It was very cold this week with temps at night well below zero a night or two. These are always the really cold days, the second half of January. If you look at the records around here, these are when things can get really stupid cold. Lucky for us this has not been a problem the past couple of years.
When it’s this cold I am always reminded of this date in 1985. It was Superbowl Sunday and I was living and working in Columbus, Ohio at the big country station there from 1983-1986. I was doing the morning show and we were in the middle of a very cold blast. That Sunday I think the high was about zero, (if that warm) and the overnight temp, the actual temp was about 23 below. It was the coldest day I can ever remember.
On Superbowl Sunday it was very sunny, but terribly cold and I went out every couple of hours and started my car and let it run for a while. My show started the next morning at 6AM and I had to leave about 415AM, as I lived in Worthington and had to get ready for the show at the station house which was close to downtown. As it got dark, it got very cold again and I had to put a plan together. – So I did. BTW that week of that year is still the coldest week in Ohio’s history as the wind chills were way below the actual temps, as much as 40 to 50 below zero.
I owned a small but newer car, and I went out about halftime of the game and started it up. I think it was about 10 below then. So I locked it and let it run parked on the street, as I lived in a condo area that didn’t have much traffic. It ran all night long with the heater on. I had no confidence it would start in the morning at 4AM with the Alaskan temps we were having. I think that night too was about 20 below. Cars are different today, as are laws and feelings about long idling cars and that’s great. But 20 below is still 20 below!
I got up and drove to the station and did my show, and that Monday it was sunny and I think it got up to about 20, so the extreme frigid was over. Would I do that again? Probably not as I am older, wiser and the world is a very different place now. But I’ll never forget doing it, and getting to the job on time during those stupid cold days.
Be safe, stay warm
