Saturday, January 19, 2008

It could be colder.

I wish I had more time to study historical data. The Weather Underground (I get a kick out of the name being used for innocuous purpose) reports that this week in January Milwaukee was much colder in 1985, 1930, and 1888...and much much warmer in 1996, 1964, 1934, and 1906...

What I really want is a list of "highest low temps" and "lowest high temps" instead of just the record highs and lows.

In my life in the Midwest, I have many fond memories of highs below zero in January and February. It doesn't happen every place every year, but MLK weekend in 1994 Valpo cancelled classes due to highs below zero; I drove to VA during MLK weekend 1997 when it was below-zero in Indianapolis; I took a December final at ISU in 2000 when the air temp was -17F; 2004 there were highs below zero in Cedar Falls before the first snowfall (that was annoying); Super Bowl weekend last year was below-zero here and around zero in Indy...

This is a long way of saying "Winter is cold. BFD."

The part that surprises me is that it's slightly colder and windier in Milwaukee than in western Iowa, where my parents live. It's usually more extreme (heat, cold, wind) out there. Hrm.

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