Winter

Discussion in 'Miscellaneous' started by 607, Feb 19, 2020.

?

Do you like snow and ice for a few weeks per year?

Yes, I like both. 7 vote(s) 36.8%
Only snow. 5 vote(s) 26.3%
Only ice. 0 vote(s) 0.0%
No, I prefer experiencing neither. 7 vote(s) 36.8%
  1. Hi, it's me again!

    I'm going to bed soon but I've been wanting to make this thread and I won't have time for it in the next three days.
    It's February 19th. The crocuses are springing. But we have not had any snow yet, nor have we had ice. It's only frozen maybe a handful of nights... and not a single day.
    This makes me sad. :( I can't enjoy the weather because I feel like it should be colder. And not because I'm worried about the amplified greenhouse effect (which I am), but because I enjoy the cold in winter to compensate for the heat in summer, and because I enjoy seeing the world in white for a few weeks a year, and because I enjoy having my sister teach me to skate again, because I keep unlearning it (duh, it's been 3 winters since I was last on ice... :().
    Is winter taking it slow in other countries too? And are you bothered by it?
  2. We have only had a few dustings here in northen Virginia. Not much ice/snow this year to write home about. I of course am fine with this. I used to love snow as a kid, but as I grew up a bit it just slows things down and gets in my way. I love the heat of the summer, so I'm down for a long fall to just go into spring. But that's just me.
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  3. I am originally from Buffalo, NY. I ended up in Alabama cause this place was my last assignment prior to getting out of the military. I chose to stay here rather than move back up north because I enjoy No snow or ice. Don't get me wrong, I think it is pretty and all and I do like to visit it from time to time but to live someplace that gets that much of it. I chose to stay right where I am at. Last week Friday I believe Buffalo got 10+ inches of snow. The pics on Facebook my family and friend post up north are good enough for me.

    Northern by chance, Southern by choice. :eek:
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  4. I live in FL, right now it is 80 degrees Fahrenheit. Most days are in the high sixties to low eighties. Some days however it gets a bit colder (I know this week there is a day where the morning is supposed to be around 30 degrees (which is like below zero for most people I know lol)).

    I remember back when I was in middle school (6-7 years ago), there was a day when it snowed a tiny bit for like 2 seconds (literally!) and school got cancelled. Each year since then I have noticed that winter has gotten less cold (occasional cold nights, but tbh back 5 years ago when I had to stand outside in the morning before school I would be freezing cold, but I can handle standing outside now with a light hoodie all winter).

    So, while winter hasn't gotten "slower" for me, I have definitely noticed a lack of cold days in recent years.
  5. See my most recent status:
    I live in an area where, at this time of year, schools would have had multiple snow days and temperatures under -12C/10F would not be unusual. However... today, the high temperature was 10C/50F, which was still a little bit better than yesterday, but still; this warm in the middle of February? Where normal temps would be -7C/20F?
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  6. Winter is taking it slow here, and as someone looking to go into environmental conservation, it deeply saddens me to see how this season has been declawed, made infirm and unpredictable. I grew up in a place where we regularly got snows in December; over the years, that became more sporadic, until we just grew to accept that we wouldn't have white Christmases anymore. It's a sad time.
  7. We had snow here the last two Tuesdays, but now it's back to the usual sun. However, it was the first time that there were delays here because of snow in 5 years. We had sunny weather in the 70s yesterday, which was pleasant, but way too soon :(
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  8. Wow, that's a lot of replies! :)

    White Christmases! I'm not sure if I've ever experienced that, actually, usually it's a bit later. It's nice if there's snow and ice before the holiday break ends, though, of course. ;)

    Something else about winter that I have in fact never experienced but would love to: the Eleven Cities Tour / Alvestêdetocht / Elfstedentocht (that's English, Frisian and Dutch, respectively). For those who don't know: the Alvestêdetocht is a big part of Frisian and even Dutch culture, being a long-distance skating event where participants skate past all eleven historical cities of Fryslân, a province in the Netherlands (and the province where, I reckon, over 50% of all skaters with Olympic gold worldwide come from ;)). Of course this can only be done if there is strong and reliable ice (min. 15 cm thick everywhere) throughout the entire province, especially considering that it is nowadays a huge event where thousands of people will be on the ice.
    The latest Alvestêdetocht was that of 1997. I wasn't born yet back then! It was the toughest tour since the legendary tour of 1963 (in which only 69 out of 9294 skaters were able to finish), but I missed it. In 2012, there was almost an Alvestêdetocht, and the whole country was excited (or so I assume :p). The ice wasn't thick enough, however, and although measures were taken to improve it (for example, prohibiting navigation of the canals), the temperature got above the freezing point again before the ice was thick enough.
    That time though, in 2012, the temperature was under freezing point for 10 days, in early February. Will I experience even that again? I personally wouldn't mind. :)

