Christmas vs. New Years

The temperature on Christmas was a warm 32 degrees.

The temperature on New Years is -20 degrees. That's not "20 degrees below freezing" or "twenty below with the wind chill". The wind chill, incidentally, is -38. Without the wind chill it is 54 degrees less than the temperature at which water freezes. It is so cold you can't help but speak Minnesotan.

"Cold 'nough fer ya?"

"Ya, you betcha"

Even we think that is not fit for man or beast. Dad spent a lot of the day bringing water out to the animals because it was freezing so fast. He also kept feeding them all day because it takes so many calories for them to stay warm.

It can be much worse here, unfortunately. The day Dancer was born we set a new record with a -45 degree air temperature. The Governor closed all the schools in the state that day. The weather forecast is for these temps to stick around for the next few weeks. Brrrrr. If it gets much colder I'll need to hang up the windbreaker, search for the parka, and buy some gloves.