Weather WTF

[Barrister]

Yeah - you have no idea how frigging WARM something like -10c can feel like after a lengthy stretch of -30 to -40c.  Like you feel like you can go out in your shorts.

Coldest I ever remember was -50c up in Peace River like 20+ years ago.  It was a Sunday.  I had to drive up to High Level for work the next day (which is getting pretty close to the NWT border).  I start my car, but one of the tires is flat - the cold caused it to lose it's seal.  I tried to change the tire - but I could only got out for 2-3 minutes at a time.  I dug out the instruction manual - but the plastic cover just shattered in my hands.

Eventually I got the tire changed and started on my way, butt thought to myself - "you know if my car breaks down again I'm a dead man..."  Thankfully I arrived safely.


On the other hand you can do the trick where you throw a cup of boiling water into the air and watch it immediately crystallize - so there's that.

I've never been that cold, but my senior year in college Lake Superior froze over (which happens about once every 15 years or so.)  Michigan's Keweenaw is surrounded by Lake Superior on 3 sides, so it usually doesn't get that cold, but it does get an enormous amount of snow.  When the lake freezes the snow fizzles out, but it turns bitter cold and, like on the great plains, there's nothing to stop the wind.  So I'm walking home one night when the wind chill is -80 F (-60 C) and I see the pledges of Michigan Technological University's sole black fraternity marching through campus holding light bulbs over their head and chanting "Unity."  Initially I thought I had gone insane, like in a Jack London story, but my roommate was there and remembered it too.  No one does hazing quite like historic black fraternities.

[HVC]

I could do with some minus temps right now. It's hot. I'm insulated for the cold.

That's another thing about the cold. You can always put on more clothes. But when it's hot there's only so much clothes you can take off before you're arrested.

[Syt]

Good thing about 30+ temperatures: we can wear shorts in the office. Wearing a green/black hawaii shirt and black slack shorts today.

[Sheilbh]

https://x.com/bbcweather/status/1799747901536563353

Even my planned holiday might not help. Admittedly no-one goes to Poland or Berlin for the sun....but still.

[Duque de Bragança]

https://x.com/bbcweather/status/1799747901536563353

Even my planned holiday might not help. Admittedly no-one goes to Poland or Berlin for the sun....but still.

Well, I am in Leipzig now, in Saxony.
Guess what, Anglo-Saxon weather.

[Tamas]

This is a good example of the UK, heat alert and words like "soar" are used beacuse of 30C :
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/article/2024/jun/22/heat-health-alert-england

And it will be unbearable.

[HVC]

Forgot to ask last time this was brought up, but is this 30C at the thermometer, or is at a measurement of "feels like 30" including humidity ?

[Tamas]

Forgot to ask last time this was brought up, but is this 30C at the thermometer, or is at a measurement of "feels like 30" including humidity ?

Thermometer

[Sheilbh]

This is a good example of the UK, heat alert and words like "soar" are used beacuse of 30C :
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/article/2024/jun/22/heat-health-alert-england

And it will be unbearable.

Also it's only been introduced in the last year.

We've always had weather warnings from the Met (and I'd say there's yellow about every other week). Sign of climate that we now need it for heating - primarily aimed at the elderly with health issues and especially on medication.

And worth flagging that despite this, in London, the Mayor's London plan is explicitly anti-AC and broadly it should only be an exception in residential developments (because of energy consumption and the impact on urban head island). Which can make some new build blocks really, really hot (especially s they're built with better insulation standards).