Cold Weather

I was thinking that the weekend this past January I spent outdoors (and one night camping) with Boy Scout Troop 3 would be the coldest day of the year (it went down to -19 Celsius that night).  Well, I noticed it was quite cool last night, and saw that the temperature reached -20 Celsius.  Aw, that means I was camping out on the second coldest night of the year. The high temperature today is supposed to be up to -10 or -11 Celsius (a few degrees warmer than that day in January when I spent all day outdoors), so maybe I can still say I was out on the coldest day of the year.

Temperatures below -10 Celsius are a nuisance because your face and ears tend to get cold.  You can dress appropriately and be comfortable all day and night in such temperatures, but to keep your face and ears warm you must cover them, and then the water vapor in your breath tends to freeze on whatever scarf you're using, and generally it's a mess.  When it gets down below -20 Celsius I prefer to stay indoors.  At those temperatures it's hard to stay comfortable in your toes, fingers, and face, and if you're not moving around (like when you're sleeping at night) you need excessive amounts of warm layers.  I often wonder what early Americans did before the Europeans arrived. I suppose they had plenty of furs.