What's colder than cold?

[Luke]

With winter round the corner, and my warm coat and silly hat at the ready, I'm wondering what the coldest is that the good folks of SGL have braved?

My record is -8C.

[steve_bham]

I went camping in the Lakes one winter and it dropped down to -10C in tent over night! Even the gas cooker was struggling to work!

[drummerp]

I have a feeling next year during SGL6 it'll be pretty cold.

cheers

Neil

[SteveL]

Kielder was cold when I went (-9 or something) but that was aparantly a warm one by comparison.

Am sure the phone call to my wife will be colder than that when I ask if I can stay another night at Kelling!

[adamsp123]

Been out in -25C one evening in Austria watching ice hockey outdoors and we all ended up suffering mild hypothermia and done a minute at -40C in an environmental chamber,

[Llamanaut]

i had -15 overnight in a one man tent overnight on dartmoor... woke up and everything was covered in thick frost

[George]

When I upset the wife it can get colder than cold

[Rob1961]

-15 but didn't feel like it as there was very, very little humidity and no wind

[RobH]

-30C in Moscow last December, but it was dry so not too bad. A few days later I was in St Petersburg in -25C...being by the water it was more humid, and windy too, and I thought I was going to break into small bits and shatter onto the ground!!

Cheers

Rob

[twotter]

-38 is pretty chilly, especially when you forget to put your gloves on

[Steve1976]

Don't know exactly what the coldest is but here in Ukraine the winters frequently get to -30 sometimes even colder. You do get pretty used to it after a while though. We often do some observing in the winter but perhaps not when it is quite that cold and not for as long as usual.

[Capricorn]

-24 in Eastern Holland some years ago.

No wind, dry and sunny. You didn't feel it until you moved. Also only took shallow breaths.

[Talitha]

The coldest temp i ever experienced was -40C with a wind chill of -51C, but my coldest observing session was an hour-long Aurora shoot at -26C. The second roll of film shattered in the camera when i tried to advance it too quickly.

The next-coldest session was six hours at the Starpad when it was -11C. There was a big winter storm coming the next day, so it was the last one (Starpad session) of the season. The LX-10's tracking motor got sluggish and finally quit, as did the clock drive. But i merely re-calibrated the RA circle on the target before moving on to the next one, just like i'd learned to do with the ETX 90RA.

P.S. It was a frosty -3C when i left the Starpad on Sunday morning at 4:00am. .. M42 was absolutely magnificent!

[George Jones]

I lived in Brandon, Manitoba for a year, and I used to walk 25 minutes to work early every morning. In January and early February, the average temperature for my walk was something like -22C, and I walked quite a number of times when the temperature was in the -30s (without windchill).

[sgazer]

I'm sure this winter just gone I was out in about -10C. It's always my feet that suffer the most. However, at least when it's cold you can add more layers (up to a point), when it's hot there's only so many clothes you can take off before being arrested......and it's just hit 40C here in Japan today . Even the locals are sweating (although I've not been arrested yet! ).

[Mr Spock]

The coldest I've been was a few years ago when I visited the Netherlands. I was dressed in a fleece with a light rain proof outer, fine for the temperatures I'd seen on the forecast, 5-6°C. Imagine the shock I got when I got off the plane to find it was -17°C...!

It was a lovely sunny day but the maximum was around -5°C and I was absolutely frozen stiff.

[beamish]

Am sure the phone call to my wife will be colder than that when I ask if I can stay another night at Kelling!

LOL Classic !!

[Sam]

-7 when I was observing late one night in our old place to the south of London. Coldest here in NZ was about a month ago and it was -4 and I had a nice thick layer of frost of the scope.

[haitch]

I got caught up in unexpected heavy snow in France a few years back (about 1/2 a metre in a couple of hours). They shut the motorway so I headed across country for about 100km before eventually putting my car in a ditch about 10km before my destination at 2 am. Slept in the car at -10°C for a few hours until the Pompiers came past and gave me a lift at around 6 am.

Power was off and phones down in my village for about 3 days so skies were even darker than usual. The house took a week to warm up with the wood burner and gas heater blazing away constantly. The wife wasn't very happy that it took me 3 days to call her to say I'd arrived.

The worst thing was the only hire car within a 2 hour radius was a Toyota Aygo - not ideal for the 550 mile trip back up to Calais.

[AndyH]

1/ -9 or worse at Kielder a couple of Autums ago. A tad chilly, but bareable !!

2/ The heart of a Glasgow Rangers supporter.............. ;-D

hehehe,

Andy.

[Luke]

I have a feeling next year during SGL6 it'll be pretty cold.

Eeek in March, isn't it? I think you could be right!!

[drummerp]

I have a feeling next year during SGL6 it'll be pretty cold.

Eeek in March, isn't it? I think you could be right!!

The last couple of years we've been in our trusty Campervan however, its being sold at the moment and we now have a tent instead so its definately gonna make a diference to us, I think i might need to bring a couple of heater and lots of blankets.

cheers

Neil

[darkly]

-20 something on night-shift in a rig moonpool for what felt like hours because none of my mates would come and relieve me - "just a bit longer mate"

Up off of the top end of Norway above Hammerfest

Never even saw the 'aurora borealis' which, by the way, was, looking back, the only reason I agreed to go as far as I can remember. It certainly wasn't the money!