Minnesota School Gives Teen Frostbite Because Rules Must Be Followed.

Kayona Hagan-Tietz, 14,  was the last one in her class still in the swimming pool Monday when the fire alarm went off at Como Park High School in St. Paul, Minnesota.

Kayona Hagan-Tietz said her Minnesota
High School made her stand outside in subzero
cold in a wet bathing suit because rules
state she couldn't go to a warm place
during a fire alarm.  

Her clothes were way off the locker room, so she was forced to run out of the school barefoot and in a wet swimsuit while the temperatures was 5 below and the wind chill was 25 below.

No problem. Just stash the girl in a warm car or nearby building until everybody determined things were safe and life would go on, right?

Oh no. School rules MUST be followed.

According to television station WCCO in Minneapolis, Kayona was forced to stand outside barefoot in her wet bathing suit because of the rules. 

The rule is students can't get into cars belonging to teachers. Under normal circumstances, the rule is extremely sensible. You don't want to create a situation where a rare predatory teacher gets a student into his or her car and does something untoward.

But there were no nearby buildings and no students had their car keys. Couldn't they just make an exception and allow the kid into a teacher's warm car, and send in another teacher or administrator to monitor the situation?

Uh-uh. Rules are rules. Kayona's friends tried to help by forming a tight circle around her and wrapping her feet in a towel, but really, there's only so much you can do when it's 5 below with a 25 below wind chill factor.

Eventually, somebody with a lick of sense came along and allowed Kayona to get into a teacher's car. Another teacher also loaned her a jacket.

But that was after a good long ten minutes out in that weather. Subzero cold can give you frostbite or hypothermia almost instantly.

After school, Kayona's mother took her to the doctor, where she was treated for frostbitten feet.

Here's what Kayona's mother, Eva Tietz said about the situation, according to WCCO:

"If I had a fire and brought my children out in that condition, you know, I'm sure I would be charged in some way or another if I didn't instantly bring them into a neighbor's house or someplace else......The ultimate goal is to keep them safe and protect your children, and, in this instance, they did a really poor job."

She's right on that score. In a statement, the school said it is reviewing its policies on cold weather evacuations. Geez, what's to review? Get the kid out of danger and into a warm place. How difficult is that?

The St. Paul City Fire Marshall, Steve Zaccard,  agreed, according to the St. Paul Pioneer Press:

"With the benefit of hindsight, it doesn't make any sense to evacuate kids who are soaking wet from a swimming pool into these temperatures when there's no evidence of smoke or fire in that part of the building....That could be dangerous."

The fire turned out to be a false alarm. A bit of smoke from an errant science experiment touched off the alarms, investigators said.

"Polar Vortex" Caused Porn Vortex, Apparently

That much hyped "polar vortex" cold snap that hit much of the nation last week was apparently very, very good for the porn industry.

Pornhub has a state by state
breakdown on how much traffic
increased to its porn sites during
last week's cold snap. (Click on image
to make it bigger, more readable)  

See? There's a silver lining in everything.

According to the Washington Post and the on-line porn portal Pornhub, traffic to their sites increased by 5.2 percent during the peak of the cold snap on January 7 and 8.

Maine, inexplicably, led the charge with a 43.8 percent spike in on line porn viewing, according to Pornhub. You'd think they'd be used to the cold up there in Maine and not need to warm themselves up by watching some naked hotties on their computers.

Florida also saw a substantial increase in porn viewing, up 37 percent during the cold wave.

Since this is a Vermont-based,  Green Mountain Boys and Girls might wonder how much our porn viewing increased. Vermont was a little above average. We had a 9.5 percent increase in traffic to Pornhub sites.

You naughty Vermonters, you.

Fun With Boiling Water, Water Guns And Extreme Cold

I suppose it was inevitable that a bunch of videos would surface of people playing water in the extreme cold that's hitting much of the United States and southeastern Canada.

Here's a fun one of somebody shooting boiling water out of a water gun in an air temperature of 42 below in Ontario:

What else are you going to do when it's cold?

13 Below, Plus A Wind Chill? Time To Go Surfing!

I have an embarrassing confession to make.

Apparently, surfing on Lake Superior is big when
it's below zero. Those are icicles around the guy's face.
Not me, I'm staying inside in this cold weather.  

I'm a lifelong Vermonter, yet I'm a cold weather wimp. And it's getting worse.

Don't get me wrong. There are things about winter that I like. To me, a beautiful day is one right after a powdery snowstorm and the sun comes out and the temperature gets up to 20 degrees.

Time to snowshoe!

However, we are coming out of a cold snap that proves my wimpiness.

 We had an inch or two of new snow the other day, but the temperature remained well below zero. I usually clear new snow from the driveway first thing in the morning, but this time I waited until noon, when the sun was out and the temperature had climbed to minus 5.

And then I went right back inside to a warm house as soon as I finished the quick shoveling job.

I'm also still trying to hack away at the three or four inches of ice that has hermetically sealed my driveway and property since a pre-Christmas ice storm.

Today, the temperature got up to 15 degrees so I went to work outside. But the wind was gusting to 35 mph. The wind chill was too much. I went inside after just a half hour.

Which brings me to some people who would really be disgusted by me. These are the winter surfers on Lake Superior.

