Authentic Arctic air has now arrived. Here are five places in Manhattan I have found to make the cold even worse:

5) The 72nd and Broadway subway station. Extensive ventilation makes this station a welcome alternative in the summer. But in the winter, cold air pours in, and there isn't much of a way to move around because the platform, bordered by tracks on two sides, is so narrow.

4) Anywhere south of Chambers Street. Lower Manhattan seems like one giant wind tunnel on the coldest days. The warm water of the Hudson River and New York Harbor create an effect that is basically the reverse of a summer sea breeze. Heat rises over the water, creating a vacuum that cold air from the land accelerates to fill. This acceleration of air is the lower Manhattan wind gust that always makes the winter even more intolerable.

3) The endless "Don't Walk" at 66th and Columbus. This intersection has one of the most one-sided delays of any in the city, and if you're crossing 66th Street on Columbus Avenue (as opposed to crossing Columbus on 66th), you feel it. Even if no traffic appears in sight while you walk down Columbus, by the time you arrive, there is sure to be a constant stream preventing you from jaywalking.

2) West 4th Street between 6th and 7th Avenue. This narrow corridor is ripe for wind, and its compass orientation frequently coincides with the wind direction if you are walking east to west. While you are racing to the 1/9 subway stop at Sheridan Square, unforgiving traffic light timing adds insult to injury.

1) Broadway between 66th and 68th Streets. The worst wind tunnel in the city, period. Whatever the wind speed at Central Park, multiply by two. Somehow the effect is worse walking southeast than walking northwest, probably because of the unusual triangle-and-towers configuration of the Lincoln Square area. Recommendation: walk east on 68th to Columbus, then walk down.