Quote:
Originally Posted by someone123
A few days ago I saw one of those weather record tables and it pointed out that this past cold snap when the high was -13 or so was one of the top 10 coldest days going back to 1871. They had 3-4 entries from around 2003-2005 as well. I realized that I had an exaggerated sense of how frequent days like that really are. That cold snap period from the 2000's (and White Juan) sticks out to me, but it wasn't very common looking back through the 1870-2000 period.
I really don't think most people even in Halifax would guess that a day that only got up to -13 or so could end up in the top 10.
I have never said that the winter in NS and around here feel the same and don't think this. Mostly I make observations and it's other people who make arguments about which place is a hellhole, etc. I thought it was funny to go back and forth between the weather thread where people say -20 is unlivable hellhole territory while in the housing thread people tell you to move to Fort St. John. These arguments take on a life of their own in the different corners of the internet. This summer we will have the "heatwave Olympics" in here again while most real humans I know will complain about the heat.  |
I have never put much weight on outlier days, or even outlier years (like this one), nor do I spend much time poring over weather data, TBH.
Peoples' reaction to weather is so subjective that it's really hard to gather any kind of accurate impression of what it's like to live somewhere anyhow, because one person's "hellhole" can be another person's "not bad". Then there's the whole local booster/ego-driven phenomenon that seems to happen here. You can try to offer your impression of factual information and there will surely be somebody who will take it as an insult. As if anybody honestly gives a — whether the weather that they have to go out in is 5 degrees warmer or colder than somewhere else.
Regarding my comment about my impression that the weather is changing where I am, I can look back over decades and note that inane things like snowbanks at the side of the road don't seem to grow as high or last as long as they used to. Or that local lakes don't seem to freeze over and offer a couple of month's worth of skating like they used to. However even that is very subjective, and is at the mercy of how one remembers things (it's been proven in studies that humans have notoriously inaccurate memories).
Another factor for winter weather is where your local temperature usually resides. In Halifax, our winter highs have always hovered around the freezing point, so just a few degrees one way or the other can vastly affect the amount of snow and ice accumulation and therefore vastly affect our opinions of 'how bad' winter is. A winter with many days with highs in the 0 to -3 range can feel very different than one with 0 to +3 temperatures. When most of the precip falls as snow and it stays cold enough for the snow and ice to stick around, you are left with Ackajack's impression that once winter starts, you're going to be into it for a long time, so you might as well settle in. However, if most of your precip falls as rain, and whatever snow you have doesn't stick around for more than a few days, your impression can be very different, right down to the kind of footware you choose when you are going outside. They seem like relatively insignificant things, but can hugely affect how you feel when you are out there... just like the difference between a 5 km/h breeze and a wind in the 30-40 km/h range - the wind can make a difference between feeling like it's a pleasant day and a 'hell hole' day...
Weather in pure data, observations, and analysis can be very complicated, but probably 10X worse when you throw in the human condition. I recall a somewhat detailed discussion of wind chill on this thread a while back which illustrated that there even isn't much of an understanding out there of actual temperatures vs how weather factors (i.e. temperature, wind, humidity, etc.) can alter how a human interprets it. Then throw in the emotional factors, like whether somebody likes cold weather, or precipitation, or even a person's pride in where they live, and you're all over the place...
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