Records

I hate to be repetitive, but the weather is repetitious. It snowed all day and when I used the snow brush on my car I was moving mounds of snow thirteen or fourteen inches deep. We had thirty-four inches the other day.

The snow hasn't stopped and the temperature never went above eleven degrees today. Tonight that will seem like a high temperature. Of course that must seem warm in some parts of the world, but I never wanted to live in any below zero area.

Although I've always wanted to visit Antarctica.

The "coldest temperature ever recorded was minus 128.6 degrees F in the Russian research station in Vostok, Antarctica, on July 21, 1983."

According to those who keep statistics Verkhoyansk, Russia, only 1,500 miles from the North Pole, with a hardy population of 1,434 is quite chilly. If the name is familiar, it's where political prisoners were once exiled and housed. In January the average temperature is minus 50.4 degrees F. In fact from October through April the temperatures are below freezing.

Oymyakon, Russia believes that the award for coldest belongs to them. The smaller community of 500-800 people point to their recorded low of minus 90 degrees F. Their schools do take weather into account and close school if the temperature goes below minus 52 degrees F.

Yakutsk, Russia has the dubious honor of being dubbed the coldest city in the world. 200,000 residents endure the average "high of minus 34 degrees F " in January. The record low for January is minus 81.4 degrees.

We have some cold spots, but nothing can compete with the Russians.

So even if I wake up to a reading of minus, I can think of those Russian cities and those intrepid souls who don their fur hats and brave the cold.

I think I'll reread Jack London.