In New England 2 winters ago, we had a -30F night without wind chill. What I noticed most was a lot of our pines sounded like they were exploding through the night. It turns out, it was the sap inside the tree freezing and blowing veins out.
You know it's cold when Pine Sap inside of Conifers are freezing up. It sounded like a shooting range.
golfduke said:In New England 2 winters ago, we had a -30F night without wind chill. What I noticed most was a lot of our pines sounded like they were exploding through the night. It turns out, it was the sap inside the tree freezing and blowing veins out.
You know it's cold when Pine Sap inside of Conifers are freezing up. It sounded like a shooting range.
A few years ago in the UP, similar temperatures (colder IIRC), there was a sound like a cannon amid the shooting range cacophony. Came out the next morning and a white pine had exploded. Apparently it had a little hollow spot that was filled with sap; it eventually froze and sent pine shrapnel about 15 feet in every direction.
mtn said:golfduke said:In New England 2 winters ago, we had a -30F night without wind chill. What I noticed most was a lot of our pines sounded like they were exploding through the night. It turns out, it was the sap inside the tree freezing and blowing veins out.
You know it's cold when Pine Sap inside of Conifers are freezing up. It sounded like a shooting range.
A few years ago in the UP, similar temperatures (colder IIRC), there was a sound like a cannon amid the shooting range cacophony. Came out the next morning and a white pine had exploded. Apparently it had a little hollow spot that was filled with sap; it eventually froze and sent pine shrapnel about 15 feet in every direction.
It's one of my favorite sayings- Nature is so Metal.
Not quite -30 ambient, but I saw this badass dude this morning. 7am in Western PA, ambient temp was 1 at the time 😮
In reply to XLR99 (Forum Supporter) :
I ride motorcycles.
When I see something like that, I remember riding my bicycle to school in winter and finding black ice.
I went down so hard and so fast, I thought I broke a bone.
I've crashed a lot on my mountain bike but I've never, ever hit the ground as fast as when I hit that ice.
Riding a motorcycle in sub-freezing weather is f-ing stupid.
I have a friend who sourced snow tires for his Vespa so he could ride it through the winter. He had varying degrees of success.
In reply to ShawnG :
I used to occasionally ride my VFR to work when it was ~30 in the morning, with a small fairing and heated grips. That was way too cold for my feet and knees, even for 10 min on the highway.
The guy looked pretty miserable - I beeped and gave him a wave, and he looked like his hands were barely able to move.
In reply to Peabody :
My wife's Vespa 300 has Heidenau K58 tires on it because we live on gravel.
Wow, +35°F today. That's a 68° difference from 4 days ago (-33°F), 76° difference tomorrow. I almost had to put on a pair of shorts outside. 
VolvoHeretic said:North Dakota's only real claim to fame is our weather temperature extremes. At least it keeps the weak willed and smart people out.
North Dakota Winter of '35-'36;
"For 37 days, January 14 to February 19, there was only one day on which the thermometer registered as high as zero, while for the week ending February 17 the average temperature was -28° F, and for all January and February, -13° F."
"All-time lowest temperature: -60° F (Parshall on Feb. 15, 1936)"
"All-time highest temperature: 121° F (Steele on July 6, 1936)"
181 degree temperature swing, all in the same year and 5 months apart.
A close friend of my grandfather and father was a cowboy that worked cattle all over the west. He said the coldest he had ever been was working on a ranch out near Williston, North Dakota in the winter of '36. He thought he and his horse were going to die.
Thanks for posting the verification that it wasn't just a tall-tale.
In reply to Coniglio Rampante :
You're welcome. It's amazing how in all of my travels across the US, I keep meeting people who have either been to North Dakota or know someone who has lived here. Small world. Williston is about 70 miles away from Parshall as the crow flies.
Who in all of the world would have ever thought that I would make a post about the cold weather in North Dakota and someone else somewhere in the country would read it and relate it to a story someone told about how cold our weather was. On a car forum website. It must have something to do with all of the planets aligning right now.
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