When i am cold, I can layer up, drink hot beverages, etc. When too hot, there is a limit to how many clothes i can take off.
Especially if it is also humid.
I’ve never been in a situation in which I was seriously too hot and didn’t know how many days it would be until I was cool again, either. Trying to imagine both of them – I’ll still take the cold.
And I’d rather freeze to death than burn to death, if it comes to that.
I really don’t think this is a question for which there’s an overall answer correct for everybody. It’s going to be a matter of individual differences.
As someone who lived more than thirty years in Texas and now almost thirty in New England, I’m here to say I’d rather be cold (within the normal, occasionally extreme, confines of regional temperature) than hot. There is nothing like yard work in August in Texas to make that clearer for me.
I take hot yoga classes. The only thing I dislike about being too hot is that I sweat like a sinner in church.
However, I hate being cold.
Yard work in August in Texas would probably kill me. I have trouble doing farm work in August in upstate New York. I have to keep pouring water over my head, and sometimes have to give up and go sit in front of an air conditioner for a while.
Same.
Of course, I’m almost never “too cold”, because with reasonable clothing, I’m comfortable in all the cold weather i ever need to deal with. I enjoy doing stuff outdoors when it’s 25F and sunny. I don’t bother to put on a coat if i just need to pop out for a minute and it’s around freezing. So maybe if i really was “much too cold” I’d hate it.
But I’ve been too hot lots of times, and i know i hate that.
I would prefer dying of hypothermia to burning to death, though, for sure.
I didn’t think I had to spell this part out in the hypothetical. So just to be clear: you are not dead. You remain alive. You are not being incinerated nor entombed in a glacier.
You are merely very, very uncomfortable.
mmm
At my old work place, we had two lakes. Each year we got to watch the geese (and ducks) raise their families. I loved watching them and took many, many photos over the years. The goslings were adorable as fuzzbutts:
But my favorite time was that awkward age when they looked like little dinosaurs:
Unfortunately, I haven’t seen any geese since I retired five years ago. Due to Covid, my old co-workers work from home now so I haven’t been back there.
As the poster of the gosling poll, yes, please, come back and edit!
I’ve seen 2 sets of them in the past week, newly hatched as well as what @aurora_maire calls little dinosaurs (great photos btw) which is why I started the poll.
In the Army I had to live and work in the cold for long periods of time in conditions that could cause hypothermia. I was never anywhere that was so hot that I would burst into flames. And I’ve been to Kuwait in the summer.
Same. As long as it’s not windy, I’ll walk the dog in a t-shirt rather than bother with a coat.
I created the hot or cold poll because I’ve realized that, in my dotage, I have switched teams. I used to be hottest chap on the planet. I was famous for my heat intolerance. I wore shorts in all seasons. I sweated more than anyone I’ve ever met.
Nowadays I find myself reaching for a long-sleeved shirt or socks on the regular. This never used to happen. I’m even engaging in thermostat battles from the other end of the continuum.
Now, remove yourself from my sod.
mmm
It doesn’t take bursting into flames for heat to kill you. Hyperthemia is very much a thing; a chronic danger for farmworkers, and also for many others.
My heat tolerance has gotten worse as I grow older. My cold tolerance is also somewhat worse, but the difference isn’t as great as in the heat tolerance. I think it’s pretty common, however, for one’s tolerance of temperature extremes to get worse in both directions in old age.
I found myself reaching for a long sleeve shirt recently, and wonder if this is in my future. I’m still pretty comfortable in the cold, though, and still can’t stand hot weather.
I would never call heat stroke, heat exhaustion, heat cramps etc “burning to death.” Burning to death is being on fire. I have witnessed all of the above. There is a difference.
That’s true. But what you said in the post I was replying to was:
which appears to me to contrast hypothermia to bursting into flames. Hypothermia is properly contrasted to hyperthermia. Do you want to adjust the above post to say that in the Army you lived and worked in conditions that could cause hypothermia and also in conditions that could cause hyperthermia, either of which can and do kill people?
Can’t breathe when it’s too hot, plus I sweat like a pig.
Saw some ducklings last weekend, but no geese. The ducks live along the river and the geese (non-Canada geese) nest by the lake. They usually put their nests in the same place, so if I were to go over there, I might see some goslings.
I’ll take hot weather any day over cold.
I almost never see any Canada geese, but snow geese are common here in the winter - but no goslings. They usually breed after they fly north for the summer.
Sure. I don’t know why that changes anything. I’m not the one who originally contrasted hypothermia with burning to death. I was just replying to the original hyperbolic post.
Yeah, but I can’t decide between being very, very uncomfortable because I’m too hot and being very, very uncomfortable because I’m too cold, because either way I’m equally uncomfortable.