4 ms·

I lived in MPLS for five years. A -30 or -40 degree morning was a magical time. Everything worked. Everyone did exactly the thing they had to be doing. Ever

by rsync 5y ago

I lived in MPLS for five years. A -30 or -40 degree morning was a magical time. Everything worked. Everyone did exactly the thing they had to be doing. Everything was done correctly and diligently and on time. You had your shit together or you stayed home. Or you were dead. I miss it sometimes ...

fy20 5y ago
I'm from the UK originally, and now live in Northern Europe where we regularly have -20C or more during winter. It's crazy to me that if there is even a light dusting of snow, the UK comes to a halt. Where as here, it's just life as usual. You just get on with it and go about your day.
- Accacin 5y ago
  You can always guess someone will comment exactly this. Yeah the UK have problems with heavy snow. Yes, many countries do. Yes, Northern Europe are better at dealing with it but still have their own issues. Like hotter countries are better at dealing with the heat.
- colechristensen 5y ago
  Coming from Minnesota and spending a few years in the SF Bay area it was funny to me how weather I didn't really even consider rain (maybe like heavy fog that was precipitating a little) would grind the highways to a stop. Whatever the most extreme weather is in a location it tends to grind everything to a halt and generates a lot of exaggeration about how bad things are. -40 is fun, especially throwing boiling water into the air and how it doesn't hit the ground.
  - jrumbut 5y ago
    I lived in a town in the Vermont mountains where it got to -40 (with very intense wind on top of that) occasionally and it felt qualitatively different than the positive single digit type cold that is more normal in Massachusetts. It was almost easier to deal with because there aren't any options. If you don't have the right jacket, pants, boots, gloves, etc you just can't exist outside even for a few moments to brush off the car. You can't be cold because if you're feeling the cold it's going to do damage.
    - qw 5y ago
      The mountain air was probably much dryer. The air near ice free water will feel much colder due to the increased humidity.
      - jrumbut 5y ago
        Oh that's a good thought! I figured that would be factored into the "feels like" number on the weather forecast though?
- Broken_Hippo 5y ago
  I moved from Indiana (Midwest US) to Norway. I'm near the cost, so it is kind of mild (comparative to inland), but there are vast differences. In places with little to no snowfall, they simply don't have the infrastructure to deal with it, nor does the population have practice in driving and walking in the snow. That's the issue in the Southern US and the UK. Where I lived in the states, it snowed every winter (almost?), but not usually so much at once. We had some infrastructure, but not enough to deal with very much snow at once - pretty much, things shut down if it got above the ankles. This was directly because there wasn't the infrastructure to deal with it. And then, there is Norway, and the main roads are generally good enough. Folks use winter tires (all-season tires are just starting to get popular here: My neighbor doesn't trust them). Side roads generally aren't scraped down to the pavement, but rather get generally cleared and grit laid down for texture. I've seen videos of folks huddled behind a snowplow with Very deep snow: Where I lived in the US simply couldn't have done such a thing. Plus, the population is used to the amounts of snow they get, which means they aren't so concerned. Infrastructure plus comfort levels go far.
- OJFord 5y ago
  I won't claim to have run the numbers myself, but I assume it's done, and I can estimate that the loss of productivity from the at most few days a year simply doesn't justify the cost of being able to better cope with them. Analogous on an individual level would be air conditioning. Sure, it can be uncomfortably hot for a few days in summer, sometimes, but most people don't think it's enough to justify AC.
- lb1lf 5y ago
  -Being a Land Rover enthusiast (though for reliability, a Toyota Land Cruiser is the daily driver), I subscribe to a UK Land Rover magazine, being mailed to the rather sparsely populated community I call home on an island off the northwestern coast of Norway. Now, a sure sign that winter is coming is that the editorials in LRM brims with expectation; soon the white mayhem will cause Britain to shut down, and Land Rover owners will again be called upon to brave the elements and go where no ordinary vehicle can go, shopping for the elderly and so on, as they are confined to their homes by a couple of inches of white powder on the ground. (Yes, I exaggerate a little for effect.) I usually read this after having used the tractor to remove the night's 10-12 inches of snowfall from the driveway, so that my kids can ride their bikes to school. A few years ago, I sent LRM a photo of my great aunt, living outside Kirkenes just a tad south of 70 degrees north (and, incidentally, east of Istanbul, but I digress). She - in her early nineties - made short work of the snow and ice in her old Toyota Corolla. It's all about what you are used to; just about any vehicle is quite capable in the wintertime if the driver adjusts properly to the conditions. LRM didn't print my photo, though.
tjr225 5y ago
People die during heatwaves literally all the time.
- colechristensen 5y ago
  The kind of cold that -40 is is easier to mitigate than heat but considerably more dangerous.
  - tjr225 5y ago
    I’m not sure how that relates to my comment.

by rsync 5y ago

fy20 5y ago

I'm from the UK originally, and now live in Northern Europe where we regularly have -20C or more during winter. It's crazy to me that if there is even a light dusting of snow, the UK comes to a halt. Where as here, it's just life as usual. You just get on with it and go about your day.

