I’m from Canada, Southern Ontario specifically. The weather there (at either extreme) can be over 100 in the summer and 30 below zero in the winter. Now I live in the Florida panhandle, and I am puzzled by the perception of temperature by the natives.
The people here seem to think that temperatures any lower than 65 are reason enough to wear parkas and gloves. I’ll be going to work wearing a T-shirt, and people will be getting on the bus wearing hooded parkas! The temperature would have to go down another 25 degrees before you could see your breath!
This perception seems especially prevalent among African-Americans. I rode my bike to the bus stop this morning. It was 57 degrees. I had on a jacket. When I got on the bus, the heat was on maximum, it must have been 90 inside, and the A/A driver and her other A/A bus company companion were wearing winter coats. Within 10 minutes, my shirt and hair were soaking wet from perspiration, and I had to plead with her to turn the heat off. She thought I was crazy! We picked up more people who were wearing scarves and sweaters under their hooded, furry parkas, and big, bulky gloves.
This seems pretty straightforward; maybe I’m missing your point. The Floridians are used to a warm climate, so temperatures of 65 seem cold. You are used to a wider range of temperatures, so have a different perception. That will change as you acclimatise to living in Florida.
Second, it’s what the Rich Guy said, it’s all perceptions or more accurately what you’re used to. Eventually you’ll get acclimated and may have a really tough time if you have to go back to Ontario in the dead of winter. It took me a couple of years to acclimate, and now I just really have a tough time swimming in water that is any less than tepid, even though I’ve lived in fairly cool climates the past 15 years. I am tougher than my folks when I go home to visit, but I’m a total wuss by Ohio standards, and would probably get eaten like a popsicle by the fierce polar bears of Southern Ontario.
I lived in the NWT for a long time, after growing up in Alberta. Now I live in Maryland, right on the Bay. The weather here is much more humid than I am used to, and it doesn’t get nearly as cold as I am used to - but it sure feels cold. The humidity makes a big difference to me.
At home I was used to -30 and -40 weather, and here it rarely even gets down to the low 20s (F). However, the humidity makes it feel so very much colder, that sometimes I’ll catch a chill and it’ll stay for days.
I’m still not wearing shoes other than flip-flops, or a parka, and I’m constantly amazed when I see people wearing -30 rated parkas and boots, touques and gloves around here. There is no snow. We’ll have a wet and rainy Christmas this year.
I’m a California native. I remember when I was a kid that it was often too hot. When I was 15 I moved to Lancaster, in the extreme western edge of the Mojave Desert. It was hot there, too. (“But it’s a dry heat!”) We had a “swamp cooler” that kept the house cool enough except for a couple of weeks every August (“monsoon season”). Winters, the low temperatures would be in the low-teens Fahrenheit. I loved Winter! Nice and cool.
I moved to L.A. I found the summers intolerably hot. I had no air conditioning. Even though the swamp cooler in Lancaster only brought the house temperatures into the mid-70°Fs, it was enough. I hated being in L.A. in a 90°F apartment. In the Winter the temperatures would be in the 50°Fs to 60°Fs. My co-workers were freezing. I found it to be quite comfortable.
Now I’m up in Birch Bay, Washington, having moved here in November. Daytime temperatures are 42°F to 50°F. And it rains every other day. It’s a little cool for kayaking, and a little wet for motorcycling. (My roommate, from whom I bought the house, has been up here for six years and has acclimatized. He kayaks nearly every day.) So for me, having just come up from So. Cal., it’s just a little on the cool side. Still, I’ve always preferred cooler temperatures, so it’s not so bad. And I’ll never toast in the summer heat!
This is a much better climate. Not too cold, not too hot. Lots of nice rain. Sunny, warm summer days. (But not too warm.)
Yes, please come back to Toronto. It’s blustery but mild today, and it’s meant to snow tonight !
I was once at a beach house in Brazil with a Brazilian and an English guy. It was about 4 am, the breeze was coming in off the ocean and the Brazilian was so cold, he was wearing all the clothes he’d brought, plus a blanket, and he still froze. Me and the English guy were happy in our shorts.
And now in Toronto my husband is African. He hates it. I am of the “sleep with the window open, year-round” type because if I get too hot I’m miserable.
He, on the other hand, puts every blanket he can find on the bed until it’s almost literally a sauna under there - hot, moist, gross. He wears three outfits (socks, pants, tops) at all times, putting on a coat or two to go outside. It makes me itchy just thinking about it !
The arguments are endless. “It’s too hot in here. Turn the heat down.” “Are you NUTS?” … and so on …
I think it’s purely a matter of acclimatization. When I first got to Brazil it was much too hot but after a few months, it had only gotten hotter, but I was much more comfortable. Similarly, I think my husband is less miserable than last winter (but probably some of the misery last year was due to the “oh my god it’s so fucking cold, why didn’t you tell me it would be so fucking cold” shock to the system. This year he knows what to expect. And last year was a truly brutal winter.)
Although … my friend who was born in Trinidad but has lived here ever since hates the cold too … so maybe it is partly genetic? … hmm …
Personally, I’ve never been one for the heat. When I grew up in Michigan, I was miserable if it got over 80. After I lived in Tx for 5 years, I was miserable when it got above . . . . 80 (I was miserable a LOT). This is what’s persuaded me to become nocturnal, hehe. Once it hit the 100’s in Tx, I felt like I was going to DIE.
But I don’t start to really shiver until it hits around, oh, 20. Then the negatives start to be kinda miserable.
But The Cody doesn’t handle cold as well. He’s much more of a warmer-type person (grew up in Tx). I sleep with the window open or AC on all year long. He bitches constantly. He doesn’t get comfy until at least 70. 80 is “nice.” BS! But he’s actually starting to asjust to the cold up here (this’ll be his 2nd winter), which I NEVER did to the heat.
So, what is this? I dunno. Genetic or “I’m used to it.”
A possibly interesting anecdote about the perception of cold:
I was born in Wisconsin, but moved to Texas when I was very young.
I always loved the cold. I was the one outside in the snow in shorts. I was the one running up the family’s heating bill by keeping my windows open in the winter. Around 60 F was ‘comfortable’ for me.
In 95 I had surgery on my leg, implanting and then a few years later removing a couple metal rods and screws.
THAT, I think, killed my love of cold weather. Now I can feel the cold biting thru my skin at 60, and want a jacket.
Does this mean anything? I dunno. I suspect the very slight change in the insulating property of my leg caused the change, but who knows for sure.
I think a lot of it is genetic. I love cold - I can’t function in heat. When I’m outside in winter, I rarely get cold. My sister, who has lived the same places as me for the same times, can’t stand the cold and loves heat. Other Calgarians I know are the same way as me, others like my sister.
(It still makes me giggle when I see people from hot countries who have recently moved to Calgary - we’re all out in t-shirts, and they have parkas and gloves on and a scarf wrapped around their faces. Maybe it’s mean, but too bad.)
Wisconsinite here. This phenomenon works within climate zones too, I’ve noticed.
Like the first warm (50 ish) day of the Spring, people around here are out in shorts and t-shirts like it’s the middle of July. OTOH, a 50 degree day in July brings out the sweaters and sweatshirts and even a few coats. All depends on what you’re used to, I suppose. I’ve lived North all my life and don’t think I could ever adjust to the heat and especially the humidity of Florida. YMM of course V.
