Frozen in Chiberia

If there was ANY reason you ever envied me (admit that you want my Hollywood hair and Roman nose), you can erase all of that envy this week. 

I am currently living in the hellhole of a city fondly nicknamed Chiberia by news stations. 

I've experienced the snowmageddon, snowpocalypse or snowzilla of 2010 but Chiberia? That's a whole new level of brrrr.

YES! You got it right, Watson. Named after Siberia. That very place that has somehow never been on your '100 must-see-places-before-I-die' list. Because once you go there, you WILL die of the cold and then you won't be able to successfully complete your list. HA!

Good news is that since everybody who is even partially sane is staying home today, I asked a bunch of my Chi-town friends to send me phonecam pictures of what they are seeing right now outside their windows.

Here's a snapshot of what they most obligingly shared. Mind you, this is deceptively beautiful snow but horrifyingly, mind-numbingly dangerous minus 15F ie minus 26C weather.

Sort of like how drop dead gorgeous women are all evil witches in reality. Look but don't you dare touch. Something like that...

Thank you so much, my dear friends, for sending me pictures so promptly!

Pictures: 

Andersonville

Roscoe Village-1

Roscoe village-2

Bucktown

Logan Square

Lakeview 

Streeterville (view from 23rd floor, can you spot Lake Michigan?)

Lake Michigan frozen and iced over this early morning, my friend said it looked like it was 'smoking' 

Old Town -view from 19th floor 

The Loop - view from 27th floor

Lincoln Park-1

Lincoln Park-2 

Lincoln Park-3

Bronzeville

Montgomery, IL

Just to boast that 'my snow is bigger than your snow', I requested a few special guest pics from my cousin in neighboring Michigan. Things are just as bad there, looks like.

Royal Oak (suburbs of Detroit)

And a few pics from a friend in Canada, who has thigh-high snow in her backyard. Yikes 

Oakville, near Toronto

And none of this is half as bad as Grand Forks, North Dakota, where another cousin lives. The temperature is just as bad and wind chill plus driving conditions are even more challenging than in Chicago. 

They can even boast of unique atmospheric occurrences out there. It was so cold, a rare sighting of a sun dog appeared. Wikipedia says that a sun- dog (or sundog), mock sun or phantom sun,scientific name parhelion (plural parhelia), is an atmospheric phenomenon that creates bright spots of light in the sky, often on a luminous ring or halo on either side of the sun. 

Can you see the twin rainbows on either side of the sun? 

This is a far cry from my hometown, namma Madras where the temperature is currently a sunny 25C or 77F and folks are donning their monkey caps because they feel cold. Ah well. I was once exactly like them! 

Monkey cap image

Stay warm, folks. And visit Chicago sometime. In the summer.