Hacker News Reader

In the Midwest there are polar bear clubs where swimmers enter a lake or river in the winter. Granted they don't swim, just plunge and hurriedly exit.

The guy in this story was swimming in 21 degree fahrenheit water. There are polar bear events when some years they're entering water thirty degrees colder than that! Nothing that I've ever been tempted to try.

https://www.jsonline.com/picture-gallery/life/green-sheet/20...

View on HN

If fresh water were -9 degrees F, I suspect it would be solid ice (it could be super-cooled if it were absolutely still, but lakes and rivers are not that, and splashing in super-cooled water would turn you into a popsicle). The air temperature isn't even that cold in any of these pictures.

Actually if you read the link you'd see one of the polar bear events the temperature was -8 degrees fahrenheit. I've watched similar events on TV where they actually cut a hole in the ice to begin the event.

Those are air temperatures, not water. Being fresh water, the liquid water is not below 32F/0C.

Nit: flowing water does go below 0°C without freezing, as does water with impurities (sea water).

That's air temp, not water temp. We are discussing water temp.

Do you mean the first photo where it says 8 degrees above zero?

Reply on news.ycombinator.com