Glare Ice photo courtesy of MPR

Dark and icy driving

It was dark and 18 below zero when I drove from St. Paul to Minnetonka this morning. How cold is it that? So cold that the diesel was freezing in trucks and some of the gas pumps froze. So cold that the cows are eating twice as much silage and experiencing changes in the way their fur grows. So cold you can hear it in the squeak of your step on the snow. A cold so cold that it doesn't seem to matter how much colder it gets once you reach 18 below.


Dangerous but beautiful

Maybe it's because I grew up in Florida, but I find this extreme cold fascinating — dangerous but beautiful, like a deadly predator (a white lynx or a snow leopard comes to mind) it takes your breath away, even as it sinks its teeth for the bleak bite.

Squeaky Snow

When it gets cold enough, snow squeaks. If you were wondering what it sounds like, here's a YouTube video with audio of squeaky snow, by YouTube user iplantree, and her squeaky snow sounds exactly like our squeaky snow. I must say, iplantree sounds perky and happy about her trek to her house through the squeakiness. I love her cheeriness:

Local news and coverage:

From KARE11.com:

People in Minnesota are battling dangerously cold temperatures. As one person said, it can actually hurt to breathe. The Twin Cities made national news with a reading of -21 degrees Fahrenheit Thursday morning.

Believe it or not, the coldest part of the state was not up north. It was in Morris, where it dipped to a frigid -33 degrees Fahrenheit and that temperature was without a wind chill.

When it gets this cold, some things simply do not work, one of them being video cameras. While out doing live shots for kare11.com on how the cold weather is impacting regular daily business, our own image actually froze.

The deep freeze affected others across the metro. Gas lines at a Holiday store in Golden Valley froze up. A couple of diesel trucks in the fleet at Duffy Paper weren't able to run in this weather.

From  KROC AM 1340 News:

The temperature in a town in northeastern Minnesota dropped 80 degrees below freezing this morning. Babbitt's morning low of 48 below was the coldest reading reported to the National Weather Service. Embarrass was right behind at 46 below while International Falls and Orr had lows of 42 below. Most cities across the northern half of the state had lows in the minus 20's and 30's for a 2nd straight morning and will again tomorrow. Temps were not nearly as cold in southeastern Minnesota, although most cities have been sub-zero since early yesterday and will remain there until sometime Friday. The cold air that is headed this way could produce the lowest temperatures in several years. Temps are expected to bottom out around 25 below. The last time it was that cold in Rochester was Christmas Day, 2000. It will remain bitterly cold through Friday morning and then a warmup is expected for the weekend. Brisk winds through tomorrow are expected to produce wind chill readings that could hit 50 below at times.

Resources

Would you like to donate blankets and/or winter coats to help someone stay warm this winter? Wonder if there are programs to help keep the heat on?

• OneWarmCoat.org is a national effort that meets local needs in providing warm winter coats to those in need.
• Project Linus is an organization I particularly like that aims to "provide love, a sense of security, warmth and comfort to children who are seriously ill, traumatized, or otherwise in need through the gifts of new, handmade blankets and afghans, lovingly created by volunteer blanketeers.”  Why handmade blankets? "It has always been the mission of Project Linus to donate only handmade blankets. We receive thousands of letters and thank you notes every year from children. Over and over they express how touched they are that a stranger would take the time to make something for them. They really know the difference. Purchased blankets are nice, but handmade blankets are from the heart."
• Community Action Partnership with links to local programs to help you keep the heat on.