As I write these words on Wednesday night, it's -10° F outside - the warming trend has begun!
"It's not the heat, it's the humidity" are words commonly heard in summer to describe the source of our warm-weather woes. In a cold snap like the one we're having now, the refrain becomes, "It's not the cold, it's the wind chill." Outdoor temps of twenty below can be bearable for a limited time (with the proper clothing); but throw in winds of 10 to 30 miles per hour and the cold becomes not only unbearable but dangerous. Frostbite can occur in just minutes.
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| Chart courtesy of National Weather Service |
Of course we have ways to protect ourselves from the cold: central heating, stoves, space heaters, warm clothing. We travel in heated cars and most of us are lucky enough to work indoors where weather is not an issue. Yet despite all these advances and comforts, we still go into panic mode when deep cold strikes. School is cancelled, government offices shut down, and the media (with our willing cooperation) whip us into a frenzy of worry and fuss.
Which makes me wonder: how did people manage in centuries past? My brother-in-law, who grew up here and attended a rural one-room school, said that when he was young, school was never cancelled because of the cold. (Only impassable snowdrifts could shut down his school.) He says the students enjoyed extremely cold days because then they were allowed to push their desks close to the stove - which made for an exciting change in routine.
What's happened to us? Have we become a nation of wimps? I'm not suggesting we do anything foolhardy when the deep cold strikes - it's right and proper that we should keep our children and teachers warm and safe at home. I do wonder, though, if somewhere along the line between the stoicism of the past and the panic-prone apprehensiveness of the present we may have taken a wrong turn somewhere.
What do you think? Do we over-react to weather and weather reports?
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I am as guilty as anyone of blowing the weather out of proportion. (Weather pun!) Nearly all my recent comments on other blogs have included the words "twenty below" - often in caps. Why DO we get such a sense of pleasurable self-importance from our own extreme weather?
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I don't envy you!. We are in summer now and even in winter we seldom get a frost. Hang in there!
ReplyDeleteI am sitting here smiling at you through the computer screen, Sue. I grew up on poultry farms and the weather was always an important topic in our household and our farming communities. The weather is a "safe" topic of interest I often rely on to keep conversations going, but sometimes it does seem to me that we humans end up being a bit wimpy, or prideful, preparing for or responding to it :)
ReplyDeleteThe chart is really interesting, I had no idea you could get frostbit within minutes - scary! I know what you mean about wondering how people used to cope in the past. But somehow they managed just fine. Hoping you stay warm and safe through it all.
ReplyDeleteI find weather fascinating - and more so since marrying a geographer. I imagine that weather has always been a source of interest and small talk - maybe we're just a bit less tough these days though because we have more options. Juliex
ReplyDeleteI think the more "comforts" we have the wimpier we get. It sure does seem that the weather reports on the news last longer and longer and are coupled with warnings that would seem obvious. ie: huge snow storm...stay off the road if you can. Severe cold, dress warmly and have emergency supplies in the car. Of course McDonalds has toput warnings up that they serve hot coffee hot...so I guess one can not assume that the obvious is obvious to everyone. ;) That being said, baby it is cold outside. :) Stay warm, stay safe.
ReplyDeleteYou are right about the weather seeming to dominate our lives, conversations, etc. Down here in southwest Louisiana, it is either too hot, too cold, too wet, too breezy, too too! The second subject is the electricity bill ups and downs. Duh! One can expect that with our temperature changes. This morning we are back up to the 40's (F) and expect to stay in the high 60's for a while. Most people I know would love these temps. Sun is shining here at Wetcreek today. I can see the dust on the furniture here in the Study. Time to get busy. Have a good day wherever you are. That was your weather report. Linda@Wetcreek Blog
ReplyDeleteVery interesting chart! My grandma (born 1902) told of her grandpa making a path in the snow with the tractor so the kids could walk to and from school with a sweet potato in her lunch bucket! That is how they managed - bundled up and carried on - sturdy stock! She lived into her 90's. Snow on top of snow here in Missouri. Plow driver, warm and snug in truck cab, in his shirt sleeves, clearing the roads. I love the snow/cold and hope to see many more snowfalls but thankful I don't have to work/be out when it is dangerously cold. Over-reaction may come from experiencing the immortal ones who terrorize the cautious ones while driving their cars! That makes me rethink going out. I'm not looking forward to humid summer 8-(
ReplyDeleteInteresting. I do think we are a lot wimpier than we used to be. When we have a power cut here in our sixteenth century house it is like being hurtled back in time - fascinating but hard!
ReplyDeleteA friend and I were talking about this very thing a couple days ago. Both of us have spent a number of years living in the far north of British Columbia, a place where the deep freeze that has hit a large chunk of North America would be the norm for most of the winter. Life went on as usual during those cold months. People expected the cold, and dressed and lived accordingly.
ReplyDeleteWhen I am visiting my mom in Spokane she listens to the local news every evening and the weather report always drives me crazy. Dramatic music plays and the segment is called Storm Tracker Weather. It can be the nicest, most perfect summer day, without a cloud in the sky and nothing but clear warm days in the forecast, and yet the ominous music plays and the weather reporter talks in dramatic tones. Drives. Me. Crazy.
I think we have become more soft, I remember walking to school in deep snow so deep it came down the top of my wellies, my knees were blue with the cold because our long socks reached to just below the knee, that was the way things were and you just got on with it. I have decided to toughen up a bit (and save on heating bills) and have turned my heating right down and by doing so have realised it's fine, I don't need it any warmer than this if I'm cold I wear my dressing gown and have a hot drink, mind you when people come into my house they say, it's freezing in here I just throw them a blanket. :)
ReplyDeleteI think we do. You should hear the hub-bub before a hurricane. Most of the time the worst DOESN'T happen and then people tend to tune out future forecasts. I really worry what will happen if the "big one" really does hit. The weather people have called wolf so many times that most people DON'T prepare properly.
