Comforting Temperatures

January 29, 1985

Next time a large mass of frigid Canadian air comes to visit, you might try to comfort yourself with this thought: Even a 27-below-zero cold snap is really pretty temperate.

The normal temperature for January in Churchill, Manitoba, is -22 degrees. Prospect Creek, Alaska, has gotten down to 80 below.

And in the heat of summer, a time you may yearn for now but will curse in the cauldron of July, the temperatures will actually be relatively cool. A 94 degree reading that sends everyone sweltering to the beach in Chicago compares with an average annual temperature of 94 degrees in Dallol, Ethiopia. In El Azizia (which probably means ``the sizzle``) it once got up to 136.

Most people on this planet live within an annual temperature range of only 100 degrees or less. If it gets much beyond that, they and the living things around them die.

Consider what a frail, fragile circumstance it is that produces such a narrow, life-sustaining balance. The temperature on Venus is 800 degrees or more, hot enough to melt lead. On Jupiter, it`s -300 degrees. The absolute zero of space that your astronaut with a torn space suit might encounter is approximately -460 degrees. The temperature on the surface of the sun is 11,000 degrees.

Next time it dips down to a mere -27, you ought to feel lucky to be alive.

Just as soon as you can get inside a warm place.