Frigid…ish
Posted by Arwen Mosher in Just me on Friday, January 16, 2009 12:01 PM
Rachel’s mentioning that it is 26° in Georgia made me smile, because just last evening my husband and I were discussing the fact that there are different regional standards for what “cold” means.
Weather Underground has a map where you can see county-level severe weather warnings for entire country. I noticed there were winter weather statements for counties in Florida, and I clicked on one, and then shared a laugh with my husband because the warning stated that temperatures might drop “into the low 20s.” We both grew up in Michigan; to us, that is not cold!
On the other hand, we do complain when the temperature drops into the single digits, and I’m sure there are people from many northerly parts of the country who would scoff at our wimpiness. It’s not really cold, they might say, until it gets down to -40°!
It all depends on your perspective.
My favorite story along these lines is one my mother used to tell about some missionaries who moved from the US to work in the mission field in India. They arrived during summer and had been there for several months when the cold season came along. They lit fires and unpacked sweaters to keep themselves warm in these new temperatures, which felt frigid. At some point it occurred to one of them to actually check the thermometer… and it read 80 degrees! They had acclimated so fully to the weather that 80° now felt cold to them.
I wonder how people in India would feel about Rachel’s 26°.
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