ReplyDeleteI think our society has changed a lot. I know the folks of years past had it really hard in some of their day to day living, but they were able to make it through anything...now if our power goes out we all act as if the world has stopped spinning! (I am guilty of this). :) But the one thing that I admire about people in the USA is that no matter what is thrown at us, we will figure out a way to make it better. That's kind of cool when you think about it.
ReplyDeleteBlessings always
I think we do overreact to some degree. I know that my daughter's preschool has to follow standards set by its accrediting body which state that the children can't play outdoors if either the temperature or the windchill are below 30 degrees. That seems really conservative to me. It's almost always sunny here, so even when it's cold, you still have warm sun shining on you and it never feels that bad. I do remember the cold twenty years ago that they keep referencing with this current cold snap; I was in high school then and we missed a lot of school that winter. Some of it was for very serious snowfall, but some was for the cold. They were not able to start the school buses and most kids rode buses in that area because it was fairly rural. So I guess I can understand when that happens.
ReplyDeleteI think it was different when mom s didn't 'work oustide the home. Now if school is cancelled kids are unattended and it makes all the other businesses collapse . I had the luxury , sort of, Of Fireman and I working opposite shifts so It never affected us this way.
ReplyDeleteI know I'm a weather wimp, I blame it on my upbringing in California where we didn't deal with weather extremes. I use to love summer, now I prefer winter, but not too cold.
ReplyDeleteI don't know if we are a nation of wimps or a nation that need constant new story stress. I however do know that I am a weather wimp and would not like that cold, cold weather even though I grew up in Michigan, I have been in Florida much too long.
ReplyDeleteStay warm,
Meredith
All I know is, it was too cold for me to bike on Tuesday. I biked home from the gym Monday night into 20+ MPH gusts (why, oh why, does the wind *always* blow downhill in DC? Why can't it give me a hill assist every once in a while?) and decided that probably wasn't the smartest thing when I got blown into the next lane. I walked on Tuesday!
ReplyDeleteYep, we're wimpy. :-) We've got it so good.. my parents lived in an old chicken coop in Oklahoma with no insulation, my mom had to take care of baby twins there while my dad went to serve in the marines in WWII. It's amazing how pampered we are now. And the tv weathermen blow everything out of proportion and everyone cancels important plans.. then the predictions don't pan out.. it's annoying. ((hugs)), Teresa :-)
ReplyDeletePS - I just added your blog to my blog roll. ((hugs)), Teresa :-)
ReplyDeleteI honestly think the Great Storm here in 1987 is partly to blame. It was played down by the weathermen and in fact turned out to be a very big deal, a hurricane that caused tremendous damage and took a lot of lives. Weather forecasters here and elsewhere have been over compensating ever since. And as you say, most of us are not really affected by the weather in our day to day lives so when we occasionally are we enjoy, and are inclined to make too much of, the drama of it.
ReplyDeleteWe keep our house quite cool by most people's standards ... but we still never get a chilblain or ice on the inside of the windows ... both were a perfectly normal part of my childhood!
Great post Sue :)
Hi Sue...Yep, I do think we've become a bit wimpy about the weather, although I do think the weathermen are a little more careful with their forecasting these days after alarming us about a couple of big storms that never came to be ... and then one that was bigger than they all imagined! I love the winter and all it brings...as long as my power stays on! xo
ReplyDeleteAs someone who sports a lot of goat hair, I say humans need to grow more hair. Hay! It works for me. :)
ReplyDeleteHi Sue, I grew up in Scotland and don't recall school being closed due to cold weather - I do remember trudging through the high levels of snow, and the ice in the little bottles of milk we were given at break time - the bottles were put on the radiators to thaw them out - and I am tempted to think that perhaps we have gone a bit soft over the years although I realise that safety measures need to be in place to protect the vulnerable. Here in South West of Western Australia we are having some really hot days and Perth is suffering through 43/44° celsius today - were it a school day I believe children would be sent home when temps reach 40.
ReplyDeleteI wasn't aware that one could get frost bite so quickly - that's frightening! This has been a very interesting post, thank you, and I hope the temps over there stay comfortable for you - I'm sending you a warm hug! Joy xo
Oh that is chilly. I likely under-react to weather and weather reports. It always seems sensationalized compared to what's really going on in Utah. We do get a lot of snow but it's dry here and not so windy. Often our skiing weather is about 20 degrees at the base of the mountain and that is doable with the right clothing, but when it gets below that I would rather be home in front of the fireplace. :-)
ReplyDeleteStay warm my dear friend.
That is cold! Me and my youngest are currently reading The Long Winter one of the Little house series, and they live in the Dakotas and get snowed in for 3 days, with no coal, no kerosene for the lamps and only potatoes and bread to eat! I am sure you have read it. But we do wonder how did they do it?! We panic if we have an electricity cut, or the water is off for a few hours. And then there is the cold... and it isn't even as cold as what you are having, or what they would of experienced! I do find it amazing how people have lived and survived. They shut everything down over here when it snows, so mine are all waiting for it so school will close.
ReplyDeleteWe live further away from our schools and work places than we used to. So, we depend on cars. We also have a more complicated (guileful) legal system. Children cannot be left to stand at bus stops in the cold and no one wants the responsibility of a bus breaking down somewhere in the cold. Many people also don't own the right kind of winter clothing for going outdoors for very long. Think how many people drive into their attached garage. We really have become more wimpy I guess.
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