Remember all that talk that it was gong to be 80F here in L.A. on Christmas day? Well forget about that hyperbolic nonsense. It's about 1 PM PST now, and so far we're all shivering at around 78.

OK, ultimately did get to 83F. Only 80 expected tomorrow. Perhaps a 20 degree drop from that the next day.

@lauren Well, you could have come here and cooled off. The temp hovered around +1F Friday afternoon, night, and into Saturday. Temperature in the restaurant kitchen hovered around 35F during a 10 ten hour shift. Working next to the hot broiler I could still see my breath. Walked home from work in temp of +1F and 25 knot wind.

It's a character building experience, or so they say.

@shuttersparks Seriously, since I assume the eating area is heated (right?) why isn't the kitchen?

@lauren Oh yeah. Dining room and cafe are nice and comfy with an open fire too. Kitchen is wide open because it's usually too hot. You have to run the fume hoods, but when the air being sucked in from outside is at +1F, it's a big problem. We would normally have closed down but we had a full house of parties of 8 to 10 people with reservations made long in advance. So we had to tough it out.

@shuttersparks Wow. What about portable space heaters? Something?

@lauren We had the big gas heater in the kitchen full blast and two 1500W radiant heaters. Plus the usual stoves and broiler, heat lamps over the food. Didn't even make a dent in the cold.

Normally, it feels good when 35F air is being sucked in from outside. But we discovered that +1 is a long ways from +35F. Hahaha. We were all surprised at how brutal the cold was. Even those who love the cold were overmatched by it.

@shuttersparks I can't even imagine it. On business trips long ago I was in a snowstorm in D.C. and an actual blizzard elsewhere, and also cold in Chicago. But I don't know that it ever got that cold as you're reporting.

@lauren It's rare here that it gets that cold. Out West I had plenty of experience around zero Fahrenheit (lived in Wyoming.) My record low static air temp is -23F but dead calm, no wind. Wife and I used to go to Yellowstone in winter and spend a couple weeks each year. Continuous zero F is normal there. We'd XC ski around the Upper Basin but we had proper clothing and I owned a SnoCat to drive up there. (They won't let you into the park unless you have proper transportation.) As soon as you're doing physical activity, zero F is fine.

But standing still preparing food with +1F air blowing on you is really pleasant. Hahaha. We'll avoid that mistake in the future.

@shuttersparks @lauren We were just discussing the lowest (non-windchill) temp we'd ever experienced. -22F for me, near the colorado/wyoming border. Weirdly the lowest I remember in Leadville, elev 3500 meters, was warmer than that.

@smellsofbikes @lauren Our record lows are very close together. Hah. Mine occurred at our horse ranch in Minden, Nevada 1988 or 1989. Multiple pipes burst in the pumphouse. We built the fire up so high it ignited a chimney fire which was terrifying. We ran the electric stove in the kitchen hard for heat which caused the 50 amp breaker to fail. My ten year old daughter, apparently immune to the cold at that age, had to run out every 30 to 45 minutes with a hammer to break the ice on the watering troughs so the horses could drink. It was crazy.

When morning came I got into my pickup, pressed the clutch down, and the pedal remained down. Tried to move the gearshift, stuck. The lubricants had frozen solid.

Hahahaha.