The price of Maple Syrup Was Too Damn High!
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Wet cold is worse than dry; the damp evaporates off you, cooling you down faster, like sweat. Especially if there’s a wind, and there always is on this rock. People underestimate this because there’s not much snow but it’s disturbingly easy to get hypothermic like that.
That’s a great description. I’m in Albuquerque, and we get the graupel here, too. @Californiagrown, thanks for posting that. I’ve always wondered what the stuff is.
That’s very interesting you saw the same stuff in Afghanistan! The movie Lone Survivor was filmed in the Manzano mountains southeast of Albuquerque. Former SEALs advised on set and said if they’d been dropped directly into the mountains, they’d think they were in Afghanistan.
Yeah, I grew up in Mescalero/Rui (and live in Rui). And there is a reason I ended up in the very first wave in Afghanistan, and that’s it (and I could ride a horse and shoot, which is not overly practiced skill in the Army).
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I saw it in WY. We called it corn snow
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Yup, graupel happens everywhere, but I’ve seen it most often in continental mountains. And FWIW in the snowsports world, corn refers to spring time snow where the freeze thaw cycles produce smooth, kind of slushy like ball bearing snow.
Corn:
Graupel:
Can’t wait for winter.
We deployed to Korea and spent a month sleeping in a building that was not heated during winter with all day training exercises outside. It was when I decided that I’d never be that cold, voluntarily, ever again. I really do love some snow and the crisp air, but it’s a different kind of cold, and people who haven’t experienced it can’t understand it.
In the opposite way, it’s like when we deployed to Guantanamo Bay and had a day to acclimatize, and all the guys from the Deep South were like “this ain’t nothin” and all got sun poisoning. There’s cold and hot, and then there’s cold and hot.
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We were going over Red Mountain in southern Colorado once. It was so cold the snowflakes didn’t even stick together. Each one was like a prism. The entire landscape looked like cut diamonds with sparkling rainbows. They would swirl up in the light wind and looked like fairy dust. I have only it like that seen once, but it was incredible, something out of a fairy tale, magical.
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When I was living in WY and working for the state, I spent the night in Alpine and the next morning it was -27 below with NO WIND. After finally getting the state car started, you could tell how cold it was when the tires were squeaking on the snow.
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Did it sound like nails on chalkboard? The sound of tires squeaking on snow makes my skin crawl
Being a man of adventure, as most northern denizens are, I particularly enjoy the thrill of a new-found frost heave on my spring time commute.
That’s something you just don’t get to experience in Texas.
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Only mildly related, but I am a big fan on the new style of chains with the elastic tighteners that don’t require moving the vehicle to get the chain under the tire.
I didn’t know what one was until I found one in Vermont…
I immediately understood.
No, it was very unique. Wyoming is extremely dry in the winter and the snow is more crystallized I think and I think it was that combo of cold tires and dry snow that made the squeaking sound.
I have no problem believing soda will flash freeze at -60*. But I think you should’ve kept your soda popsicle
That’s exactly why I like cold and snow too. Of course, as @flappinit pointed out, there’s cold, then there’s COLD.
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This is a great point, coupled with info I didn’t know about Wyoming winters. Wind is an absolute game-changer in colder months. I live in New Mexico, and we complain about the intense spring winds here - that stinging sensation on skin in March? It’s New Mexican “rain”, aka wind-driven sand. Apart from mountains and canyons though, we don’t usually get 60+ mph wind in the winter. If/when I’m driving through Wyoming and surrounding area, I’ll be sure to take their highway advisories seriously.
The coldest temperatures I’ve been in so far are around -30* F after factoring in wind chill. While that’s seriously cold, and potentially dangerous, it’s nothing like some of y’all have experienced.
Also spent my first 30 years in NM. Saw car windows blown out from sand storms. As kids we would run into the dust devils on the playground and lose some skin! LOL
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That’s right, I’d forgotten you spent a few decades here. I’ve never seen wind blow out car windows, that’s insane! I do have an idea of what a haboob is like, though.
My Dad worked at WSMR. It happened to our car in the parking lot