Northern women can be quite sexy in goose down parkas and Sorels.

While we are bragging about cold -

A Co, 2/508 was deployed to Fort Greeley Alaska, January, 1980. -69 without wind chill. And we were out in tents. Granted, they were 10 man arctic tents, with stoves, but still.

And of course we deployed to Panama in February two weeks after we got back. Low temp there, 70. Go figure.

LOL! You're farther North than me though, so I blame you guys for sending it "down" here! haha!

We've warmed up today. The thermometer outside my front door says it's 0C. We're supposed to stay around 0 today and tomorrow, with a good dump of snow on the weekend, and then go back into the deep freeze on Monday. No school cancellations here yet, but we're being warned that it's a good possibility.

For those of you who've never experienced this kind of cold, imagine stepping outside and your nostrils freezing with ice crystals inside. It's truly hard to breath.

We're also experiencing something called "frost quakes." I've heard them on a lake before, but never in the backyard. http://www.citynews.ca/2014/01/03/southern-ontario-experiencing-frost-quakes/

Ouch!! Our cold snaps here are the reason I'll never convince my hubby to move to the Yukon with me. BRR!!

Northerners learn to think longjohns are sexy too! haha! Watch for the population explosion in the fall.

When I was up at my brother's fishing lodge, he had one female reporter (from some place in the southern US, I don't recall where). She was part of a team touring fishing lodges for her outdoor articles. Anyway, Gord was relating how they come up in the middle of winter to check on the lodge and to do a little ice fishing every year. The road? Well, the lodge is 60 miles north of Yellowknife through the bush and frozen lakes, so they use snowmobiles. She asked about the usual delicacy - how do you go to the bathroom when it is so cold? As Gord was explaining the "anatomical bare necessities" you could hear the oohs and shrieks and ouches! She couldn't fathom the idea of -50* wind chill. Us Canucks had a little smirk and laugh - its just something we take into stride.

Speaking of cold, its -28*C (-39* windchill) right now and windchill temps are dropping to -50* tonight. I'm prepping to go out snowshoeing this afternoon in the fresh snow we got yesterday. Luckily, I got a new pair of bibbs and new balaclava to try out.

"And of course we deployed to Panama in February two weeks after we got back. Low temp there, 70. Go figure."

My father's unit rained for WWII in the desert near Needles, CA, and then were deployed to new Guinea and the Philippines....

The coldest I have seen was -80 wind chill at 14,000 ft on Denali in June (the so called warmest part of the climbing season).

The kind of cold best experienced and then remembered to all no worse for the telling. Jan 1982 Northfield Mn I suited up like an Apollo astronaut to go out in -30F/30+MPH. I was comfy with everything on that I owned but glad to come back inside. Very much like a walk on a blustery moon. Minnesotans et Al mostly get used to it. Those fair weather shirt sleeve days come along when its 30 and men are in polo shirts. I have often dreamed of living where there's an annual thaw celebrated with a running of the bulls, but no joy so far. Stay warm you huskies!

When your dealing with really cold conditions, it can seem like you are on Mars, and using space suits. As Canoedogs says, it can be a major project just to get dressed to go outside, what with massive boots, big parkas, hoods that form tunnels around your face, overpants, huge mittens. Buildings in really cold regions typically have an "arctic entry", which is sort of like an air lock. Once your outside, the darkness and ice fog can give things an otherworldly feeling.

Bush planes and helicopters don't like to fly when it gets below about -40 F (-40C), though they will in a life or death emergency. Materials behave differenty. Ordinary oil and hydraulic fluid tends to get thick, rubber and plastic gets brittle. Equipment meant for the arctic often use special steel alloys, since even regular steel gets somewhat more brittle.

As JBMat found out, in Alaska the coldest places tend to be the interior basins, such as the Yukon Basin or the Tanana Basin. They develop strong inversions, and there can be a big temperature difference between the bottom of the basin and the surrounding hills. There is a reason people in Fairbanks like to build their houses on the hills (hint: it is not just for the view). On the North Slope, the coldest I've experienced was about -60F (-51C) ambient, which was a near record low for Prudhoe Bay. That day there was just the very slightest hint of a breeze, and I absolutely could not look upwind, or my face would fall off!

Here in Anchorage, we have a strong marine influence, which tends to moderate temperatures. Typically the coldest we see in Anchorage is probably around minus 20F (-29C), and I think the record low for Anchorage is somewhere around -30F (-34C). The thing about Anchorage is how much the weather can vary depending on what part of town you are in. On the west side of town near the airport it might be -5F (-20C) and at the same time at roughly the same elevation on the east side of town (at the foot of the mountains) it can be fifteen degrees colder. When the Chinook Winds blow, it can be blowing 90 mph (145 km per hour) in the subdivisions up on the hillside, and be only slightly breezy on the west side of town.

Not to mention atheletic women out cross country skiing in tight lycra!