I'd Hate to See Winter
There is some discussion over at Climate Audit about Ojmjakon, Russia in the context of trying to debug some recent NASA temperature measurement glitches. But I could not get past this data, which really seems a bit nippy for late Autumn:
Well, as long as its sunny.
Wow. Brr. How does anything mechanical even function at those temperatures?
How do /humans/ function at those temperatures?
By hiding inside of mechanical and physical structures. And lighting very large fires. Hopefully.
And thus the phrase I learned to mutter often in Fairbanks, before moving south to the warm coastal climate of Anchorage, Alaska: "I hope it warms up enough to snow."
Sunny is bad. Sunny means clear skies at night - clouds hold heat. Of course, Sunny is a relative term, given the length of time (not long) the sun's above the horizon...
Heh. My first winter in Fairbanks (1994-95), the mercury hit -45°F. on Thanksgiving. Just about the same time a drunk hit the rear bumper of my car and shattered it.
In fairness, that was the earliest-ever recorded -45 in Fairbanks. Even so...