GAINESVILLE - The coldest temperatures in five years will greet participants in the 11th annual New Year's Day Polar Bear Swim in Gainesville Tuesday.
Highs are expected to be in the 40s with wind chills of zero or just below. It hasn't been that cold since 2002 when the high was 45.
That means faithful participants such as George Wangemann, a Gainesville city councilman and former mayor, who grew up in Milwaukee, where he saw his first such event, should feel right at home.
"I was there (in Milwaukee) in 1974 when the actual temperatures was 22 below zero and the wind chill was right around 50 below zero," Wangemann said.
The coldest day for the event in Gaineville was in 2001 when the temperature didn't get above freezing.
"We actually had ice on the lake and had to break it a little bit," recalls Connie Hagler, the former longtime executive director of the Lanier Canoe and Kayak Club (LCKC), which sponsors the event.
Hagler says as a rule, the colder it is, the fewer participants they have but the more spectators they have.
Temperatures have been in the 50s or 60s for eight of the ten events held so far. It was 67 in both 2004 and 2005... the warmest of any of them.
The Polar Bear Swim is a fund-raiser for the LCKC. It has been held each New Year's Day since 1997 at the Olympics venue on Clarks Bridge Road.
Friday
April 26th, 2024
8:32AM
