Guest blogger Robby here. The contract's signed, and I'll be an Iowa State Cyclone next year, joining the Management Department as an assistant professor.
Iowa State has some family connections: My uncle Wayne worked as an agronomist there until a few years ago and his wife Toni graduated with an accounting degree from ISU.
I really liked the folks out there, and we're grateful to have had such a good employment opportunity, especially in a difficult economy.
But one thing we're going to have to warm up to (so to speak) is the weather. Iowa is further north than I had ever realized. Now I've always known where Iowa belonged on a map, but I guess I never paid particular attention to the fact that it's right up next to states like Minnesota and South Dakota. Brrrrrr.
For example, how many of these ten cities are further north than Ames?
Boston, MA
Chicago, IL
Cleveland, OH
Hartford, CT
Laramie, WY
Logan, UT
New York, NY
Omaha, NE
Pittsburgh, PA
West Lafayette, IN
Got your answer? Okay, scroll on down.
Answer: Just one--Boston would be 12 miles up the road if it were slid over to central Iowa. All of the other cities lie south of Ames. (Guess Iowa's not quite as middle America as I thought.) As it turns out, Ames isn't just farther north than a lot of cold-weather U.S. cities, it's even farther north than some points in Ontario, Canada.
But farther north doesn't have to mean colder, right? After all Seattle is farther north than Chicago.
So here's the real question: How many of the following cities are colder than Ames (i.e., lower average January temperature)? Cities farther north than Ames are designated with a double asterisk.
**Boston, MA
Chicago, IL
Cleveland, OH
Hartford, CT
Laramie, WY
Logan, UT
New York, NY
Omaha, NE
Pittsburgh, PA
West Lafayette, IN
**Anchorage, AK
**Berlin, Germany
**Billings, MT
**Boise, ID
**Buffalo, NY
**Calgary, Alberta, Canada
**Detroit, MI
**Donetsk, Ukraine
**Geneva, Swizerland
**Helsinki, Finland
**Ithaca, NY
**Kodiak, AK
**Leipzig, Germany
McMurdo Station, Antarctica
**Milwaukee, WI
**Novosibirsk, Siberia, Russia
**Oslo, Norway
**Rapid City, SD
**Reykjavik, Iceland
**Saint Petersburg, Russia
**Spokane, WA
**Stockholm, Sweden
**Toronto, Ontario, Canada
**Warsaw, Poland
Make your guess in the comments. Answer next Sunday night. Popsicles to the winner!
13 comments:
I know I spent a pretty cold winter in Poland, but I'll have to think about if it would be colder than IOWA! Congrats on the job!
Hmmm. This way of measuring cold is misleading. January temperatures is a rather biased way to determine which place is colder, donät you think? I mean, I would wager Stockolm, Sweden and Reykavik, Iceland is colder. St. Petersburg Russia, too. But the most defining thing for winter for me, is when does it begin and HOW LONG DOES IT LAST? I am sure Iowa has nothing on Sweden, Iceland and northern Russia when measured by that standard.
Anchorage, AK
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Donetsk, Ukraine
Novosibirsk, Siberia, Russia
Saint Petersburg, Russia
Omaha, NE is about the same
I did extensive research so these had better be right.(Okay, I shouldn't really say "EXTENSIVE"!) I had fun doing this and I learned a lot! I was actually surprised at what I found.
Oh. congratulations on job! I was so caught up in the contest that I forgot to mention that. :) Anyway, we're bummed that you won't be a little closer to us but we still love you guys, Just don't expect us to come visit you ANY winter!
I'm not very good at guessing, so here are my Keebler guesses:
Anchorage, AK
Billings, MT
Buffalo, NY
Detroit, MI
Donetsk, Ukraine
Helsinki, Finland
Ithaca, NY
Milwaukee, WI
Novosibirsk, Siberia, Russia
Oslo, Norway
Rapid City, SD
Saint Petersburg, Russia
One thing I'm pretty sure about: Reykjavik is not colder than Ames. Winters there are warmer than Boston because it's on the coast.
Congrats again Robby!!! Sharon, I'd love to go winter clothes shopping with you -- and now that I finally got a pair of warm winter boots (four years after moving to the northeast) I HIGHLY recommend getting some. I can't believe I went so long without them!
Victoria--what would you say is the best way to measure how long a winter lasts? Seems like it would be hard to measure unless there's some sort of objective standard. Maybe length of time you can see freezing temperatures?
Well, if you have to wear a jacket and gloves in April, I'd say winter is still going on. And by that standard Iceland is EASILY colder than Ames. Kaci and Tom think Reykavik is not colder because it is on the coast. I beg to differ. The coldest place on earth (pure subjective perception on my part) that I have visited was Amsterdam, Holland, in February. Absolutely bone-chilling, freezing because it is on the coast and thus the cold moisture that creeps through every layer of clothing is crippling.
In contrast I spent an entire winter in Wyoming with fairly cold temperatures, (and visited for 3 weeks the following winter) and I find the Wyoming winters positively PLEASANT compared to Scandinavian, coastal winters. And that includes Narvik, Norway - again, on the coast. True, the ocean never freezes there because of the Gulf stream, even though it is north of the arctic circle, and I do acknowledge that Alaska is colder than Scandinvia.
The other thing to consider, is how much of the day is super-cold? If the sun does not rise at all, or only a few hours, then your high temperature for that day lasts a very short period of time, leaving without the "warming" of the sun on your face when venturing outside. I think you don't have to worry too much about Ames, Iowa being too cruel - at least not in comparison to many of the cities you listed. My two cents. And I have given cold A LOT of thought, as it literally drove me from my homeland, not the cold in itself, but the excessive duration thereof.
All of them!
Purely guessing, of course.
Um no idea. I'll just await the results. :)
Congrats! You're getting even closer to us here in Nebraska!
I'll guess 10.
7
Woo hoo!! I'm so excited to have a friend within dirving distance! Come visit us in December and your January will seem warm in comparison!!
So... Victoria, does snow in May count as a long winter?? I'm suspicious that part of it, too is wind. You might get warmer air temperature being on the coast, but you probably get lots of wind, too. I know I personally have walked outside in January when the air was still and it was sunny and thought how warm it is, only to find the temperature is hovering around 0 F. I've also been absolutely miserable when the temeperature is in the single digits or teens with 30 mph winds.
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