I’ve posted this before; I’ll likely post it again. I don’t care if I bore; I just want to give the reader a small touch of perspective.
Over in the Pit someone from the Isle of Man (average January temperature 42F/5C) is complaining about winter and, according to the BBC, the temperature there is 8C, so the OP is upset because it’s currently 3C above average. The OP should be happy but, no, s/he’s upset. I don’t know why. I mean, if it was -13C I’d get it, but right now I don’t.
I live in Minnesota where we are known for crappy winter weather, even though the Canucks and Montanans laugh at us.
I’m fully aware of how dangerous cold weather is and how much it affects daily life - I mean, really, it sucks. A lot. But I go from a heated house to a cold car to a heated job to a cold car to a heated house. I mean, really - the only thing I have to complain about is that I didn’t dress warm enough for the presented weather.
Then I read an article about a woman who opined that human arms were the best part to eat - shortly before committing suicide; that boiled bison brains and tongue were a wintertime feast; that a father went for a doctor for his wife in labor, never found the doctor, and everyone froze to death.
I heard in outer space it’s actually a teensy bit colder and the atmosphere is a teesny bit thinner and the radiation is a teensy bit stronger than in Minnesota, but don’t tell that to a Minnesotan, because I’m sure they’ll top your story even if you actually did travel to outer space.
Hey, Minnesotans: I’ve been to Yakutsk, Russia. That’s one of the coldest places on earth.
You know what? Perspective, perschmecktive. If you live someplace it never drops below 55 and it drops to 45 then it’s fucking cold.
My complaint is that it’s perspectively/relatively cold. Too cold too enjoy the outdoors.
But I don’t think I emphasised the temperature aspect of Winter. The problem is not just the cold but the misery, lack of daytime/evening light, and the rain.
It’s often not proper rain either, just the sort of stuff that soaks anything without hardly seeming to fall, so the paper money on your pocket gets damp, it soaks through your clothes and just leaves them permanently damp, but oddly you never seem to get properly wet either, just grey and miserable.
Add that to weak daylight, rain that isn’t enough to use car wipers, but too much to ignore.
The high here is supposed to be 1 to 6 today. Right now, it’s -9.6 and dropping.
The poor doggies try to go outside and within a couple minutes their feet start to hurt. One of 'em stalled halfway back to the house, sitting on his haunches with his front feet in the air because they hurt so badly. Mr. Athena had to go save him and carry him the rest of the way in.
That said, I’m with the OP - Minnesota winters are colder. Up here, we get more snow, less ice, and the winters last longer, but my fond memories of waiting for the bus in -27 below cold in Minneapolis in my university years convince me that we have it easy.
We have the same issues here. It was -21f a few nights ago, and single digits during the day. The dogs do have a doggie door, so they can do there business as they please. But they expect their afternoon walk down the road. It’s been a quick one lately.
Preach it, brother! Try dealing with 45 when your house has no insulation, let alone central heating, then come tell me how much colder it is where you live!
I am not going to post about “Cold, you don’t know cold!”
I agree that it’s more than the cold, it’s the dark, the grey, the bitter wind - the inability to enjoy the outdoors.
I can handle the -15 to -20, that’s not too bad and with the sun out it can be quite nice.
It’s the days like today and yesterday - windchills of -45, you don’t even want to go outside and you say prayers for the homeless (both people and animals) that they find a way to stay warm.
It’s just a ridiculous, inhuman kind of cold.
Thank goodness we don’t get days like that all winter, like they do up north.
Also, if it’s never supposed to be cold and it’s suddenly cold chances are you don’t have winter clothes to throw on. I visited my inlaws in north Florida recently. F-i-l doesn’t own any long pants. The day after we left the temperature dropped precipitously.
What I complain about most is the sharp contrasts. I grew up north of here and I don’t know if the difference is geographical or a change over time…when I was a kid we’d have some days in the 40s leading up to days in the high 30s and so on gradually down to a few days a year below zero. This and last year in Maryland we had very very mild Decembers and early Januaries, and then WHAM, someone flips the cold switch, but just for a few days and then it’s in the 50s again. Oy!
Whenever I’m tempted to whine about it being cold I think of my grandmother. She spent her formative years in Minnesota, without indoor plumbing. Some mornings the seat’s a little chilly, but I get to walk through a heated apartment to get there.
It’s not the cold that bothers me (the coldest temperature recorded where I live is about -18C (0F), and that was only one freakishly cold night - anything below about -5 (23F)is unusual and to be honest any extended period below freezing just doesn’t happen these days), it’s the lack of light combined with grey skies, cold cold rain and gales. I live about 500 miles further north than the northernmost part of your state and we’re lucky that the climate is so mild but it can be a tad depressing at this time of year. It is frequently glorious in the summer though.
Definitely. Often in threads like this someone from somewhere that never hits the freezing point will come in and say ‘well, you couldn’t take our summers!’. The thing is, I live in a place that varies from 35C in the summer to -35C in the winter. There’s both extremes, and preparing for that is bloody harder than just having one or the other. Especially when you have to choose between having the furnace or the air conditioner installed!
See, I just can’t even comprehend the kind of cold you folks are talking about. It got down to 19F here one time, and into the 20’s a few times…I can’t imagine what negative temps feel like. The brain refuses to cooperate.
Amen. I promised myself I would never turn into one of those people when I moved here from Maryland, but lo and behold, after about 10 years I did. I can’t help it: 55 is irritatingly chilly and 45 is fuckin’ cold. But somewhere in the deepest recesses of my mind, 8-year-old me is laughing. (I have fond memories of the parties we’d throw on the bus when we found out it was going to be 60 degrees on a winter day.)
TroubleAgain, I wish I could forget the negative temps.
That can get annoying, but I’d much rather have that for a couple stretches of a few days each winter than the constant downpour and the icy roads available on the East Coast of my country. YMMV.
At least we don’t have the grey (except in May) or the darkness or the wind. It’s been clear, sunny and still lately (where “lately” means “almost every day of at least the last ten years, but particularly noticeable in the last week or so”).
That’s another issue. When a record-cold winter hit last year, few of us here had the clothing required. Many mornings and nights were spent huddled around the heater.
Indeed. And over here on the coast, the coldest I remember it reaching was 29. That was for me unfathomably cold. Right now it’s 48 and that’s damn chilly for us.
It is totally a question of what you are used to – and how your home is built and what kind of clothing you have and all that.
I knew it was bad when I got out to my car this morning to find it was 8 degrees F and it didn’t feel that bad. After this weekend, anything feels warm.
It’s 8F right now and it didn’t feel bad at all walking into work from the car, which is a short block’s walk. But it’s supposed to get down to -7F tonight. I think I’ll stay inside. I don’t mind cold within reason, but that’s starting to get to slightly unreasonable.
