Cold doesn't faze us.

Cold doesn’t faze us.

Because Bwog cares, we asked resident Michigander and Features Editor Alexander Pines to spread some winter knowledge about the upcoming cold weather (in addition to the snow we’ve already gotten). In case you still don’t know how to stay warm, read this first.

Update, 4:05 pm: According to an email from the Emergency Management Operations Team, the University has cancelled all classes after 6pm tonight. Enjoy the snow day!

Remember the Polar Vortex? If you don’t, the weather from the beginning of January even has its own Wikipedia page. According to them, a polar vortex is a “persistent, large-scale cyclone near either of the planet’s geographical poles,” or, really really cold weather. It’ll hit the Midwest the worst, but we’ll still feel it in New York.

People do ridiculous things when the weather gets this bad. When I was virtually snowed-in over break, I saw Facebook friends taking pots of boiling water outside to toss in the air and watch it become snow (surprise: when the water that doesn’t freeze hits you, it still feels like boiling water). The people nuts enough to drive would routinely slide and crash into each other at the intersection outside of my house (the salt that’s supposed to de-ice the road stops working at 20 degrees. It got down to -13, which is -35 or so with windchill). My friend in Chicago had his water freeze in his apartment’s toilet. I’ve seen hair freeze and break off at those temperatures, and don’t get me started on frozen nose hairs.

It’s still not clear if we’ll have a Polar Vortex II: Frosty Returns on our hands in the next couple of days, but it will be getting colder again–and it’ll last longer this time. National Weather Service meteorologist Bob Oravec was quoted in USA Today saying that, “It’s going to be cold and windy for awhile and it’s hitting an area of large population, so it will be a high impact event.” Additionally, we’re supposed to get a few inches of snow over the next few days. These gates will be closed because of today’s snow. Bundle up.

Bwog decided to reach out to some Midwestern friends for their perspectives on the weather, enjoy their responses under the cut.

 

Bonus from Brazil: their reactions to last year’s record breaking low of 60 degrees.

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See any extreme weather solutions? Have an unconventional idea to keep warm? Send it to tips@bwog.com or sound off in the comments.