It’s -17°F in Chicago, so here are some penguins falling down (video)

1/6/14 10:44am by 38

Another day, another changed flight in my never-ending saga of TRYING TO LEAVE CHICAGO.

First, I was supposed to fly out Thursday, then Saturday, then today.  The first two times we had a blizzard.  Today it’s 17 degrees below zero out and, in addition to it being unclear how the flights are faring at O’Hare, I’m more than a bit worried about dying on the road (more specifically, my dog dying on the road, as she’s traveling with me) should our car break down on the way to the airport.

temperature-chicago

Actual temp at mom’s.

So, I’m on hold with American changing my flight again.  Sigh.

This was the patio furniture before the latest several inches yesterday.

moms-furniture

I had to shovel the lawn so we’d have somewhere to walk the dogs.  They really can’t handle more than a couple of minutes outside, so the sidewalk is out of the question.

nightly-dog-walk

The view down the block really is quite winter-wonderland-y:

moms-snow

Don’t get me wrong, Chicago winters are not without their merit.  We get some great Indian Summer -style sunsets, even in the middle of winter.

sunset-chicago-winterx

In the meantime, it seemed an opportune moment to repost this wonderful video from a few years back of penguins falling down.


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Follow me on Twitter: @aravosis | @americablog | @americabloggay | Facebook | Instagram | Google+ | LinkedIn. John Aravosis is the Executive Editor of AMERICAblog, which he founded in 2004. He has a joint law degree (JD) and masters in Foreign Service from Georgetown; and has worked in the US Senate, World Bank, Children's Defense Fund, the United Nations Development Programme, and as a stringer for the Economist. He is a frequent TV pundit, having appeared on the O'Reilly Factor, Hardball, World News Tonight, Nightline, AM Joy & Reliable Sources, among others. John lives in Washington, DC. .

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  • ComradeRutherford

    So then your name is wrong? You are no longer ‘in the tundra’? What are you now, Mike in the tropics?

  • I am living in collar-suburban Philadelphia. In the twenty years I’ve been here, I’ve become spoiled to milder winters on this side of the Appalachians. I was living in Kingston, collar “suburb” of Wilkes-Barre, in January 1994, and it was bitter as Harrisburg. It was so cold, I had to think to translate the temperature to Celsius, for I’d never experienced it below -23 (10 below zero) before. Fortunately, I was on unemployment, so I did not have to go out.

  • Tatts

    Hey! You people in Chicago, and Wisconsin, and North Dakota! Shut the damned door; you’re letting all the cold air out!

    It’s going down to 5 degrees F (-15C) tonight in Philly, with 20-30 mph winds. High tomorrow, about 12, with wind. Can’t wait. For Thursday.

    I remember living through the cold spell in January 1994; day after day of bitter cold, hitting -22F on Jan.21 in Harrisburg, PA. That is a different kind of cold.

  • nicho

    Neither is Iraq, but I try to avoid it.

  • Indigo

    Our summers can be as challenging as your winters and our air conditioning bills rival your heating bills. It’s a trade-off.

  • Jeez, -30 for a high? That’s beyond ugly.

    I have been to Florida in February. Was certainly a nice break from what we had at the time. I don’t know how I’d fare in the summer, though. My body is not fond of pollen and mold, I suspect it’s not better down there.

    I can take a little bit of winter, just not much. This is just brutal, as most winters are here.

    And yes, we got a governor problem here, too. And we aren’t comforted by warmer weather, so….

  • Indigo

    I promise.

  • Indigo

    The winter of 1996, the high in North Dakota in January during the day was -30º and that’s when I decided my mom was right and came to Florida. Not that Florida is ideal but very few people get hypothermia here, just nausea from our astonishing governor.

  • Monoceros Forth

    Quiet! Please don’t tell George that he’s always six months late to every Internet trend. Don’t tell Wil Wheaton either.

  • Same up here in the North Bay.

  • AnitaMann

    I hate to complain about temps in the 70s. Really I do. BUT we are in a drought in CA, and the long range forecast for the winter in LA is dry dry dry and sunny. The result? Pollen counts from hell. What good is “nice” weather when you can’t go outside without your eyes puffing up like you’ve been chopping onions all day?

