Minus 16C with a wind chill of -21C is acceptable if dressed appropriately. (The key is having wind breaking articles of clothing.) Minus 21C with no wind is quite lovely...sure you have to cover up your cheeks every once in a while, but when the sun is shining and you're out and about, you can still enjoy being outside. Minus 21C with a wind chill of -34 is much less acceptable. Your eyes water, your skin feels immediately cold and the wind cuts through any quasi-respectable west coast winter clothing. (I did NOT wear my snow pants today...) The car is reluctant to start (really...can you blame it?) and the GM just refuses to turn over and fire up. (What will we do if it snows???)
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| Long and (not) Winding Road |
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| -21 Degree Fashion...brrrrr. |
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| No Worries About the Cold for these Fat Fellows! |
We've been assured by some local folks that January is usually the worst of it and even the Island people are grumbling about the cold - saying that it's not all that usual. (Thank heavens!) That being said, the sun is shining and the weather network is predicting an increase in the temperature (all the way up to -16C)! They're even calling for plus 4 and rain on Thursday - I withhold any judgement as in a few days they'll likely change the forecast. (I'll take the minus 16 and sunshine any day.)
Well at least half of the house was warm...the other half dropped down to 10C due to the strong winds and our lack of foresight in keeping the heat going through the night. (Newbie mistake, not to be repeated.)
A few days later...
We're all warm again and the house is temperate, despite another Nor'easter coming through tomorrow bringing a dump of snow (25cm or so). Can you say "snow day"? Not to worry, though, the GM is working on all cylinders and ready to plow. I wouldn't mind sitting at home, reading a good book and drinking a nice cup of tea. We'll let you know how we make out.
I was in -31 in Peace River a few years back, the
ReplyDeletebrakes were frozen on the car and the power steering wouldnt turn,luckily there was no wind.
It's too bad your first winter was such a bad one, it's been like that over most of the Northern hemisphere.
It hasn't actually been that bad at all. The only thing that scared us a little was the way the house wouldn't heat up, but we figured out what we did wrong (turning the heat down in the night!) The snow is quite different here - relatively easy to drive on and get around, not like in BC. It's also very pretty, especially when we have sunshine, which is frequently!
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