Just How Cold is an Arctic Blast?

I live in a region that gets cold in winter; really cold. But not one of those places that goes into the negative on a regular basis. When I woke up this morning, it was -3 outside. Yes negative 3 degrees:

This is our weather station...the HIGH was 3 and low was -3 over previous 12 hours

So, being the curious person I am, I wondered what -3 felt like. (I did a similar thing a couple of summers ago...I wondered what 102 degrees felt like. It felt like an oven. Maybe even a blast furnace. I lasted about 2 minutes outside before I was worried my innards would roast.) 

This morning, I merrily went out to my front stoop and experienced this blinding cold in my t-shirt and sweat pants. The result? Yep, it was cold....nay...FRIGID. My skin started to tingle (not in a good way) and my eyes hurt. The air being drawn into my nostrils was burning and chilling at the same time. After about 30 seconds I figured I'd better get my hiney back inside before I got instant frostbite or caught a cold. Oddly enough, it wasn't all that much different from, say, 10 or 15 degrees. Once you get below about 20 degrees, it is COLD. Mercifully, we were spared from the high winds the meteorologists predicted. Although I was mildly disappointed I couldn't experience a windchill of -20. It would probably feel awesomely frigid too, but with more bite.

As I walked around the house I noticed our windows were sweating and some even had ice on the INSIDE:

Nothing like some ice to keep your window from feeling lonely

This made me curious about other areas of the house; how cold was it around the windows and doors? Our thermostat was set for 67, but our bedroom and living room were only 65; the poor heater was doing its best. Here are some of the readings I took around the house:

This is what the window temp registered in the bedroom 

This is the closet in our living room; it has no insulation and overhangs an indoor stairwell

This was the stairwell leading down to our front door. Brrrr!

This was a reading I took at the bottom of the front door. We need some weather stripping!

All in all, I can say that -3 is a doozie to deal with. You have to let your car warm up more (or in our case, you have to wait for the coil to heat up before trying to turn the diesel engine over), and you certainly don't want to be outside without adequate protection. Bundle up and stay cozy folks! Winter is just getting started.