There they are in a video showing them enjoying the waves when the air temperature was 13 below zero. (Lake Superior is huge, so it takes a long time to freeze, even though it's subjected to repeated bouts of subzero weather starting in November)

The video shows people changing into their wet suits, nonchalantly standing barefoot in the snow.  I also love the large icicles hanging off the surfers' wet suit head caps and framing their faces.

Writing for gearjunkie.com, here's how writer Stephen Regenold described the scene:

"It was minus 13 degrees F last weekend at Stoney Point. Big winds cranked the chill factor to -30F or lower, some estimate cite. The group wore thick wetsuits and surfed for hours between warm-ups in idling cars. Noted one of the surfers featured in the video here, "the water felt super warm by comparison at 38 degrees F."

Yep, in northern Minnesota, 38 degree water is warm.

By Sunday night and Monday, wind chills are forecast to sink to as low as 70 below near Lake Superior in what is being described as the strongest cold snap in decades to hit the region.

Somehow, I think the surfers will be out.

Meanwhile, here in Vermont, where the temperature is forecast to sink to a mild, boring 5 below, I think I'll stay inside.

Here's the video of the those crazy surfers in Lake Superior:

Almost 50 Below And Canadian Couple Spend Pleasant Morning Outdoors

If you've watched the news the past couple of days, you know much of the country is having quite a little cold snap at the moment.

Enjoying a pleasant, 49 degrees below zero
morning in Manitoba, Canada.  

It's worse in Canada, of course. It's always worse in Canada, given that's the country that exports all those nasty cold fronts to the United States.

Up in Manitoba, it was 45 below Celcius (49 below for us Fahrenheit fans. Since I get whiny when it gets to zero, I can't relate to that.

But, as Canadians do, the couple in the video below embrace the bitter cold. They go out, blow soap bubbles to see what happens, throw hot water in the air to make a steam display and have a grand old time.

Notice how they're dressed, or not dressed. The woman has no hat on. The man has no overcoat. Their glasses aren't even fogging up, for Chrissakes. And they seem like they are in no hurry to get back inside.

If I lived in their town, I would hibernate until May.

It must be their wonderful Canadian accents that keep them warm

So watch this delightful video that shows the coldest way to warm your heart.

 

Ignorant Punxsatawny Phil Who Predictiing Spring Under Indictment

Continuing on with my riff from earlier today about frustrations with the lack of spring weather, an Ohio prosecutor has indicted Punxsutawney Phil, the groundhog on a felony charge of misrepresenting the spring forecast, according to the Washington Post's Capital Weather Gang. 

Butler County, Ohio Prosecutor Michael Gmoser is seeking the death penalty against the errant rodent.

According to Gmoser's indictment:

Punxsutawney Phil, in happier times before the
indictment and possible capitol punishment. 

"On or about February 2, 2013, at Gobbler's Knob, Punxsutawney Phil did purposely, and with prior calculation and design, cause the people to believe that Spring would come early. Contrary to the Groundhog day report, a snowstorm and record low temperatures have been and are predicted to continue in the near future, which constitutes the offense of MISREPRESENTATION OF EARLY SPRING, an Unclassified Felony, and against the peace and dignity of the State of Ohio."

I do seem some potential pitfalls to this indictment. Is there any specific statute that calls for a death penalty for a faulty prediction?  Punxsutanwney Phil made his prediction in Pennsylvania and is presumably still there.  Can Ohio extradict him to their state? And would Pennsylvania authorities cooperate in that endeavor?

And what about other states affected by the cold weather? Ohio is nippy, but they haven't gotten the worst of it. It was 10 below in Grand Forks, North Dakota this morning. Shouldn't North Dakota have a crack at Phil? Minnesota? Maybe Arkansas. I wasn't that cold down there, but it snowed yesterday. It doesn't usually snow in Arkansas this time of year.

Who's going to be Punxsutawney Phil's defense lawyer?  Are we going to end up with a O.J. Simpson-style show trial?

"If the shadow Phil saw or didn't see fits, you must acquit!"

What about the appeals process?  Even if Punxsutawny Phil is convicted, someone is sure to appeal the sentence. These appeals will go on at least through the summer, when presumably the snow will have melted and it will actually be warm for a change. Will the fervor for Phil's head wane by then?

If Punsxutawny Phil is put to death for his misdeeds, will any groundhog want to take his place? After all, as it turns out, missing a spring forecast can be deadly.

Meanwhile, In Siberia....

People love to play with water when it's really cold

This video is among the best: Watch what happens when you throw a pot of boiling water from a high balcony when it's 42 below celsius.  This is apparently somewhere in Siberia. 

I love how the stripe of ice fog from the water drop lingered in the air forever, as if the air itself is half frozen and semi-supports stuff like a gelatin would.

What fun! But I'd rather live without the experience because I'd rather not be in 40 below weather

P

Frigid Morning Creates Steamy Lake Champlain

It was 11 below in Burlington, Vermont this morning. Up until now, it's generally been a warm winter, so the lake has little ice on it.

The relatively warm waters, with no ice covering it, clashed with the cold air to create cool steam clouds. The steam froze on shoreline trees, creating some pretty rime ice. I was out there, briefly, despite the cold, and got this brief, otherworldly sort of video of the lake on a cold Vermont morning.