Last December my ex and I were in Key West. We went to the beach, and there was a little booth at the entrance to pay to get in. A whiteboard on it said the water temperature was 75 degrees. We just looked at each other, totally psyched, and said “Seventy-five degrees!”
The booth attendant said “Yeah, so you can’t swim in it.”
I wish the damn heating would come on. The weather this fall has been insane.
Living in Chicago has definitely changed my perspective on what counts as cold. I remember my friend from DC visiting in Feb. and complaining about how cold it was (high 30s, I think). “This is actually a warm spell,” everyone informed her.
It’s 48 (up from 44 this morning) here and I’m wearing shorts. I’ll put on a hoodie if I’ll be outside awhile.
Methinks the body gets reprogrammed. My brother grew up in suburban Philly, but has spent most of his life in NM. During a late summer visit a few years ago, we were going out to dinner, and he had on long pants, a shirt, and a jacket, and I’m in a tee shirt and shorts. He thinks I’m gonna freeze, and I think he’s gonna sweat his ass off.
It does, and I’ve heard that it has to do with the thickness of your blood. When you’ve been in cold weather for a while, your blood gets thicker and and you feel warmer.
It would be interesting to see if there is a lower incidence of heart disease near the equator.
A few years back I was in northern Florida at Christmas. I was in shorts and a T, my niece was wearing a sweater and wool cap. Indoors.
ELAINE: Mrs Seinfeld, please. I am begging you. Put the air conditioner on.
HELEN: You’re hot?
ELAINE: I’ve lost 6 pounds.
HELEN: I don’t even know how to work it.
Being a heavy person myself, I’ll say that I’ve always been uncomfortable in the heat (anything over 70) from infancy through all ranges of weight. I’m bracing myself for the inevitable “Where’s your coat?!?”, even from these northerners. I’m vaguely considering switching from sandals to clogs since it’s going to be in the 40s tomorrow, but a coat’s another story.
Minus 20! Luxury!
You guys are going to put a moratorium on western Canadians participating in these kinds of threads some day, I fear. 
Our house never gets up to 70, if we can help it. It’s too damned hot. I’ve gone swimming in mountain lakes that were about, maybe 55F? It was absolutely lovely. I sometimes see people wearing parkas and scarves around here when it’s 50-60F - that’s still pretty darned pleasant. Mostly they’re immigrants; I do feel kind of sorry for them, because they’re acting like the cold is killing them, and we are nowhere near as cold as it’s going to get.
My parka doesn’t come out until well below 30F; probably around 15F or so. It’s like I register that it’s cold, I get it, but it just doesn’t bother me. There’s no temperature around here that’s too cold for me to go out walking in it (even -40, our lower limit, is bearable for me).
Papa Tiger, having grown in up in far northwest Minnesota, has a thermostat that permanently stuck, I swear. His coldest weather winter jacket in D.C.? A light windbreaker. OTOH, he doesn’t care about turning on the air till it’s 85°F or so in the house because after Minnesota he spent 20+ years in the tropics.
It truly is relative, though. I lived through some cold winters in Illinois and Ohio growing up, but in recent years, especially after time in places like Georgia, New Orleans, or SoCal, I find that I feel much colder even though the temp is warmer than I used to consider comfortable. I don’t think it’s just the thickness of the blood; I think a lot has to do with the thickness of the insulation on buildings, too. People build differently in a climate they expect to be cold.
That being said, I’m on the Chesapeake Bay and today I’m wearing a long-sleeved shirt, but only because it’s chillier in my house than outdoors.
Yes! Even in the deepest winter, I “treat myself” to 68 on the thermostat and that starts feeling too warm by the end of the evening. (Of course, the throw I’m wrapped in helps!) I swam in the Pacific when it was in the 50s and it was so invigorating.
Bah! You’re in Calgary! It’s downright tropical in the winter, isn’t it? With the chinooks and all? 
I was right all those years, I really do a lot better in cooler temps. Our temperature range right now is between the high 20s F at night, and the high 50s F as a high, and I don’t even think about grabbing a jacket unless it’s below about 45. And it’s going to get a lot colder, but I seem to be acclimating beautifully.
I have been wearing a t-shirt and a sweatshirt if I’m going outside, though on a couple of mornings when it was still below freezing when I left for work I wore a jacket. Sunday afternoon there will be a parade in town, and I fully expect to wear just the sweatshirt, not a jacket, because it’ll be in the 50s, unless it’s really windy in which case the jacket will come in handy. I am absolutely loving this weather.
I may not enjoy January (don’t know what I’ll make of it yet!), but October is glorious! I still see people in shorts everywhere here. Of course, they are those weird athletic sorts of people, but I won’t go that far. Besides, I’d have to shave if I did.
It was probably in the low-60s today, and I was wearing an Irvin jacket. But I was motoring at 80 - 90 mph with the top off, and near sundown at the end.
It really is - my first winter here, I don’t think I put my parka on all winter (I had just moved here from northern Manitoba, land of square tires and dead cars).
When I moved here I was thrilled to find that it doesn’t get cold in Maryland.
After a full year here, and the second ‘winter’ came, I realized that it feels like gets cold when you’re used to to unbelievable heat and humidity we get for 8 months of the year. This is from someone who lived in the freakin’ Arctic.
I think I like it here for three or four weeks of the year, Spring and Autumn.
I’m currently amused by Tucson - the overnight temps have started dipping into the 50s, and people are breaking out the sweatshirts, though daytime temps last weekend were still in the 80s.
But next year, I’m sure I’ll be one of them.
Western Washington seems to have the flip side of this. I often see people wearing shorts in the low 60s, even when it’s cloudy. I can kind of understand when joggers do this (even though they should cover up when it rains), but what does the guy working at the grocery store need to cool down from?
Funny you should ask!
I’m one of those folks who gets cold early on in the year (it’s just hitting the 20s). I don’t know about other Chilly Willies but for me, I get to a certain thickness of clothing and then I’m pretty much good even as the temp starts falling more. I might add better boots, or boots instead of tennies, but I pretty much stay at that layering level all winter.
Usually it goes like this, 40s down to twenties (maybe teens with little or no wind)…tshirt, sweatshirt and lined denim jacket with hood, tennies (unless working in the field and then it’s ST boots and wool socks). If the wind picks up I’ll put on a hat under the hoody, and today I added a thermal shirt under my tshirt.
When it starts dipping down into the low teens and single digits I’ll add a scarf, maybe another sweater or sweatshirt, and for wind maybe a face mask. Below zero I’ll put on sweat pants over my jeans, but only for at the bus stop. And if I have to work outside in single digits or below zero, I’ll add raingear so the snow doesn’t melt through my clothes.
I keep telling myself I’m going to buy a real winter coat one of these days.
I live in Boston and I’m wearing my Red Sox hoodie today.
Yes, I need to do laundry because this means I have no more clean t-shirts.
I finally bought a proper parka my last winter in Yellowknife. I gave it away when I moved South.