It Sure Was Cold

It was a might bit chilly for a couple of days.

A few records were broken or was that frozen? Either way, it was damned cold Friday and Saturday up heah in Maine. The coldest that I saw for our area was -17*F on the Apple weather website, which is cold, but nothing all that earth-shattering.

It gets cold in Maine. We expect those temps at some point during the winter (every year) and in most years multiple times. There ain’t a lot to do other than complain or whine about it to whoever isn’t listening and then move on.

What was unusual was the high winds that came along with this Arctic Clipper, Arctic Vortex, bone-chilling weather, or whatever the newscasters can call cold weather that sounds the most dangerous. That being said, the winds over the past few days sounded like a freight train going by, which means that gusts were up in the 35-40 mph range with steady winds of 25-35 mph. Those winds brought the feels-like temps down into the -40 or lower range.

Hell, Mt. Washington over in New Hampshire got down to -108 feels-like temps, which I have zero desire to experience. Just stepping outside in the -40 or lower stuff to let the dog do his thing was bad enough.

So yeah, it got cold, really freaking cold.

I know that was happy it didn’t last any longer or got any worse than it did.

But the subzero weather and high winds aren’t anything new, just tiresome, and dangerous if you aren’t careful about what you do. 

The worst thing in that kind of weather (and you don’t have a lot of control over), is if you lose power, your heating system breaks down under the strain, or you have to go someplace and your vehicle breaks down, then those conditions can quickly deteriorate into life-threatening situations.

This time

We only had a hot water line freeze up, which I had to go under the house to unthaw, but other than that we made it through just fine. We prepared the house for winter a little differently this year (just for this kind of weather), and will make more improvements this summer to get ready for next winter, based on our experiences over the past few days. 

Because I fully expect subzero weather and northerly winds will happen again next winter.

From what I could see this morning when I headed up to Waterville, that life around here returned to normal fairly quickly. Although I saw a few cars with the hoods up in driveways getting jump starts, a few larger branches down, and some leftover snow drifts.

Out of necessity, we grudgingly adapt to the conditions presented to us in Winter or find someplace else to live. 

Most of us who deal with Winter’s charms each year, do survive our winters with sub-zero temps, blizzard conditions, snow sometimes measured in feet versus inches, and all the other stuff despite some of the news media’s dire warnings of imminent disaster and ruin.

The News

When I watch some of the national news stations. Especially, that one with the initials WC, they seem to make it sound like the end of the world as we know it is happening or that each weather event is the next storm of the century.

I realize reporting on the weather IS a big business and the more viewers you can have leaning on your every word, the better it is for business. However, weather happens every day and while some of it is dangerous, watching some of those news channels, it seems as if every storm is the next “big” disaster in the making.

Each week.

They usually ain’t.

Yes, all those stations provide a great service by letting us know when storms are coming, how bad they could be, and that we need to be prepared. At the same time how much does their drive for ratings and viewership by sensationalizing what the weather would/could/should and is doing tend to drive up my and many others’ anxiety levels to excessive levels?

More than they or we want to admit, I’d bet.

So, I have learned to watch local stations whose weather people tend to live here too. Have a bit of experience with the weather we typically get, have been with their station for more than a few years, don’t unnecessarily sensationalize what is going on, and in my experience tend to keep things a lot less dramatic.

The reality is

Sub Zero weather with shitty wind chills rather sucks, but you know something:

Yeah, if you live up heah, we know what to expect during winter, and I am pretty sure that most of us will probably be heah for next year’s version of whatever it brings too. I don’t see a lot of news reports of a max exodus from Maine to more temperate areas happening as I write this. 🤪

We kind of realize that by living where we live that winter happens and we deal with it.

However, I have a feeling that I’m like most people who live in areas where winter can get rather nasty at times. That dealing with subzero weather, snow, ice, and it might even be nice once in a while are all part of the package that goes along with living where winter happens. We may not always like what the weather is or what it does to our lives, but most of us have a pretty good idea of the dangers that the weather tends to bring to where we live.

I know that we aren’t planning on going anywhere.

How about you, how are you dealing with the weather where you live?