Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

75% of the US will suffer below-freezing temps this week

lite.cnn.io

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

51–60 of 63 posts

Re: 75% of the US will suffer below-freezing temps this week

#51

Post by casion »

rffn wrote: post #6

What do they mean by "suffer"? Isn't this normal in winter?

In some places (southern US), freezing temperatures are abnormal and can cause damage to crops (livelihoods), property, cause significant physical discomfort and potentially death (homeless).

The US is a really big place. Some of us go for a jog in 35°c, and some of us wear shorts and a t-shirt in 5°c.

Where I live, I only own a single item of 'warm clothing' because it's unnecessary for 360+ days of the year. We also have no heating in the home other than a small space heater. These temperatures will be rather uncomfortable, and will likely kill half our garden and potentially cause damage property.

Not fun.

Re: 75% of the US will suffer below-freezing temps this week

#52

Post by bmeski »

enlyth wrote: post #39
gowld wrote: post #3

Big thank you for that lite.cnn.io URL variant. Very apropos to HN. The home page is beautiful: http://lite.cnn.io/en

I disagree, the lite edition significantly deteriorated my user experience. On a wide 4K monitor, the text is not centred, stretching from the far left to the far right, making it very difficult to continuously read a sentence from left to right. Limits like 80 characters per line exist for a reason. The text is formatted in a very annoying manner, line by line, sentence by sentence, like it was spit out by a debugge…

It was not meant for a 4k desktop. It was meant for mobile devices.

Re: 75% of the US will suffer below-freezing temps this week

#53

Post by thaumasiotes »

reaperducer wrote: post #33
thaumasiotes wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Normal to the north; not normal to the south or west. At least, temperatures that allow for snow to appear are not normal in the south or on the west coast. Spot temperatures below freezing are. I'd believe it's normal for 75% of the land area.

temperatures that allow for snow to appear are not normal in the south or on the west coast That's more of a stereotype than a fact. It gets very cold in winter in the vast majority of nation, including the south and west. It snows in Las Vegas every year. Las Vegas even has a ski resort.† But people rely on an old cartoon-inspired vision of what a "desert" is, rather than the fact that "desert" means a place with li…

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_south

Vegas and Colorado are neither coastal nor southern. My vision of "American desert" is probably near Albuquerque where I lived for several years. It snowed every year. But you'll note that New Mexico isn't part of the south either, despite its location on the border.

Re: 75% of the US will suffer below-freezing temps this week

#54

Post by upofadown »

scrooched_moose wrote: post #32
goda90 wrote: post #4

As someone from the midwest, below-freezing is no big deal(so suffer seems like a silly word). I'm curious how much will suffer below 0F(~-18C) this week. We certainly will, and the wind chill won't help.

Also midwest, and below freezing is fine and below 0 is annoying. This potential -60F windchill through Minnesota on Wednesday is terrifying. The worst I've ever experienced is -40 and it was brutal. https://www.accuweather.com/en/us/national/weather-forecast-... (third map)

Once the windchill gets beyond -40C/F it doesn't really matter anymore. Any exposed skin is just as frozen. Your eyelashes are still sticking together.

It would probably be better to just report it as some sort of "scarf required" zone followed by "scarf required and it might be a bit uncomfortable" zone.

Re: 75% of the US will suffer below-freezing temps this week

#55

Post by justtopost »

kushti wrote: post #9

How many homeless people in the US are dying per day under such conditions?

In the past, I notice cold snaps affect southern homeless more. Those up north know how to prepare for -20, some down south might not survive an overnight freeze.

Re: 75% of the US will suffer below-freezing temps this week

#57

Post by RickJWagner »

berdon wrote: post #42
EpicEng wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They wanted the 75% number, but if you look at e.g. the mid-west it's going to be insanely cold (I grew up there; it's expected to be cold right now, but this is something else.) It's colder than it typically is almost everywhere, so for people who live in the north it's a big deal. For people who live in the south and don't plan for freezing temps... also a big-ish deal.

Fwiw, in South Dakota, where generally most winter days would be Now, Wednesday, we'll be < -20F, which is cold, but nothing we haven't dealt with before and nothing entirely out of the normal. If anything, winter has been abnormally warmer for us.

Hi Berdon!

I grew up in Mitchell, but left about 30 years ago. As a youth, I had a paper route and vividly remember walking backwards on some cold days to keep the wind out of my face.

Good luck with this upcoming cold snap!

Re: 75% of the US will suffer below-freezing temps this week

#58

Post by reaperducer »

thaumasiotes wrote: post #53
reaperducer wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

temperatures that allow for snow to appear are not normal in the south or on the west coast That's more of a stereotype than a fact. It gets very cold in winter in the vast majority of nation, including the south and west. It snows in Las Vegas every year. Las Vegas even has a ski resort.† But people rely on an old cartoon-inspired vision of what a "desert" is, rather than the fact that "desert" means a place with li…

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_south Vegas and Colorado are neither coastal nor southern. My vision of "American desert" is probably near Albuquerque where I lived for several years. It snowed every year. But you'll note that New Mexico isn't part of the south either, despite its location on the border.

Who mentioned Colorado? Monument Valley is Arizona.

Re: 75% of the US will suffer below-freezing temps this week

#59

Post by thaumasiotes »

reaperducer wrote: post #58
thaumasiotes wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_south Vegas and Colorado are neither coastal nor southern. My vision of "American desert" is probably near Albuquerque where I lived for several years. It snowed every year. But you'll note that New Mexico isn't part of the south either, despite its location on the border.

Who mentioned Colorado? Monument Valley is Arizona.

My mistake; I saw "Colorado Plateau" in the wikipedia article.

It's on the border between Arizona and Utah.

Post reply on HN