  • It’s 2 PM CST and it is -15 here in Green Bay – although the sun is shining. The wind chill is -41.2. Oour “high” temp for the day is supposed to be -11, but don’t think we’ll see that. Tonight the temp is supposed to be -15 to -20, but I think it’s gonna be closer to -25. Wind chills are still going to be near -50. And my car won’t start, but I’ve been working on that. If it doesn’t start before 4 when I go to work, it’s a long weekend.

    I’ve experienced -38 in the 1970s when I lived in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. No wind, though. So this is about as cold as I’ve ever experienced. It has made me redouble my efforts to relocate to a less harsh climate.

    No amount of good cheese is worth this.

  • Mike_in_the_Tundra

    I don’t know about that. We had our last snow of last winter on May 5th. It’s weather change, but not what one would expect.

  • Mike_in_the_Tundra

    We have a lot of sunshine bouncing off the snow. Somehow, that makes it look colder to me.

  • Mike_in_the_Tundra

    Yes, it is TMI, but I would have been fascinated by it as well.

  • Indigo

    The penguin meme is my favorite, partly because George Takei hasn’t found it yet.

  • Mike_in_the_Tundra

    Been there. Left it behind.

  • ComradeRutherford

    Dude! It’s only -17. That’s just starting to get into the ‘cold’ territory.

    You have to get down to -20 before you get to the ‘Damned Cold’ area.

  • Dave of the Jungle

    It isn’t ALL bad.

  • cole3244

    i was born and raised in upstate ny and the first snowfall was beautiful but from my memory after that the dirt & slush took over and things weren’t quite as pristine as they look in the postcards.

    be careful snowed in america spring is right around the corner, climate change guarantees it.

    don’ the penguins ever get injured or are they just stoic?

  • Wifulated42

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  • Monoceros Forth

    A cross-country drive from Seattle to Michigan in the dead of winter a few years ago mostly cured me of romantic notions about snowy weather but there are still some things I wish I could see more often but can’t because Seattle never really gets cold enough. This phenomenon for example which I observed while driving in the middle of the night through North Dakota. You only get it when it’s so cold that “diamond dust” ice crystals form in the air (basically it’s ground fog, but made of ice particles and not water droplets.)

  • Safe travels, my friend, for you and Sasha both.

  • Ever been to Flagstaff? The place almost feels like southern Colorado.

    The Southwest experiences a somewhat different kind of winter than the rest of the country and in different patterns, but we do get snow. Sometimes lots of it. Last night, here in central New Mexico, our low was 7F.

  • Stay safe, be well!

  • Same here. The only surprise as far as I was concerned was the 10th Circuit not issuing the stay themselves.

  • Drew2u

    While trying to push my car, (TMI), a snot drop fell from my nose, froze in mid-air, and rolled off my car. It was kind of amazing.

  • milli2

    Hah-the penguins. You could just hear their internal dialogues “Why the f- didn’t we evolve in Hawaii?”

  • Mike_in_the_Tundra

    I understand that. My boyfriend has been here since Saturday. He’s keeping me from going stir crazy.

  • Drew2u

    Windchill warnings of -45 to -65. It’s so cold, the pneumatics of my car are all gooey. Trying to start my car, we could only handle a couple minutes outside before we had to jump back in the house. It’s definitely not the kind of weather one would want to be caught on the side of the road in.
    On the other plus side, the sun is shining and it – despite the weather trying to kill you – is a nice day!

  • Yikes. What temp is it there?

  • Mike_in_the_Tundra

    Minus 17? That’s practically a heat wave.

  • Yep, just posted about it.

  • Monoceros Forth

    Yeah. Not a bit of news I wanted to read this morning but not entirely surprising either.

  • nicho

    OT: Supreme Court puts halt to same-sex marriage in Utah. Here we go again!

  • nicho

    But it’s Arizona.

  • Dave of the Jungle

    Sunny, with a high of 65 today in Arizona.

  • Drew2u

    I’m in Fargo and my car won’t start. On the plus side, I get to spend another day with the bf!

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