We have a saying in Scandinavia: "There's no bad weather, only bad kleather (clothes)" :)
That's because tornadoes in Scandinavia are rare. :)
What it’s like living in the coldest town on Earth
41–50 of 93 posts
Re: What it’s like living in the coldest town on Earth
#42> people here regularly consume frozen meat Unless they eat it while it's still frozen, why is this noteworthy? Also: > Most people use outhouses, because indoor plumbing tends to freeze. This is due to their poverty, not the cold. If it was just cold there, as opposed to cold and impoverished, they could either keep water constantly running through the pipes, or, if that won't work, insulate them better, possibly wi…
Methinks you're severely overlooking the cost of maintaining temperate-lifestyle behavior in deeply frozen environments.
Thawing meat takes time & energy. It may very well be more convenient to just eat it frozen, especially if you're working outside and your lunch is frozen by ambient temperatures as the norm.
Keep water constantly running thru the pipes
That's a LOT of water - where do you get it from? where do you put it when it's too cool to use? Remember, this is an environment where most water is frozen; liquid water is an anomaly.
More importantly: you're overlooking where the septic drainage pipe is going. You don't "constantly run water thru" that pipe. It doesn't go to a community sewage system. It goes...somewhere out in the back yard. You can't keep the full length of that pipe, and where it's going, sufficiently warm.
insulate [pipes] better
Insulation delays thermal loss, but does not halt it. Where is the heat source? heating coils? that's more costly energy being pumped into a low-value pipe to fight extreme temperature differentials compounded by the thermal mass of water.
What you're imputing should be in place will cost a lot more than you expect. We're talking an environment where dirt itself is frozen deep down, all working at sinking any heat you pump in.
block heaters work
Ok, the block isn't frozen then. But your tires are - literally, the rubber on your tires is rock solid - and the flat side of the tire contacting the ground doesn't flex when rotating so you get an extremely bumpy ride just for starters. Speaking of starters, your starter is frozen. And the door handles. The door hinge may not give. The battery may not start. Your wiper fluid ("works to 40 below!" and temps hit -50 last night) is a block of ice. You'll have to heat the entire car just to make it function in a tolerable manner ... easier just to get on a bike (which you can easily keep warm inside) or walk.
[several imputations of blame on poverty]
Consider the _relative_ poverty. Just flushing the toilet or opening the car door just went from thoughtlessly free to significant/nontrivial cost. Crops are nearly nonexistent, almost any food not local meat has to be shipped thousands of miles to a low-demand location. Suddenly EVERYTHING costs much more just because it's so blasted cold out. Your (yes, you) normal expenses just went up 10x. Want to eat? cheapest way is go hunting out your back door. Want to, er, egest? outhouse.
The people there aren't necessarily "poor", it's that the cost of living - in a manner not consistent with certain realities of the environment - is very high.
his camera freezing wasn't something I thought modern cameras were especially prone to
Again, you underestimate how very cold it is outside there, and how pervasive that cold is. Modern cameras, generally speaking, are not built for use at seriously sub-zero temperatures.
interviews don't need to be done out in the cold
But talking to "the man in the street" does. He wanted to interview people he'd never met, people who were just walking by. If you're talking about serious outdoor cold, as regards to people rushing from one oasis of warmth to another, you're going to find yourself in the difficult position of trying to talk to people rushing from one oasis of warmth to another and who are uninterested in talking to strangers about how cold it is.
Re: What it’s like living in the coldest town on Earth
#43I live in Whitehorse, Yukon. Last week it was -37C for a few days, I rode my bike/walked to work every day. I've been out Caribou hunting in -48C snowshoeing around right near the Arctic Circle. Snag is just down the road, where it was once -63.9C (-83F) - the coldest temp ever recorded in North America.[1] I'm originally from Australia, so this kind of thing is Alien to me, and I think I do a decent job of explainin…
Do you have engine block heaters in cars in Yukon? In Scandinavia we have electric heaters installed to engine blocks for people who keep their cars outside. The heaters are typically in the 500 W range and keeping it on for an hour before starting up the car in the morning makes the starting a lot easier.
We also have cabin heaters for cars (typically in the 1000 W range) but they are more for the convenience (but also safety, car windows are clear when you drive off, and vapor from breath doesn't condense and freeze to the insides of the windows).
Re: What it’s like living in the coldest town on Earth
#44Earlier quoted context omitted.
They have to keep a bonfire running for days to bury a body. What do you think it takes to dig a hole for a house then?
