Why Warming Up the Car is the Worst Thing You Can Do This Winter

Excessive warming of your car is wasteful but warming the engine for about 30 seconds minutes before driving in freezing conditions is necessary. The reason is that you need to allow the oil to start pumping before applying load to the engine. Jack-rabbit starts contribute about as much wear on a car's engine as a month of regular driving.

This website talks about how you don't need much time to warm up your engine but you still need to do it.
http://denver.yourhub.com/Broomfield/Blogs/Archive/Education-General/Blog~408163.aspx

Also other sites talk about taking off slowly and not revving the engine a lot in the first few minutes of driving. This could however be a potential safety hazard if you enter a highway soon after your commute starts and you don't get up to speed. Better to be prepared to drive then be a nuisance to the rest of the world.

Many cars limit the revs electronically until the temperature starts to rise. This is fine but remember your engine is more likely to wear under load then idling at any RPM so 30 seconds is your best bet. Just don't sit longer for a minute or two as that is absolutely wasteful.

Very reasonable advice, Bryansix. Thanks for reading :)

I thought that people in CO were used to skiing to school and work during the winter months!

But seriously, carpooling is a great method of reducing emissions, even in the winter.

too bad there is no winter here in our area.

Too bad but their is a reason why the winther is cold