Frigid Air

Let the record show that Pittsburgh International Airport recorded morning lows of -4°F and -5°F on Monday and Tuesday, respectively. See the image at left, which depicts low temperatures for the Northeast from Tuesday. Those deep blues are the positive single digits. The purples get into the negatives. Frigid. Absolutely frigid.

The temperature was -3°F as I left my dorm for CHEM Monday morning. After class, I had to walk back up the hill (against the wind) because I forgot certain books I'd need later in the day. At that time, the wind chill was -21°F. Brr.

I had been talking to my South Carolinian friend, Eleanor, whom I mentioned a while back, just about all night about the CHEM lab report that was due that day. So when I woke up, ready to go to CHEM lecture, I checked her AIM away message, just to see what was up with her, and if she was indeed coming after having been up so late. The message read (sic), "-3degrees? i didnt know that happened in you know, not alaska."

Silly Eleanor.

That was the first time Pittsburgh had dipped below zero in two years (-1°F one night in January 2005), and the coldest it's been here in over a decade. Compared to Erie, which was pretty much the only temperature relevant to me until last August, they actually did hit -5°F once and -3°F twice in the month of January 2005, but the difference there was that the highs actually got above 10°F. These last couple days in Pittsburgh, we didn't.

Laurel was reveling in the fact that Bethel Park School District cancelled school Monday and Tuesday, and started on a two-hour delay on Wednesday. And I had to go around walking in the stuff. Having misplaced my own gloves a few weeks ago, I signed out one of my roommate's extra pairs for the duration of the week. After we're out of this, I think I can survive by keeping my hands in my pockets. Or I can get new gloves. Or I can continue to "rent" Casey's until April seeing that he has three pairs, and has said repeatedly that he doesn't need all of them. Any of these options would work.

Anywho, Wednesday we got up to 17°, and the lowest windchill was only -7°F. You know what? I'll take it. It felt good walking in weather that's merely "seasonably cold" for a change.

Random tangent: Too many to mention. Instead of all these little vignettes labeled "Random tangent 1," "Random tangent 2," and et cetera, I'll just turn it all into another really random post.