so, how's your winter (for those in northern hemisphere) turning out? 'twas quite warm up till a few days ago when we here in Latvia were hit by -30 degrees C. Not so bad as it sounds, but it's harder to keep warm in house rather than outside, or you have to sit in full winter gear in your room. Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! And if you are caught in eastern wind, then it's a trip to frozen hell, because that's from where the cold air comes (Siberia). Well, I have to sit, curse my allergy to wool! Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! But anyway, an interesting experience, haven't had such colds in 50 years, getting used to it too. One huge problem - it's damn hard to get firewood in a modern city!!
It started off quite cold. I remember cycling to work and not being able to feel my fingers...then the pain kicked in. Ever tried to cycle five miles when your fingers felt like they were on fire? It ain't pretty. I think the coldest it was for me was when I went to Devon for a week to see a friend. Typical uni accomadation, no heating. Was -10c, I had to by a thermal sleeping bag just to keep warm. But lately, it's not been so bad. It's been quite warm the last 3 days. I woke up this morning in a sweat even though my window was wide open (I make a habit of sleeping with my window open throughout the year). Typical of the british though, I saw shorts and t-shirts being worn by a few. But I can hardly talk, I wore 3/4 lengths when we got hit by all that snow. All 2mm of it Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! But it ain't as bad here as it is with you. I prefer the cold, I find I train better in it.
In the greatest cold you don't even feel the frostbite, it's only when you find out you can not move your limbs and that they have turned white or blue when it gets ugly. The important thing is not to brush it with hands, alcohol or anything at all, avoid all physical friction, but put wrap it in dry clothing or sink in hot water, or both after another. A lot of people have had to part with their limbs or part of them because of severe frostbite. Lives too. Last I heard two dozen dead in Moscow already, and those are only the known ones.
I've gotten used to wrap my head in a scarf so only the eyes remain unshielded. The funny thing is that breath condenses on the scarf and it turns white, also condensation takes place on the hair sticking out or eyebrows, little droplets of condensed breath, then they freeze into tiny icicles.
Not in such cold! We've canceled our martial arts trainings and the army has quit field exercises too. It's actually harmful to health, especially when after the training you warm off. Besides the air is humid and it's hard to breathe when you need much air. I usually have zero problems running to my Uni in a one go, but yesterday I got only half way because it had become impossible to breathe, intake as much oxygen as required by the body,
I'll never forget the run I had in -25C. Sure.. it was only 7km or so, but halfway my balls began to freeze. And my wee wee shrunk to 6yr old status. This winter has been quite warm. Maybe to compensate for a crappy summer.
Fairly mild, but we did have some snow here in Wales, which believe it or not only happens every 3rd year or so
Warm. Very warm, like around high 40s-high 50s. I mean, we had snow a month ago...but, not really now.
wet, rainy, and dreary, i never thought central illinois would look so much like europe in the winter... ahh the memories...
The winter here where I work in Washington D.C. has been typical, which is to say both horrible and unpredictable. It snows every year, just not often enough for municipalities to budget adequate resources to cope with it. Main roads are usually plowed within a few hours, but side roads can be blocked for a day or even longer. Snow packs turn to slush and then re-freeze, becoming treacherous to walk on, much less drive. Sidewalks are accidents waiting to happen, so we all walk on the snow-covered grass or else out in the street dodging traffic. The temperature can drop from 60 degrees (16C) at noon to 20 (-7C) 36 hours later. This place is normally quite breezy, but uncomfortably cold temperatures are almost always accompanied by equally uncomfortable very strong winds that make it feel much colder than it is. Yesterday the winds were so strong that power lines were knocked down and we were without electricity for six hours. My community has no gas service so we are at the mercy of electric heating. Back home in the redwood forest in northwestern California our winters are normally much less severe. Typically the days reach 50 degrees (10C) and the nights seldom drop below freezing. Winter is normally the rainy season and the sun may not appear for weeks at a time so it can be quite depressing, but since we are only 10 miles (16km) from the seashore we never get snow. However my wife says we are having an unusually mild winter this year, with sunny days and much less rain than normal. This could bode poorly for our water supply next spring. Recently it has begun raining so the water table may yet achieve its normal level. Fortunately no 300-foot (100-meter) redwood trees have yet been knocked down by storms this season. When that happens it can knock down six or seven utility poles and it can take a while simply to cut up and remove the dead tree which might be 15 feet (5m) in diameter. We have had power outages for as long as 60 hours; everyone in our area has a gasoline-powered generator for such occasions. We were in New York City a few weeks ago and even though it is only a couple of hundred miles (300km) north of Washington, the weather is far colder. There was a bus and subway strike so we had to get around on foot, and we didn't come with the proper cold-weather underwear for extended exposure to the frigid daytime temperatures. New York was nice enough but it didn't seem to offer anything that's not just as readily available in San Francisco, yet SF is more comfortable in summer and winter, and far more beautiful.
` Here in the Western extreme of the Soviet Socialist Republik of New York, it has been comparatively mild. Fall was unusually cold, but since the first day of Winter, a pattern has developed of a couple or 3 pleasant - if usually rainy - 40-50°F days, followed by a sudden temperature drop, high winds and driving rain/snow for a day or 2. Just this past week, a storm blew through which brought rain, then snow as the temp dropped 20 degrees and winds increased to 50 mph. 2 days ago, the high temp was 25°F, today 54° Forecast tomorrow is for another rain-snow spritz. Sunday's is for mostly sunny & high temp of 45°. Kinda crazy, but the Spring-like days in January are spiffy.
