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I lived in the Yukon for 4 years, rode my bike to work every day of the year, it was often past -40C/F in winter. With good clothing that was perfectly fine, and I enjoyed it. Watching the steam and huge chunks of ice on the Yukon river is a sight to behold. Also seeing the northern lights on the way to work at 8am is great, as-is seeing the lights or stars again at 4pm. With far from the best gear I can stand around outside happily down to about -30C. Past that, I need to be near a fire, or moving (snowshoeing, riding, cutting wood) to stay warm to about -40C/F. After that I have to really move to stay warm enough for a long period of time. Once I was caribou hunting just below the Arctic Circle in late November (the sun only came up for about an hour) and it was something like -50C (-58F). Try as I might, I never did warm up even jogging on the spot, jumping jacks, etc. etc. In the north most people don't even really consider will chill, because it's kind of meaningless - it officially has no units and is an estimate at best. Northerns take pride in being "tough" and most people say stuff like "Wild Chill is for people who get cold", or something similar. So there were many days the actual temp was -46C (-50F), and if the wind was coming from the North it was stupid cold. The will chill would have been well past -60C (-76F), but nobody talks about it. On those days it's very hard to be outside for long, and exposed skin is an absolute no-no. If I took my two layers of gloves off to do anything I'd lose feeling in my fingers for hours and they really, really hurt. Interestingly, the temperature between night and day only changes a degree or two - the sun makes virtually no difference, even though the colder it gets the clearer it gets. I grew up in Australia, yet the most stunning blue sky days of my life were in the Yukon past -40C/F. I lived not too far from Snag, Yukon, the coldest ever recorded place in North America at -63C/-81F [1] I should also add that Yukon has no concept of "too cold for school" or work, or anything like that. It's perfectly normal to go to school or work when it's below -40C/F, everyone just deals with it. It's amusing when it warms up to -20C or -30C and it feels comparatively balmy! [1] https://www.gi.alaska.edu/alaska-science-forum/coldest-place... |
I was also out last night in -20F taking the dog out before bed, I’ve got a full-body arctic suit for such occasions (and he does too).
Good cold weather gear is pricey, but it makes all the difference. It lasts for a long time, so it’s a good investment if you have to deal with these temps during the year.