The Furnace vs. the Freezer

Here in Alberta, we are known for our cold temperatures, and expect it to be cold during winter.  The winter of 2013-14 hasn’t been an easy one for temperatures.  From November until the middle of January we saw very cold temperatures and wind chills.  We’ve had a bit of a reprieve for about 15 days here, that has brought us temperatures that are above zero, but when you normally deal with -37C (-34.6F) for lows and your daytime high of -21C (-5.8 F), a few days above zero feels like a Tropical breeze (not really, but it does feel nice)!  When we look on the other side of the globe and hear of people dealing with temperatures above +40C (104F) our deep freeze doesn’t sound too bad!

While reading other farm and ranch blogs, I’ve made friends with Mandy, a fellow cattle farmer from north-west New South Wales, Australia.  Mandy writes an amazing blog called Rocky Springs Rambles, and this week, Mandy and I have gotten together to do a comparison of what each other has to deal with working outside in extreme temperatures.(Numbers in brackets are Fahrenheit for the folks that don’t do metric).

Official temperature: Australia: 42.5 (108.5); Canada -18.2 (-0.76), add the wind chill factor and you get -27 (-16).  Honestly Mandy, I think the only time in my life when I felt the weather THAT hot was went I was in Phoenix, Arizona in June!  I complain when the weather gets above 28 (82.4) here!

Temperature on the top of your hat

-15.3 (4.4)was the temperature at the top of my hat

In Australia: 49.2 (120)

Temperature underneath your hat

-13.8 (7) was the temperature underneath my hat

In Australia: 42 (107)

Water in the cattle troughs

14.5 (58) The troughs (seen here) are heated

In Australia: 33.8 (93)

Sitting with the cattle

Behind the cattle windbreaks: -18.1 (-0.5)

Under a shade tree in Australia: 40.6 (105)

Soil Temperature:

In Canada our soil is buried under 120 cm of snow!  So I’m calling it frozen.

In Australia: 37 (98)

Dog Pool in Australia: 30 (86)

No dog pool in Alberta in January!

Kitchen: Canada 20.8 (69) and that’s with the furnace running!

Australia: 38.1 (100)

Cold water tap in bathroom:

Canada: 16 (60)

Australia: 37.3 (99)

The thought of 40+ (104) degrees in January is nice, for a few minutes.  Sorry, Mandy, I don’t think I could live in the “furnace”.  Just too warm for me!  But I do hope your temperatures moderate a bit & that you all get some much needed rain!