Ha! Here’s the thing. When it’s too cold, we have technologically wonderful cold weather gear - wool, goretex, down, fleece, hats, gloves and so on. It’s true that I enjoy cold snowy weather, but as long as I dress appropriately and keep moving, I’m toasty warm. I’d be equally miserable out in cold weather without proper clothing, but with proper clothing it’s no big deal. Unless it’s below zero but that doesn’t happen often.
When it’s too hot, there’s nothing that cools you down outside (except being naked, maybe) so you’re either stuck inside artificially cooled environments, or outside enduring the heat. Which I do. On really hot (by my standards), humid nights I have the AC running full blast and fans going as well, and literally daydream about cool weather and snowy days.
Born and raised in SoCal. Moved to Alaska when I was 21. Adapted really fast. Really, really fast. It helped that I was a hiker and had some serious cold weather gear already. Reverted to normal instantly upon returning Outside.
I never “acclimated” to extreme climates. But after winters in South Dakota (including one memorable 8-day stretch in January where it never got above zero), and extended summers in the Houston area, I’ve never felt like complaining about cold or heat ever again.
One thing I don’t miss from colder weather is the car troubles. I’ve done everything from spray half a can of StarterHelper into the carb to get an old truck started every time it stalled…which was all the time in the winter, since it was an un-souped up 1950 stepside…to waking up at 4 so I could go outside to my p.o.s. Escort because it would take my holding down the pedal for at LEAST 20 minutes before it would hold an idle. So, up at 4, into the car, freezing my ass off for 20 minutes ‘starting’ the car, back inside to get dressed, come back out and pray it hadn’t ^*^*ing stalled, then slip-slide the 25 miles to work in the dark and pray I didn’t skid all over the stadium-sized parking lot at work. Oh, then hike across same, slippery, way-too-big parking lot, hoping I don’t fall on the ice.
No. I don’t really miss that right now. Right now, the most important things here car-wise are the AC <worth the yearly refill!> and not keeping anything in it that will melt. Like, my cell phone.
I’ve lived in a cold climate my whole life. Up here it’ll get -40c for a few a weeks every winter, average snowfall is 6-8ft etc (it’s warmed up though, I remember when I was a kid we’d get a few months of -40)
Moved to Australia for a year when I was 25, it was quite and adjustment because I left Canada about 1.5 days after it was -40c (we’d had a heatwave up to -15C) and when I landed in Australia it was about +34C if I remember right. That was brutal and some of the heat in places like Alice Springs (super dry) and Darwin (very damp, even before monsoon season) was pretty amazing because where I live we have dry but very very nice summers.
I never wore a coat once in Australia, wore shorts most of the year except for “Winter” if you want to call it that, was just starting to acclimated to Oz and I head back to Canada, in Feburary. ick. I’m still not used the cold weather here yet and I’ve been back a few years.
I’d love to live in a warm climate, I wouldn’t want to work in it but I’d love to live in it.
My sister grew up in Indiana, attended school in Chicago, and her first teaching job was in Wisconsin. She moved to Texas a couple years ago and I’d say she’s adapted. She was telling me the other day that she was cold because it dipped below 50 (:rolleyes::p), but then she’s always been warmer-blooded.
I’m the opposite. I was born in Indiana and am living near Chicago now, and I still haven’t really adapted to the humidity level during midwestern summers. I HATE how sticky it gets, and I always have, because I have curly hair and a very low heat-tolerance. Even as a little kid, when I didn’t have air conditioning, I was absolutely miserable in the summertime. I just never got used to it. The cold I can handle… I can always put on more clothes. But there’s a limit to how much you can take off.
I grew up in Ohio, then lived in California (Bay Area and LA) for 7 years, then moved back. There was some weather lag with both moves and I still cringe at the onset of winter five years after leaving LA. But I never put on a coat in California (or here) unless I really needed to. Californians seemed to enjoy owning heavy coats and liked to put them on for no good reason. Maybe it was just another stylish article of clothing to them.
I did notice one weird thing about living in LA - I started to lose track of when certain events occurred, because I didn’t have the weather as a time reference. For example, if I tried to remember when I painted the mailbox in Ohio, I could easily remember whether it was sunny and warm or cloudy and cold when I did it, and that way I could narrow it down to within a couple of months. Doesn’t work in LA. It seemed like everything happened in the middle of the summer there.
::Hijack:: But in LA you probably have the geographic advantage of being able to orient things seaward or landward in your mind. I know that when I’m in Orlando I lack a coast from which to orient myself, which isn’t a problem in Sarasota or Melbourne (which are on the Gulf/Ocean.)
In Ithaca it’s not too much of a problem either because I can simply think “uphill/downhill”. But in Orlando, or even in my hometown of Fredonia NY I can get lost easily without something to anchor my sense of whereabouts to.
I get lost no matter where I am, except in Salt Lake City where they have that awesome Cartesian grid of numbered streets.
South and east of LA, where I lived, the mountains are usually too far away to see from surface streets, which is where you need the directional help. But when I lived in the Bay Area I could indeed orient myself by looking at hills.
I’m from multiple other places before here, but the climate that “stuck” as my intrinsic native climate was high elevation New Mexico. New York City is too wet, doesn’t get enough snow in the winter, hate the muggy summers. Rarely gets truly cold although it gets damn clammy.
I have to say I do not miss the New Mexico springtime though. (ugh)
Try New Orleans and surrounding areas. I never had a clue what direction I was going. It’s all based around the river and when you get to the point where the West Bank is east of the main city, well, I was okay as long as I knew what roads to take. Totally confusing.
Speaking of climates I will never willingly endure for more than a visit again…yikes!
My son grew up here with me in central PA, and after college moved to lopwer NC, which has a MUCH warmer climate. When he first moved down he mocked the locals for wearing winter coats and being cold when the temps hit the low to mid 40’s, when he would be fine in a hoodie.
Last winter he confessed to me that he is now “one of them” and needs his winter coat at the same time and temps as the ones he mocked. Now I get to laugh at him when he comes to visit and he’s freezing and we are all running around in hoodies…though he gets the last laugh when we’re still in those hoodies and he’s heading to the beach for the day!
I moved from Alaska to Washington a little over a year ago. I still haven’t gotten used to the cold here. When I’m moving I get warmed up very easily and quickly, but the damp really makes me feel so much colder than I can ever remember feeling in Anchorage.
