Topless in Michigan and Other Arctic Blast Survival Stories

Laurens de Jong breezes around with the top down on his convertible, no matter how cold the weather, a habit he started as a self-challenge, but continued because he enjoys it. (Screenshot via The Detroit News)

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So, let’s get down to those cold brass tacks. How cold is it?

Before you answer, keep in mind that Sara Schultz, a meteorologist for the National Weather Service in White Lake, told the Detroit Free Press that wind chills could plummet into the treacherous -24 zone, creating the kind of cold that will freeze your face in 30 minutes.

That’s bone-gnawing, stupid cold.

But it isn’t so cold that a Michigan man has put the top up on his two-seat convertible as he breezes along I-94 during his twice-daily 37-mile commute to and from his home in Ypsilanti.

“I love how unbelievably pure the air is when it’s cold,” Laurens de Jong told Neal Rubin, a columnist for The Detroit News. “I love the padded sound of tires on fresh snow.”

The 46-year-old de Jong told columnist Rubin he’s not trying to shatter a Guinness world record, which he figures was set eons ago before cars had roofs. But for the record, de Jong has driven 2,809 days without putting the top up on his 2005 Honda S2000, according to a metal counter he keeps on the car’s console.

It’s a self-challenge more than anything else. He started with a 100-day challenge to drive with the top down to test the limitations and liked how exhilarating it felt.

“The human body is an amazing machine,” de Jong said. “I look at other drivers … (and) they’re happy despite the weather. I’m happy because of the weather.”

His is one of several stories of people embracing – or coping with – a blast of cold Canadian air affecting much of the country. In southeast Michigan forecast calls for more miserable cold and on-and-off snow flurries through Friday. It’ll be a bit warmer – 17 degrees – but winds will be 15 to 25 mph, WWJ/CBS Detroit said.

First Ice Is the Best Ice

The wintry forecast is good news for ice fishing aficionados, who raced to set up shanties on frozen over rivers. Anglers have been eager to get on the ice – something they were able to do in mid-December last year – but it wasn’t until this week that the bitter cold delivered the 4- to 5-inch ice cover needed to fish safely.

“First ice,” Beau Deal, who used a day off from school to fish from the ice of the Saginaw River Wednesday, told The Bay City Times/MLive. “Gotta love it.”

Detroit Public Schools, some charter schools and a smattering of metro Detroit public schools closed because of the dangerous wind chills. Most public schools in the Tri-County area were open as usual Thursday – a sharp contrast to last year, when the winter break stretched several days into January.

Warming centers and homeless shelters are bursting at the seams, though. Advocates for the homeless said the cold exposes nagging social problems in Oakland County, home to some of the Michigan’s most affluent suburbs. In 2013, the last year for which statistics are available, 3,503 homeless residents were homeless, according to the Alliance for Housing.

“What you’re seeing is that, even though there’s an economic recovery, it hasn’t reached some people yet,” Elizabeth Kelly, executive director of the HOPE Hospitality and Warming Shelter in Pontiac told The Oakland Press.

Cold Enough to Freeze Firefighter’s Radio to Coat

The cold also hampers firefighters. It was so cold early Thursday morning that a Royal Oak firefighter’s radio froze to his suit while battling a blaze that left a family of seven homeless, sent five of them to the hospital and claimed the lives of two family pets.

“Once it was wet, he came back out of the fire, and it was frozen to his coat,” Royal Oak Fire Chief Chuck Thomas told the Detroit Free Press. “It was cold.”

With the actual air temperature around 3 degrees and winds kicking up, Thomas rotated firefighters in and out of active firefighting to keep them safe during the two hours it took to extinguish the blaze.

With stories like that, presenters at a Rochester Hills workshop, Winter Survival 101, won’t have to make up scenarios of what can happen when people are ill-prepared. The environmental program, from to be held 1-3 p.m. Monday, Jan. 19, at Bloomer Park, will teach skills such as building a winter survival shelter and how to start a fire without matches.

The cold also sets the mood for winter festivals like this weekend’s 33rd annual Plymouth Ice Festival, long regarded as the largest free ice festival in Michigan. Ice carving is the centerpiece of this festival, which runs Friday-Sunday, Jan. 9-11,

If de Jong shows up, he’ll likely be topeless.

But it’ll be his legs that are cold.

“The weak spot,” de Jong said, explaining to Rubin of The Detroit News how one dresses for a convertible drive that feels like a trip through the frozen tundra, “is pants.”

» Read more of Neal Rubin’s column on The Detroit News.