-35C??? Cripes, that’s just a little too cold for me. But I also prefer the cold to the heat, especially if you have any type of outdoor work to do. When it’s 95F, you can’t do much to cool off. Even if you ran around naked it would still be hot. At least you can add layers when it’s cold out.
As for our portrayal in movies and TV, I can only think of a few cases that show anything remotely close. I only saw the first “Home Alone” movie, but IIRC, the kid was home alone because of snow delays at the airport. Very common at this time of year.
I’m wondering if the rest of the world’s perception of our weather hardships isn’t clouded because of our status as a nation. It seems that we are always hearing about earthquakes and floods in other parts of the world. A good deal of the coverage concerns our relief efforts to help those countries out in their times of need. However, when California has earthquakes, or the Mississippi River floods, or Montana is on fire, or Florida gets hit with a hurricane, I never hear about other countries helping us! I would think that if some country were sending relief efforts, it would merit more news coverage on their TV stations. Do other countries hear these snippets of news coverage, and just figure, “Hey, it’s the US, they can take care of themselves.” ?
Maybe more movies depicting our natural disasters would change the rest of the world’s perceptions. Then again, Hollywood won’t make too many, because we don’t want to see reality. We live it. We want to see movies to escape those things. “Twister” was about real disasters - it seemed to be a popular movie overall, but in my area, where tornados occur, it didn’t play that well. I’ve always wondered how it did in Kansas or Oklahoma.
Out in Western Canada, where I’ve spent my entire life, we don’t have nearly as much snow as other areas of Canada like Ontario, but what we do have is COLD. We spend almost half the year dipping down to (and sometimes holding at) temperatures that will kill you if you go outside unprotected. When I think about it, it amazes me that Canada is thriving and flourishing the way it is in these conditions.
So, I know all about cold, and how to live with it and keep myself, my house, and my car functioning, but what I don’t understand is how people live with intense heat, bugs, vermin, tornadoes, hurricanes, earthquakes, tsunamis, floods, monsoons, volcanoes, poisonous critters living around them, sharks and poisonous things in the waters, or any combination thereof. We have none of these things in Western Canada; I’ve never seen a rat in my life, and here in Calgary, we have very few bugs. The only extreme weather we ever have is the occasional hailstorm, and snowstorms and cold weather in winter. I think we have it pretty good here. (Hmm, this wasn’t meant to sound condescending or anything - I truly don’t have any idea how people deal with these other conditions.)
G. Nome: Most older American homes facing windy-directions (North or East) open into an entry way which is either a small alcove, a short hallway, or a mud-room sort of thing. TV homes are just that, TV homes. Smaller houses tend to open directly into a living area, though. Newer houses do, also. It doesn’t make much sense. The old (90 years) house I live in has a seperate entry room for all exterior doors.
Okay, elmwood. I know most of these. But you’ve stumped me on “sneet” & “snizzle.” I’m going to guess that sneet is a combination of snow & sleet, and snizzle is a snow/drizzling rain thing? I used to know what “graupel” & “sublimation” were, but I’ve forgotten those, too. Rats.
Sneet is a combination of snow and sleet – big, blowing flakes of wet snow.
Snizzle is a combination of snow and drizzle – small blowing flakes of wet snow.
When it’s raining, windy and the temperature is falling, you’ll have raindrops, then sleet, then sneet, then flurries. When it’s not windy, and the drops are smaller, it’s drizzle, then snizzle, then snow.
As far as doors opening directly into living areas – in Buffalo, it’s rare. In Denver, it’s quite common – my house doesn’t have a foyer or front hall, but it does have a back mudroom.
Hm. So them, if my husband wanted to impress his friends, instead of saying something like “boy, those burritos gave me gas!” he could say something along the lines of “my, those burritos sublimated much more quickly than I expected”?
Really interesting discussion; I’d never really thought about local weather: it just is. (Shrug). The terrible floods and monsoons in Asia always seemed so much more threatening.
Once this got me thinking, Fargo is the only pop culture depiction that rings true. And even that didn’t show the routine, boring stuff like plug-ins to keep your car battery charged in way sub-zero weather. Or running your car before bed, then tossing an old quilt over the engine block to help it kick in the morning.
Let’s face it, running the car w/ the defroster on high while you spend a giddy, fun-filled 20 minutes scraping ice off the car windows is pretty boring. And that doesn’t include the frost build-up on the insides of the windows. You climb in, the snow clinging to your clothes and boots melt–and promptly re-freezes into an impenetrable frost layer on the inside of the windows.
The options are to blast the heater on “high” and hope it can keep up, or heave your bulky, down-clad body over seats, gear-shifts, etc. to scrape down the insides. Worse, it’s near impossible to dry out the interior well. (Forget opening doors: it refreezes before it evaporates.)
Odd, I’d honestly never realized the perception of Americans as ruthless gas-hogs this way. In daily (winter) life it’s a simple matter of being able to get the car running, see where you’re going and cover the distance.
I live in the northwestern corner of the Lower Peninsula of Michigan, not far from the eastern shore of the north part of Lake Michigan.
Our wind is almost always out of the northwest. As the frigid air comes down from the Canadian Arctic, and goes over the relatively warm northern part of the Great Lake, this has the affect of acting like a snow machine.
The net result of this little quirk is, in my corner of the world, we typically get A LOT of snow. We’ve received over 15 feet of snow in past winters – only a few years ago, in fact. Did I mention we get a lot of snow?
As has already been stated here, when it’s part of your life, you just deal with it. It’s places that aren’t used to having a foot of snow fall in a day that have problems.
I’d imagine the plow truck drivers who clear our roads up here are among the best, most efficient at their jobs of any, anywhere. Cuz they get so much practice.
Schools, businesses and activities are, occasionally closed because of particularly nasty storms (the schools more often than anything else). But usually, things just continue. You drive a little slower, speeding up and slowing down more gradually. You walk a little more carefully. That’s about it, really.
It’s an odd but refreshing culture that develops in this situation. If your car goes into a ditch, usually there will be a pickup truck or SUV along in minutes, and a guy you’ve never met before with a chain or tow rope will yank you out, or a group of people will stop their cars and assist in pushing you out. All then just go back on their merry way with a quick “thank you” exchanged.
