Share stories of people who can’t deal with temperature (or other weather) “extremes.”
My family spent a lot of time in Iowa, then moved to upstate New York. We know cold. We know snow. We’re hearty.
Then they all moved to northern Florida. In late December I was visiting them. One day we decided to go to the zoo. We were indoors for some of it, but outdoors for most of it. When we finally got back to the car, everyone was complaining about how freezing they were. My mother said she couldn’t feel her toes. Luckily, my brother in law packed us a survival kit and put it in the trunk. Included was a thermos of hot coffee. What a saint! Without that, surely we would have frozen to death! OMG, everyone get in the car before we get hypothermia! We got in the car and dad turned the key. The outside temperature come up on the dashboard. It was 56.
A few years ago, we were all in Key West in December. My then GF and I took a stroll around the island and ended up at a beach. There was a little booth where a guy was charging admission. There was a white board on the booth that said “Water temperature: 73.” We looked at each other and said “73?!?” The guy said “Yeah, so you can’t swim today.”
Yeah, well, I’ve seen plenty of those smugly coldproof Yankees whine like weenies when they’re in the deep south in summer, so what goes around comes around.
I’m the biggest weather wimp I know. I grew up mostly in Germany, but I have thin, southern blood, so anything below…oh about 70 degrees… feels too cold to me. I will not swim in water temperatures below 80, but prefer them warmer.
Right now (in Kansas) it is in the 30’s outside, my thermostat is set at 65 (not my choice) I am in footie pajamas underneath a thick, snuggly blanket with a space heater about a foot away from me, and still lamenting the cold.
The flip side of that is that I adore the heat…when most people are complaining that it’s too hot or that the air conditioning is not strong enough, I am in my element. If I lived alone I wouldn’t even turn on the air conditioning until the temperatures were well over 90. And one year my husband complained about me playing outside too much (he thought it was too hot) and I told him he was silly, and that I was perfectly comfortable. He pointed out the thermometer which read 102 F.
I’ve been in New Mexico in 97 degree weather. Very comfortable. I’ve been in Boston in 97 degree weather. Very uncomfortable. I’ve been in Florida in 97 degree weather. Holy god, how do you people manage to not die?
I’ll freely admit that I’m a heat wimp. Swimming in water over 80ºF (27ºC)? Ewwwww - how do you cool off in hot water? I like to swim in mountain lakes - I’ll have you know they’re well above freezing - a good handful of degrees above.
In Georgia, for a few weeks each summer, the nighttime temperature never drops below the 80s. Couple that with high 80% R.H., and it is very unpleasant.
I swear that if it were not for A/C, I would have moved north long ago.
I can handle cold. After all, you can always wear warmer clothing.
There is a limit to how naked you can be.
Another heat wimp here. I absolutely hate summer - I wish spring would just move straight into fall. And I live in Portland - where, on average, the temperature gets above 90ºF ten days per year. I dread the coming of those days. Yuck.
I’m averse to gyms year round. If anyone is awake and around to notice, they would probably find me a bit odd, jogging around at 6 am in 20 degree weather. I don’t understand why people exercise inside in the first place. There’s something inspiring about feeling myself becoming my own furnace. All those people running on treadmills don’t know what they are missing.
I hate heat and humidity. Hate them. Loathe them. Despise them.
But I always thought they were inevitable until I moved to the Idaho mountains. AC? Don’t have it. Don’t need it. Temps drop into the 40s at night in July. People bitch about the heat if it gets much above 80. Humidity? Whazzat? This is high desert here. Very low humidity. Ahhhhhhhhh. And we have real winter! Cold doesn’t bother me at all until it gets below about 20.
There are many things I will happily join you in laughing at Idaho about, but not these mountains. Damn but I love it here.
I used to live in Montreal, so goodness knows I was used to cold weather. But then we moved to Los Angeles and after living there for seven years I lost my capability to handle the cold.
Those are actually my favorite nights of the year. That its dark and still warm out just says summer like nothing else. Combine it with some frogs or crickets or such…priceless.
