What north-central Minnesota delivers in December is something more categorical — a state of affairs in which the air itself is hostile to human tissue, in which exposed skin is a liability, in which the distance between warmth and death can be measured in minutes.

On the night of December 20, 1980, the temperature near Lengby had fallen to 22 degrees below zero Fahrenheit.

That is not a wind chill number — that is the actual air temperature, before any wind factor is applied.

In terms of the rate at which heat leaves the human body, it represents conditions under which a person without adequate protection can lose consciousness within an hour and be dead within two.

Jean Hilliard lived in Lengby with her family.