I like how different countries look at weather. 32c is a nice summers day(not too hot) here.

32C is tolerable, I suppose, if it's not too humid. The problem here is that summers are almost always humid, so 32C feels like a wall of thick, solid air that's hard to breathe.

It'll be hard to breathe the next few days here too, for the opposite reason. Weather forecasters are now saying they will rival the amazing cold snap of February 1996, when wind chills approached -100F/-73C (on the old chart; that would be more like -50F today). Wind chill warnings are up (-50F/-46C). Actual air temperatures may reach -30F/-34C in the Twin Cities and much colder in the north. The *high* here Monday may tie the current coldest high on record, -17F (-22C). For this reason the governor has ordered all public schools closed that day, a step not taken since that -17F day in 1996 (if I recall correctly).

My car stays outside so I may have to go out every 6 hours or so to run it so it doesn't freeze.

Stay warm (or cool) everyone!

The area in which I live we have a mixture of humid days and dry heat(those are much nicer) during the summer. I lived near Brisbane or 3 years of my childhood and it had 40C/104F with 50% humidity for at least 2 weeks every summer. It was what I would consider terrible. I do not wish to move back there.

Do you not have a garage/carshed? or is it just full?What a pest that would be in such cold weather.

@IlF - Just as well you aren't in Queensland now. Did you see the news about how temperatures are soaring in Brisbane? I hope they go east & not south, otherwise we are dead meat here. As for the garages, I don't think that overseas folk do have them all that often. Even here in Sydney, the garages don't always fit the cars people have, are often badly designed and out of date, and are often dumping grounds for junk, until the homeowner wants extra room for a rumpus room or another bedroom.

32C is tolerable, I suppose, if it's not too humid. The problem here is that summers are almost always humid, so 32C feels like a wall of thick, solid air that's hard to breathe.

You should have tried the temperatures here the Sunday before Christmas Day (41C-46C). That was just like how you describe. Fortunately, it isn't a usual event - so far. Only happens every now and then, like in December, January and February in particularly hot years. February dragon is a term for a particularly dangerous February.

Yeah, as far as I'm concerned, anything above 80F / 27C is too hot. . . I know that you Australians probably gasp at that. . . but then again, when I say that I don't even wear a jacket outside until it gets into the low 30's F / ~ 0C you'd probably also gasp....

Temps this week are going to be frigid. Our high on Tuesday is -3F/-19C and our low will be -15F/-26C

Mornings in winter, where I live, can be as low as -4C, whatever that is in Fahrenheit. In 1997 homesick hubby and I went to UK. We were in such a hurry to get to the airport in time, that I forgot my jacket, which hubby insisted I wouldn't need since it would be midsummer in UK.

I shouldn't have listened to him. We went to Stonehenge on a bitterly cold, rainy and windy day where everyone else was wearing a jacket, in what the UK laughingly call midsummer. Excepting this Australian, who had arrived in UK from warmer winter temperatures in Sydney. I was so glad to get back to my native soil, I almost bent down and kissed the ground. Regardless of whether someone else thinks you need a jacket or not, or how well you or others might endure colder temperatures, it is still a good idea to have one handy as required.

Especially if USA and Canada is as bad as has been portrayed on the news, here. We have been told of over a thousand flights to North America having to be cancelled due to the freezing conditions there, and worse to come. Take care, and keep warm.

Oh really? I see them a lot in television show(though I guess that may be a coincidence) and with snow and extremes of cold weather I thought they would need them more than us.I suppose in Australia people want to save their cars from sun damage.

Yeah I have heard about that heat wave in Queensland. I will stay in the southwest of WA where the weather has been fantastic. I spent most of the day at the park and strolling about with friends.

I went to london in 2012..... the amount of times I took my jacket on and off(it was the beginning of summer there). Talk about four seasons in a day. One second it was raining the next nice than hot and than raining again.

Oh really? I see them a lot in television show(though I guess that may be a coincidence) and with snow and extremes of cold weather I thought they would need them more than us.I suppose in Australia people want to save their cars from sun damage.