    It's interesting that many people here don't mind having no snow, and no ice. I guess it might be my Frisian blood that makes me so upset about it! ;)

    Edit: Ah, an anecdote that I forgot to share: I Googled for "Komt er ooit nog" ("Will there ever be another"), and Google predicted right: the second prediction was the Alvestêdetocht. :D The third was a white Christmas, and the fourth was snow. The first? A Harry Potter sequel. ;)
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  9. We used to get snow here al the time. School would get closed and my mum and dad would make hot chocolate and whatever. My dad would usually take us to the ski slope with my dog - my mum went once, my uncle and cousins went once too. It was always freezing cold - deep into the minuses. We’d walk home in two feet of snow as it started back up again, with fingers and toes that not even socks and shoes and gloves could save from numbness.

    I haven’t seen snow in real life since 2014. There was a very thin sheet that fell over us in 2019, but it melted in the early hours of the morning. We got plenty of ice - in fact I had to go to a job interview in work boots last year because it was so slippy. I went to the ski slope on the afternoon of Christmas Eve in December... bone dry. The nearby pond was warm enough for ducks to still be swimming in. It was also warm enough for me to just be dressed in a thin jumper and a body warmer, and to just stand there for ages instead of itching to get back indoors. Haven’t seen any ice either - probably won’t at this point, especially since we ended up getting two 20+ degree days in February last year, higher than our average summer temperature.

    Those days with my dad and his voice are just videos now. Snow is too, apparently. My dog too, sooner rather than later. The winter I grew up with is dead I think.

    When I have kids they’ll probably think of winter as just a slightly colder version of spring, where the trees have no leaves. They won’t know their school having to be closed because the snow is so bad nobody would be able to get to it or get back out. It’s cool though, they won’t care - I just imagine a lot of confusion about what the heck a white Christmas is.
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  10. Not knowing what they miss doesn't mean they don't miss it (although it does mean they can't consciously miss it). Seeing the world (or, in a kid's case, more likely the backyard) under a coat of snow for the first time is a magical moment of youth, to me.
    I don't think we'll stop getting snow in the next few decades, though.
    Edit: Wait. I just realised the last time you saw snow was in 2014.
    O_O
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  11. I wish it snowed more where I live. It snowed a few times this winter, but it all melted within 24 hours. It's not the same anymore. :(

    There was an ice storm in 2009 that affected a lot of the U.S., and although it was a disaster and there was no electricity in my neighborhood, it was fun to go outside and slide around everywhere. All the trees sagging down from all the ice looked pretty cool. School was closed for an entire week. Two years later, we got 24 inches of snow and school was closed for a week again. The last time it snowed a lot here was in 2014, when there was enough snow to close school for three days. There was this one day in 2016 where it snowed and it got on the roads, but school was already closed because of Martin Luther King Jr. Day.

    I remember some point in 2012 when I would put a cup of water outside and see how quickly it would freeze (it was also the last time the temperature got lower than 0F (-17C)), and then I went back inside and did whatever I did on EMC. :)

    I want it to snow a lot soon so I can go drifting in the school's parking lot. By the way, if you get caught drifting in an empty parking lot in the snow, just tell the police officer that you're testing out how well your car handles in the snow. :p
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  12. Thanks for your post! I highlighted this paragraph because it made me remember something that put a smile on my face that is still on it now: my father sometimes did a drift with our huge Volvo (740 station wagon) when it had snowed... it was great, although my mother pretended to hate it. :D
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  13. Here in the states in my area it's been mild. Sure it's been cold an we've seen some snow and ice but mild non the less.
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  14. Very rare to see snow around these parts, though it does happen once in awhile. When we do get snow ( If that's what you want to call it. :rolleyes:) everything pretty much shuts down. I do prefer warmer weather over the cold though.
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  15. Last time i had proper snow was 2010.

    I got 1 1/2 weeks off of school before it reopened cause it was that bad.
    Im in the uk!
    This was also in the middle of a city which would normally be one of the clearest of snow.
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  16. A couple years ago we had The Great Ice Storm.... The city paid construction crews to go out and cut down and haul away all the trees and limbs brought down by the heavy heavy weight of the ice.
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  17. I like snow but not when it's in the road
  18. Excuse me? What's with skiing?
    In the Netherlands, nature skiing isn't possible anyway, I think, as there are no hills large enough. :p
  19. meanwhile here in aus, a warm start to summer has turned into a cold one. Grand solar minimum ay