So cold it burns

Walked through the conservation area on way to school

The big freeze arrived last night. So far, we've had one snow fall last week, and it stayed for about 3 days, then it began to thaw and melt. We've been lucky so far, the weather in the west has been far worse with snow falling as early as October in Edmonton. 3 weeks ago, they had 37cm of snow fall, and it affected most of British Columbia, Calgary , and Saskatchewan, in the Prairies. They experienced a cold snap with temperatures falling blow -36C, and one day the high was -16C...LOL, that was high. Luckily, it ended about 2 weeks ago, and temperatures returned to the normal 0C.


Here's a snippet from the local newspaper The Globe and Mail, Dec 13th 2010

Many Ontario schools, buses shut down by weather

Several boards have cancelled school buses today north and west of Toronto after a flash freeze created icy roads and bitter wind chills.

Some school are also closed because of the weather, with the wind chill making it feel like it's -20 C.

Environment Canada has issued a weather warning that stretches from Timmins to Toronto and Pembroke to Belleville to Sarnia.

I know, I know, you guys in the UK have had it worse for the last few weeks, while me in Canada was basking in temperatures as high as 16C some days in November! Crazy weather, huh, must have taken the warmth from Trinidad to Canada, but the warmth has now burnt itself out!

H475, a log by the Highway 7 roadside

We've now got an extreme cold weather alert in effect in Toronto. There were some school closures and also school bus cancellations for schools that remained open. Doncrest Public School remains open and buses were running too. So, I sent the kids off to school and I walked in a while later. I decided to take the camera along today, and managed to capture some snow scenes.

Valleymeade Road, on the mile long walk to school

Living in the apartment, I don't realise how cold it is outside. We haven't even turned the heating on and only need a layer of clothing, and it's comfy not cold at all. I know I have weather bug that tells me how cold it is outside and Dave has a weather station thing that does the same, but what does -12C feel like, yeah , it does sound cold, but how cold, how many and this wind chill thing, makes it feel like -23C. Like wow, that is cold, colder than I have ever experienced. That was in 1997, there was a cold snap and temperatures fell to -20C in Dartmoor in January, and we went for a weekend of walking just after, it was so beautiful. All the rocks in the streams had petticoats of ice around them. The walk was great, Dartmoor looked like a winter wonderland, I didn't feel cold at all, even though the fountain at the hotel had frozen over and looked like a frozen jelly shape hahahaha

Frozen in action

Anyway, I had a long sleeved top, a fleece and my Alpine Lowe jacket on and a pair of jeans and my snow boots. Pulled a knitted hat with ear flaps and gloves, there, I'm ready. I thought about a scarf but I get so hot around the neck, I decided against it. I regretted that decision almost immediately! The wind was whipping around my face, the jeans were a bad idea too! No barrier against the piercing cold wind. I had not walked further than 10 meters before I felt something like 10,000 very cold needles piercing my skin. After about 5-10 minutes walking, this freezing began to feel like burning.  Explain why, when something is extremely cold, it begins to feel like burning?  Must be something to do with the nerves. The nerves that feel cold must also respond to heat, and at some point, the discomfort felt by the cold begins to resemble that of burning, and therefore your brain tells you it's burning! Prolonged exposure continues, tissue die, more pain!

Looking down Valleymeade from Rockwell Rd

Funny that though eh? So cold it burns. Opposites but yet similar effect...Ice and fire, fire and ice, one melts the other. It doesn't work the other way though. Burning never feels cold, it just feels hot and burning......Ok, rambling thoughts now, better stop this line of thought.

Noisy but essential

On my walk to school, the roads and pavements were a bit slippy, not much grit or salt on the roads, though we did get woken up by a snow plough at 4 am today. It was the most horrendous loud scraping sound. 4 am I tell you, is there really a need to have clear driveway around the apartment at 4 am?  It was all snowed over by 7am anyhow!!  The walk is about a mile long, near school there is a conservation area and I walked in through the trees today, taking some pics of the snow.

Trees in the conservation area

all wrapped up!

The work at the library is going well, have almost finished reshelving the books, probably about 50-100 books left to do, will go in first thing in the morning, to finish off before I help with pizza day....

Shelves with books, all neat and tidy