Yes, we do see garages in overseas movies and yes, I can well believe they are needed in cold weather. But when we first went over to UK they seemed to have no room to put their cars anywhere. A couple we met at Wallacestone in 1997 boasted to us about how people could at last afford to buy new cars, but we observed they had nowhere to put these new cars, many of which were already showing signs of rust.

We went to see a relative of my husband's family, living in what I think is a two-up, two down council flat. But when we parked on the side of the road, as we do here in Oz, whilst we visited my husband's cousins, a neighbour made it his business to come to the door to tell us off for taking up his parking space for the time we were there. I've seen better accommodation since then, when we went back to UK last year, in 2012, but these are newer homes, and the people living in them do own them.

I'm not joking about Sydney, which still has a lot of older buildings, dating from before WW2, in a time when cars and the need for garages mattered less to people, especially in the inner city area which has generally had better public transport. And more recent homes, dating from the 1960's, still can be built on hillsides in the fancier areas, skirting the harbour, some with driveways so steep that it is hard to reach their garages. Not to mention tiny garages which can only take cars little bigger than a 1960's Mini Minor or a Renault. If you ever visit Sydney, take a look around Balmain or in some of the Eastern Suburbs or down in Sutherland Shire, and you will see what I mean.

I don't know about USA, since I have never been there. Yes, the homes on TV we see do have garages, but the sorts of homes which feature in these programs can often be described as 'middle class' and I'm not sure if this standard of housing is the rule or the exception for most people. For people who are flatting in Sydney, they can be lucky if they can rent a garage, or have access even to a carport, so I can well imagine it wouldn't be much different elsewhere in the world. Of course I stand corrected if I am wrong.

I think about 95% of houses in my town have garage/carport but since I do not live in the city the public transport system is terrible(hence most people owning a car). We only have room in our carport for 1 car(since dad has clogged it up with a trailer) so we have two cars parked on the lawn. Which belong to dad and my sister. If we have more than one visiting family it can be a problem finding a spot of lawn.

I have spent most of my life living in small cities(bunbury) and outer city suburbs. So it is odd to think of not having garage or a carport.

Also If you part on the side of the road where I live people would defiantly be annoyed. I saw a man get out of his car once and tell someone off. I think the annoying thing about it is that they are parking way too far out clogging up the road.

As for the garages, I don't think that overseas folk do have them all that often.

Not true at all! Just about every house here in the States has a garage of some sort, but not everybody uses their garage as a car-storage room. Some are attached to the house (as ours is) and some are detached from the house. Some are one car, two car, or three car garages. Ours is presumably a two car garage. . . but I cannot see that at all! Maybe if both of them were those dinky little smart cars.

It may be more of a regional thing, but here in Ohio at least, it is abnormal to see a house without a garage (unless you're in the big city or something).

Most houses have garages here, but trailer parks, apartments, and other places like that often do not. Plus, not all garages can fit all of the cars that a typical family owns. There's also a saying "Only in America do people park their cars outside and fill their garages with junk." I can attest that this is often the case. So yeah, many a car is subject to outdoor inclement weather for one reason or another.

@Gazer, no engine block heater?

The weather outside right now is not too bad. But we are going to be on the edge of that massive storm front here in another couple hours I think. And then I don't plan on going anywhere for a couple days.

It was so bitter the last few days that our Volvo didn't start. We think the battery is rather old, having purchased it second-hand. There has not been a strong need for a block heater down here too often over the years, although we sure needed it when we lived up north (our other car had one), and we will have to get one installed again when we move again to snowier climes later this year.

The most frigid temperatures have let up a bit—in other words, when you go outside, you don't feel your skin freezing within a few minutes. Still, it remains very nippy, as it should be this time of year, and that abundant snow is not going anywhere for awhile. In fact, a fair bit more—possibly 10"—is to be added overnight Sunday and through Monday! It was brilliantly clear this morning on my walk, with the night sky absolutely glorious. And the smell of a hushed winter morning is MmmMmmGood!

