COLD WEATHER

It's cold in the U.S. at the moment. Not just cold, but absolutely freezing. The air temperature is around minus 20 degrees centigrade in the Mid-West, but because of the windchill, it feels more like minus 50 degrees. That is cold.

The coldest I have ever experienced was minus 29 degrees when we visited my wife's friend near Edmonton in Canada, at the foot of the Rockie Mountains. Luckily their house had triple glazing and a machine in the garage that prevented our rental car from freezing, otherwise we would never have got to the airport. Even with sun and little wind, the cold made your face ache, so I dread to think what Americans are going through at the moment.

The predictions are that all this cold weather will slowly wend its way over here. Winter so far has been unusually mild and wet, without an ounce of snow. February could end up being rather different.

Walter Blotscher