Caitlin, make sure you pack wisely. This is one of the most brutal winters Wisconsin has seen in awhile. Heavy jacket, mittens, hat, scarf, boots, all your winter gear. Hoodies and sweaters, and if you have any pants that are a little baggier bring those and leggings to wear underneath them. You probably won't want to have just one layer on most of the time you're here.
When I walked to work tonight it was nine degrees and snowing, there was so much snow in the air I could barely see more than a block in front of me.
On my walk home, it was negative six, with a wind chill of negative twenty-five, with gusts of wind up to 30 miles per hour.


The snow that fell tonight was very dry and fine and so those gusts of wind blew it all over, creating beautiful ripples on the banks and tossing so much of it in the air it looked like television static.
Really beautiful, but very dangerous if you aren't prepared for it. I was only partially prepared. I wore two down jackets and stayed very comfortable from the hips up, but I only wore jeans instead of layering like I should have. On the left is my arm, which was protected by my coats, on the right, my leg, only covered by a single layer of denim. If I had stayed out any longer I could have sustained serious tissue damage.