I'm a big cold-weather person, and I even thought those extreme temperatures were a bit much. Although, like I say, I'd take them any day to hot and humid summer temps.

Indeed, Jobbit!!!

I had no idea that we were supposed to get any more snow, and then all of a sudden, I check the radar and there's another massive storm brewing! I just checked some early estimates, and it's saying 4 - 8 for my area starting tomorrow evening.

I'm heading back down to Columbus tomorrow around 4:30-ish, so hopefully I won't have to deal with too much of it. Snowfall totals in Columbus will hopefully be less, although the cold will still be impressive.

The problem with Columbus is that they never do very much snow clearance. It'll be nasty driving to school on Monday. . . hoping that the car starts.

Garages: It's true they're quite common in the US. Exceptions can be large apartment complexes like the one I live in (some are available but cost extra and can have a waiting list) or high-density older neighborhoods (like some in Minneapolis or St Paul) which tend to require on-street parking (or mass transit use). Those streets can be really narrow with snow piled on the sides and lots of cars, so many cities have 'snow emergencies' (special parking restrictions when it snows more than a certain amount, to facilitate plowing) or standard parking regulations (such as no parking on the streets at night or calendar parking).

And ditto to fantasia's observation that Americans tend to fill up their garages with stuff other than vehicles.

...no engine block heater?

My brother (who in 2012 returned to Seattle after several years in frigid northern Minnesota) and I were just talking about this today. Block heaters aren't nearly as common here as they were 25 or 30 years ago. Part of that might be improvements in cars and also the increasing prevalence of garages.

Block heaters were pretty much standard when I started driving back in the 70s, but I haven't had a car with one for 20 years. My cars have been good starters even in the cold, but -30F prompts me to consider running it occasionally to make sure it doesn't freeze up.

Frostbite occurs in less than 5 minutes at the temperatures we expect this week. That's a bit nippy! The local news included segments about extra precautions taken by firefighters and others who must be out in conditions like these.

With all the talk of garages I shall admit to making use of ours for the cars. After years of not having one, scraping, and shoveling out the cars almost every other morning in the winter I must admit it was a selling point on the current wig-wam. Though it also helps that there is the tuck-under-garage as well that became a wood shop
Definitly looking at frigid temps for the next few days. Add to that the wind, and the weather folks are talking -40F or lower for wind chills. A good time to catch up on reading, or watching some old DVD's.
One positive note I heard this morning was that many of the envasive insects that have made their way here don't like the cold. The larva for the emerald ash boorer they say can have a 80% fatality if temps dip below -28F.

The local news included segments about extra precautions taken by firefighters and others who must be out in conditions like these

Yeah. . . the firefighters might be like, "Hey, do we really have to put this thing out. . . it's kinda chilly!"

One positive note I heard this morning was that many of the envasive insects that have made their way here don't like the cold. The larva for the emerald ash boorer they say can have a 80% fatality if temps dip below -28F.

Which is both good and bad news, as those surviving will pass on the genes that helped them survive, thus making them more resistant to cold in the long run. . . *sigh* The joys and frustration of science.

Ah Digs! Are you joining the ranks as a Marsh-Wiggle? I guess I have been too slack in my responcibilities of late.

And ditto to fantasia's observation that Americans tend to fill up their garages with stuff other than vehicles.

Canada too.

How did your drive go down to Columbus, DiGs? I hope the road wasn't too slick yet ...

It is snowing mightily here now. Absolutely gorgeous outside ... and extremely slippery. The storm began halfway through my walk this evening, but not in a half-hearted way, rather with a flurry (pun intended ) of snow that was heavy right from the get-go. The temperature is supposed to climb just above freezing in the next few hours, changing this beautiful precipitation to freezing rain, then for a very brief spell, rain, after which the temperatures will plunge again into another deep freeze, in which case everything will be a sheet of ice tomorrow morning. Then more snow will pile on top of that. Yep, 'tis winter in the northlands.

I must admit it was a selling point on the current wig-wam.

Cool! I wonder how many other Marsh-wiggles have a garage attached to their wams ...