Sub-zero temperatures here in Ohio, combined with a bout of cabin fever, has me wondering how locales that host summertime concours d’elegance events are faring with the record cold weather. (As most car geeks can attest, any news topic is only a few degrees of separation from a car-related activity.)
Since attendees at car shows during the summer usually check on the predicted high temp before venturing out, I thought I’d see what yesterday’s highs were in a few representative areas. The results from online resource www.fastweather.com caught me by surprise and are show below, with the coldest highs listed first.
I figured that Owen Sound, Ontario, home of the Cobblewood Concours, would be one of the colder venues. It’s about the same latitude as Minneapolis, home of the 10,000 Lakes Concours, (where it warmed up to minus 13° yesterday), plus it sits on a peninsula bounded by Lake Huron on the west and Georgian Bay on the east. Not even close: Owen Sound was 7° above zero, while Milwaukee and Des Moines were minus 10° and minus 7°, respectively.
The biggest surprise on the car show map was Misselwood Concours, located near Boston, a city notorious for brutal winters in recent years. It was a balmy 37° in Beverly, MA.
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Footnote: Hey, when there’s too much salt on the streets to drive a collector car and it’s too cold out to work on one, sometimes you just have to pass the time by doing something vaguely related to cars… like research weather stats.
St. Michael’s Concours d’Elegance (Maryland Eastern Shore)
38° high (13° low)