You could build a home, live in it for a year, and eventually the heat from that home will act like the bonfire. You then remove the top soil (until you re-hit frozen), and then wait another year and rinse/repeat. Year upon year you dig down, until eventually you have another floor's worth of space, then the original house becomes the top/second floor, and the new "basement" becomes a new area. I would add that I wou…
It isn't so easy. Oymyakon is on permafrost. The heat from the building melts the permafrost and destabilizes the building. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Permafrost#Construction_on_perm... for some pictures and info. Eg, "Modern buildings in permafrost zones may be built on piles to avoid permafrost-thaw foundation failure from the heat of the building." and shows the building above the ground.
That's what documents like http://www.uaf.edu/files/ces/publications-db/catalog/eeh/HCM... say:
> Make every attempt to keep the soil beneath the building frozen and the permafrost stable. The strategy for alleviating the engineering risks of building on permafrost sites is to build the structure on piles or an elevated foundation, taking special care to insulate the ground and prevent thawing.
Re: What it’s like living in the coldest town on Earth
#45>ymyakon earned its title as the coldest place on Earth when the mercury plunged to -90. Mercury doesn't plunge to -90 (C or F) because mercury has a melting point at -37.9 °F or -38.8 °C. This is a fairly common fallacy from people who aren't thinking through. Thermometers used in cold places usually have coloured alcohol as liquid, not mercury. I think most Western countries have actually got rid of mercury thermom…
While the factoid is appreciated, I don't think it's fair to call it a fallacy: 'the mercury' is a common metaphor for temperature these days, whether the element mercury is involved in the process or not.
Re: What it’s like living in the coldest town on Earth
#46We have a saying in Scandinavia: "There's no bad weather, only bad kleather (clothes)" :)
Visit us in summer in Australia, when in some of the cities the temperature during the day often exceeds human body temperature. There's only so many clothes you can remove :)
Re: What it’s like living in the coldest town on Earth
#47>ymyakon earned its title as the coldest place on Earth when the mercury plunged to -90. Mercury doesn't plunge to -90 (C or F) because mercury has a melting point at -37.9 °F or -38.8 °C. This is a fairly common fallacy from people who aren't thinking through. Thermometers used in cold places usually have coloured alcohol as liquid, not mercury. I think most Western countries have actually got rid of mercury thermom…
Be right back, going to Xerox some papers.
Pass me the Kleenex?
Give the Tesla some gas, let's go man!
Re: What it’s like living in the coldest town on Earth
#48Earlier quoted context omitted.
And -40 is -40.
The most important and useful as it makes C-to-F conversions much easier. add 40--convert (9/5 or 5/9) -- subtract 40 or, as I tend to use, add 40--convert (2 or 1/2) -- subtract 40.
How does that crude approximation make it any easier?
I am pretty fluent in conversion just by remembering that 10 Celsius degrees are equivalent to 18 Fahrenheit degrees, then practicing counting by 10s:
-4°F, 14°F, 32°F, 50°F, 68°F, 86°F, 104°F
Once you have those under your belt you can figure most earthly air temperatures pretty quickly and exactly.
Re: What it’s like living in the coldest town on Earth
#49>ymyakon earned its title as the coldest place on Earth when the mercury plunged to -90. Mercury doesn't plunge to -90 (C or F) because mercury has a melting point at -37.9 °F or -38.8 °C. This is a fairly common fallacy from people who aren't thinking through. Thermometers used in cold places usually have coloured alcohol as liquid, not mercury. I think most Western countries have actually got rid of mercury thermom…
Be right back, going to Xerox some papers. Pass me the Kleenex? Give the Tesla some gas, let's go man!
Someone's cell rang while I was watching the film.
Re: What it’s like living in the coldest town on Earth
#50I was in Regina SK, Canada this time last year, and for a South African who'd only ever experienced ~-10 degrees C, it was a humbling experience. The coldest day when I was there was below -50C, and on one day I missed my bus and walked to work on -42C. I did adapt after a while, but I don't think I'd be able to live in Oymyakon. About 15 years ago I remember reading an article on a magazine about the coldest town on…
I live in Saskatoon, a few hours north of Regina. We've had it pretty bad the last two winters. It's a pretty nice day today, only -16C (3F), but there's been a lot of days recently where we've been pretty high up on this list: http://www.wx-now.com/Weather/WxExtremes
I'm not sure if we're just unlucky, but there's usually a lot of places much further north than us that are warmer.