We are not as capable as our northern friends to survive this cold! Probably because we only get a weekend or 2 of winter and it happens to be this weekend! Yesterday was rainy, windy and mid 30's. Today, windy mid 20's and made it to mid 30's. Lucky for us the wind dried roads over night so no ice, that presents a whole other problem here! Only way to describe it is, some people can play the piano and some can't and shouldn't. Some can drive on ice, some can't and here, we can't! I got home from work today with my "Louisiana Blizzard Survival Kit" and walked across the yard to the shop. Needless to say I'm just hanging out here, by the heater and using my survival kit. Step #1: Coffee and cleanest screwdriver for stirring Step #2: if step #1 fails
Step 1 rarely works by itself. Mid 30's is just downright freezing down there, it hardly ever got that low even up north in Alexandria. Shreveport saw those temps quite often and even got ice storms while I was there.
Step #3 if step #1 and #2 fail............. Stick that clean wet screwdriver into one of those upper air slots in the heater while it's operating. Have clean shorts handy! We've only been to New Orleans and your area in July or August. Everything seemed hot enough then! I can remember when in high school making plans to move to Riverside, Ca. I dreamed a lot back then! But I never dreamed of ending up back in central Illinois.
As an experienced ice/snow driving, north dwelling individual hubby believes you have your steps in the wrong order. At the moment it is -17c (-22 with wind chill) = 1.4f brrrrrr 22f = -5.5c we will be that tomorrow. Wednesday is calling for rain and +7c = 44.6f
But you made it through the day right? The kit worked! I understand. I suspect that your climate would be totally unbearably hot for us.
It's sure been a strange winter. Here in the middle of Illinois, the corn belt, the bible belt, tornado alley, or whatever, it's been below zero and yet not much snow. This morning had to take my wife for some tests by 8AM. It was supposed to be raining and windy. Instead 40 degrees and I could see where it had drizzled. By the time we returned the three miles home around 11:30 it went up to 56 degrees with gusty winds 16 to 35 and maybe 50 MPH gusts later. Still compared to most, it's almost bearable here. Personally I'd rather drink a chocolate milk shake.