Accacin 5y ago
You can always guess someone will comment exactly this. Yeah the UK have problems with heavy snow. Yes, many countries do. Yes, Northern Europe are better at dealing with it but still have their own issues. Like hotter countries are better at dealing with the heat.
colechristensen 5y ago
Coming from Minnesota and spending a few years in the SF Bay area it was funny to me how weather I didn't really even consider rain (maybe like heavy fog that was precipitating a little) would grind the highways to a stop. Whatever the most extreme weather is in a location it tends to grind everything to a halt and generates a lot of exaggeration about how bad things are. -40 is fun, especially throwing boiling water into the air and how it doesn't hit the ground.
- jrumbut 5y ago
  I lived in a town in the Vermont mountains where it got to -40 (with very intense wind on top of that) occasionally and it felt qualitatively different than the positive single digit type cold that is more normal in Massachusetts. It was almost easier to deal with because there aren't any options. If you don't have the right jacket, pants, boots, gloves, etc you just can't exist outside even for a few moments to brush off the car. You can't be cold because if you're feeling the cold it's going to do damage.
  - qw 5y ago
    The mountain air was probably much dryer. The air near ice free water will feel much colder due to the increased humidity.
    - jrumbut 5y ago
      Oh that's a good thought! I figured that would be factored into the "feels like" number on the weather forecast though?
Broken_Hippo 5y ago
I moved from Indiana (Midwest US) to Norway. I'm near the cost, so it is kind of mild (comparative to inland), but there are vast differences. In places with little to no snowfall, they simply don't have the infrastructure to deal with it, nor does the population have practice in driving and walking in the snow. That's the issue in the Southern US and the UK. Where I lived in the states, it snowed every winter (almost?), but not usually so much at once. We had some infrastructure, but not enough to deal with very much snow at once - pretty much, things shut down if it got above the ankles. This was directly because there wasn't the infrastructure to deal with it. And then, there is Norway, and the main roads are generally good enough. Folks use winter tires (all-season tires are just starting to get popular here: My neighbor doesn't trust them). Side roads generally aren't scraped down to the pavement, but rather get generally cleared and grit laid down for texture. I've seen videos of folks huddled behind a snowplow with Very deep snow: Where I lived in the US simply couldn't have done such a thing. Plus, the population is used to the amounts of snow they get, which means they aren't so concerned. Infrastructure plus comfort levels go far.
OJFord 5y ago
I won't claim to have run the numbers myself, but I assume it's done, and I can estimate that the loss of productivity from the at most few days a year simply doesn't justify the cost of being able to better cope with them. Analogous on an individual level would be air conditioning. Sure, it can be uncomfortably hot for a few days in summer, sometimes, but most people don't think it's enough to justify AC.
lb1lf 5y ago
-Being a Land Rover enthusiast (though for reliability, a Toyota Land Cruiser is the daily driver), I subscribe to a UK Land Rover magazine, being mailed to the rather sparsely populated community I call home on an island off the northwestern coast of Norway. Now, a sure sign that winter is coming is that the editorials in LRM brims with expectation; soon the white mayhem will cause Britain to shut down, and Land Rover owners will again be called upon to brave the elements and go where no ordinary vehicle can go, shopping for the elderly and so on, as they are confined to their homes by a couple of inches of white powder on the ground. (Yes, I exaggerate a little for effect.) I usually read this after having used the tractor to remove the night's 10-12 inches of snowfall from the driveway, so that my kids can ride their bikes to school. A few years ago, I sent LRM a photo of my great aunt, living outside Kirkenes just a tad south of 70 degrees north (and, incidentally, east of Istanbul, but I digress). She - in her early nineties - made short work of the snow and ice in her old Toyota Corolla. It's all about what you are used to; just about any vehicle is quite capable in the wintertime if the driver adjusts properly to the conditions. LRM didn't print my photo, though.

tjr225 5y ago

People die during heatwaves literally all the time.

colechristensen 5y ago
The kind of cold that -40 is is easier to mitigate than heat but considerably more dangerous.
- tjr225 5y ago
  I’m not sure how that relates to my comment.