SOOOO didn’t want to go back out into the cold (particularly since this time it wouldn’t be in a garage even) after the gym (I felt that way last night too, almost considered sleeping at the gym, or staying longer to work out just because it was so darn cold). I think others felt the same, because when I was showering and getting ready, the gym was dead. And usually there are at least 5-7 other people, pretty much everyday the same people, getting ready to go about their days as well. No way I’d even consider running outside in this. Not with that wind. It might be tolerable without the wind, but when you get that wind, it literally takes your breath away. Thank God I have a gym membership again. I have really become a wuss too…but this is understandable to not be out in!