Quote:
Originally Posted by middeljohn
Well people will try to tell you it's because Ontario has a "humid cold", which is absolutely not true because it's physically impossible. When the temperature dips below freezing its capacity to hold water is super low, so even if the relative humidity is 70% there could be less water in the air than a summer day with 30% humidity.
I wanted to make sure people understand I'm not voodoo science here for my reasoning before I give the actual reason.
It's because of the wind. Edmonton has barely any wind, growing up by the shores of Lake Ontario I'm used to lots of wind every day. Edmonton might get a half hour stretch where the wind goes up to 35 km/hr for maybe 20 min, but then it dies down again. In the GTA, especially areas close to the water, 35 km/hr is pretty typical for huge portions. I've often driven across the Burlington Skyway and it felt like my car was gonna blow into the lake.
So -15C at 10km/hr wind is easy-breezy. Barely even feel it. -15C with 35km/hr wind? It goes through your gloves. Even -5C can feel frighteningly cold at times because it's fairly common for wind speeds to reach over 50 km/hr by the lake. Two days ago it got up to 70km/hr apparently.
So yes, it feels different.
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That'd explain why people from the prairies (i.e. Ayreonaut) find it so cold here despite the much milder winter temperatures.
I also think dress plays a role. They'll go downtown with us dressed like us - a pea coat with no hat and no gloves. They probably don't dress like that during winter at home.
I didn't notice a huge difference as the result of the wind. I was generally freezing all winter long on the prairies. The feeling of everything being cold and hard was completely foreign - crunchy snow, plugging vehicles in, creaking/clunking in the car, plastic cars shattering in fender-benders, exhaust fog, etc. It was all new.
Now I've been cold here before - all the time during the winter. Fingers numb, cheeks red, a chill up my back that just won't go away.
There are places that are exposed to the wind - Signal Hill, Cape Spear, etc. - where I can only last a few moments out of the car before having to surrender and jumping back in.
But it's still not as cold. I could never wear the jacket I had in Winnipeg here. It'd be a sauna. Especially downtown. It's still doable all day with just a t-shirt/sweater/light jacket. Things are still wet and soft and quiet and... to me, have their normal strength/texture.
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