This article was in City Pages a while ago. After reading it I decided winter really wasn’t worth bitching about anymore.
It’s about 15º here right now, and very windy.
Schools in parts of southern Maryland and the Eastern Shore were closed or delayed today. My daughter stared at the TV while they had the announcements running across the bottom of the screen, willing “Baltimore County - Closed” to magically appear on the screen. No luck.
The she sat and whined, “It’s too coooold to go to school. Don’t they ever close schools when it’s really cold?” for 20 minutes.
I told her to be glad she doesn’t live in Canada, where it’s really freaking cold.
400th post! Yay!
Anyways, The Weather Network shows the weather in Ottawa right now to be -30C as of 8AM this morning.
The tough part is, that’s WITHOUT windchill … with windchill it’s -43!! Why oh why do we live here??
Because it only stays that cold for a couple days, and by prancing about in that weather get to justify that we’re tougher and have more moral fibre than people from wussy, sunny places.
It’s -12 this morning in New York. The security guards looked at me funny when I got off my bike and walked into the office.
Morning folks! It’s -23 in Toronto, feels like -33, with a predicted balmy high of -13.
My relatives living near Baltimore reported that they’d close schools when it snowed because the buses didn’t have snow tires. Were they feeding us a tall tale? (Well, if “-10 Celsius and windy” is conditions for closing school, I guess they weren’t…)
We live here because…because…it’s not the States, that’s why!
Not exactly. They close schools when it snows because the don’t have enough snow removal eqipment out there and there are lots of places that are nothing but two-lane windy roads with lots of hills.
That and people out there drive like freakin’ idiots in snow (yes, even worse than Minnesotans getting their first reminder of winter). When I lived out there it got to the point where I’d stock up for a 2" forecast just so I wouldn’t have to be on the road with the rest of the numbskulls.
Well, not really. It’s 13º with 25-mph winds. Which is downright toasty compared to some of our Northern neighbors.
My gripe is, it’s 85º in my office, so I had to wear summer clothes under all my layers of winter clothes.
When I first signed in this morning, Weatherbug on the computer said it was 3 degrees. An hour later, it’s risen to 5 degrees.
Heatwave!!!
runs naked though thr…wait a minute…it’s isn’t THAT warm
15 degrees and they cancel school? You’re freakin’ kidding me! I remember once, once in my entire life that school was canceled because it was too cold. It was -20 F, I think, before windchill (with windchill would make it probably between -30 and -40.)
I currently live ni Saranac lake, NY, which, hooray for me,gets soem of the codlest temps in the nation. Last January, before I lived here, they had an (unofficial) record low of -35…before windchill. Currently, it’s -17 and with windchill feels like -35.
No, they didn’t cancel school, which was my daughter’s gripe. She’s a teenager, which means she finds any reason to bitch and whine. They closed them in other parts of the state because of ice, I think.
It’s still damn cold, but no reason to stay home.
They do tend to jump the gun when closing school for snowfall around here, though. When we get about two inches of the stuff, for instance.
Yeah, it’s pretty cold, and I’ve had to shovel 3 times and snowblow once (too much to shovel) already. Of course, it could be worse.
WAG: Barbarian meant -12C, which is 10F. That’s the current temperature in Toronto, and New york is -10C (both according to Yahoo! Weather/weather.com). In other words, about the same.
As Sunspace pointed out above, tomorrow will crest freezing (0C). The average low for Toronto in December is -5C, with an average high of 1C. For comparison, New York averages a high of 10C and a low of 1.7C.
In case anyone cares. 
Slap on some skis and rejoice! 
You get used to it. Really. And some of us find it invigorating.
For instance, last year in January or February we had a cold snap where the temperature was hovering around 30 below C, before taking wind chill into account. It was a cold Arctic air mass that just refused to budge - stayed with us for two or three weeks.
The first few days, everyone was grumbling about the cold, but by the end of it, you just didn’t notice it. You had your extra clothing all the time, your car was plugged in and taking it in stride (or had given up the ghost and was immobile for the duration - either way, your fate was clear 
).
When we were a one-car family and Mrs. Piper was commuting to another city, I walked to work every day. You have to be careful walking on a 35 below day, but it just feels good.
And when the sun is shining, at 35 below, the province just gleams. You can see to the horizon, the sunlight is dancing off the ice, and you just feel ALIVE in a way that you never get in the summer time.
We’re in the middle of our first snowfall. About an inch has come down in the last half-hour or so and there’s no indication that it’s slowing down.
I hate snow. At least I know about it now so I can set my goddamn alarm 15 minutes early so I can brush the goddamn snow off my goddamn car.
Otto, Otto - you’re in the wrong mood entirely, old son! You should be thinking “Walking in a Winter Wonder Land” kind of thoughts.
Snow is magic! Big, white fluffy flakes! Snuggling under the blankets with the beloved!
Way better than those days in the summer when you can’t get to sleep because it’s so freakishly hot! :blech smilie:
“Wow, I just felt the inside walls of my nostrils freeze together.” My compadre Emma, while walking me to the bus stop.
That sounds about right. nods
Oh, Otto, I love ya’. How did you know that’s exactally how I feel about it?
And across the land, from sea to sea to sea, with the arrival of winter comes a faint hum, then a murmur, then a roar: SAU-NA! SAU-NA! SAU-NA!