Friday, January 21, 2005
Let me give you a little heads-up about the cold. In the UK, cold was when the outside temperature went below zero. Trains stopped running, offices closed, people panicked, there'd be mass hysteria in the streets and the country would grind to a halt if it was mixed with an inch of snow.
In Canada, things are ever so slightly different. You'd hardly notice the difference unless you looked hard. (yeah right ...) For instance, today I got up and looked at the remote sensor that reports the temperature from our back yard. -25C. "Chilly", I thought. It didn't occur to me until I was taking the 30 second walk from the car park to the office, that -9C right now would be "Balmy". -25C isn't by any stretch of the imagination a remarkably cold day. Sure there are warnings from the provincial government today, as there have been for the past three days, but that's only because at minus-double-digits it takes 10 minutes for frostbite to kick in. Get to -30 and exposed flesh actually freezes, not just has a chance of frostbite.
The Canadian answer? Put on a hat. And some gloves would be nice, though a scarf is optional depending on the type of coat you have. It takes a little longer to get to work, as the car has to warm up for a few minutes before you put it into gear, and if there's ice on the roads then you only do twenty above the speed limit instead of forty above it. This has a knock on effect of, well, not very much. People are used to it. There's no such thing as a silly looking winter hat in Canada. If you've ever walked out in -20C weather without a hat, you'll not do it a second time. People understand that you do what it takes to keep warm. I'm sure I could wear the most hideous head covering imaginable and I'd not get a second glance from anyone (but there's no way I'd stick a habs toque on my head).
It can snow here, and things keep running. The routine is only interrupted by ice storms, or snow fall greater than about six feet. But live further out of TO (and I mean w-a-y further out, a long way from the golden horseshoe even) and even six feet of snow doesn't stop anything. Albertans are not the only ones to look down on the city-folk of Toronto because TO called in the army a few years ago to deal with the white stuff. That sort of thing just isn't, well, Canadian.
So the landscape is white with snow, the roads white with salt, and the NHL rinks are still dark. That's about the only cause for concern right now, even when the mercury drops below -30C.
In Canada, things are ever so slightly different. You'd hardly notice the difference unless you looked hard. (yeah right ...) For instance, today I got up and looked at the remote sensor that reports the temperature from our back yard. -25C. "Chilly", I thought. It didn't occur to me until I was taking the 30 second walk from the car park to the office, that -9C right now would be "Balmy". -25C isn't by any stretch of the imagination a remarkably cold day. Sure there are warnings from the provincial government today, as there have been for the past three days, but that's only because at minus-double-digits it takes 10 minutes for frostbite to kick in. Get to -30 and exposed flesh actually freezes, not just has a chance of frostbite.
The Canadian answer? Put on a hat. And some gloves would be nice, though a scarf is optional depending on the type of coat you have. It takes a little longer to get to work, as the car has to warm up for a few minutes before you put it into gear, and if there's ice on the roads then you only do twenty above the speed limit instead of forty above it. This has a knock on effect of, well, not very much. People are used to it. There's no such thing as a silly looking winter hat in Canada. If you've ever walked out in -20C weather without a hat, you'll not do it a second time. People understand that you do what it takes to keep warm. I'm sure I could wear the most hideous head covering imaginable and I'd not get a second glance from anyone (but there's no way I'd stick a habs toque on my head).
It can snow here, and things keep running. The routine is only interrupted by ice storms, or snow fall greater than about six feet. But live further out of TO (and I mean w-a-y further out, a long way from the golden horseshoe even) and even six feet of snow doesn't stop anything. Albertans are not the only ones to look down on the city-folk of Toronto because TO called in the army a few years ago to deal with the white stuff. That sort of thing just isn't, well, Canadian.
So the landscape is white with snow, the roads white with salt, and the NHL rinks are still dark. That's about the only cause for concern right now, even when the mercury drops below -30C.
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