Weather and logic, people are strange

[PhysAssist]

What the averages dont show are the drastic temperature changes here on a day to day bases. Just because it shows the average temps above freezing doesn't mean much. Some days we can have a 40 to 60 degree temperature change. For example, two days ago it was 80 degrees out when I left work at 4 pm. At 9 pm it was 58 degrees. At 6am the next morning there was ice on my widshield and thermostat in the truck was saying 32 degrees. That afternoon it was back up to 70.

Wife was really upset when I was working in Colorado in February. It was colder here. Single digits at night and 30 to 35 degrees during the day. It was high 50's and 30's north of Denver.

I know, I just had to poke the bear!

 

[2LaneCruzer]

You may think we are crazy, but the t-stat gets set at 62 during the winter, never touched...if your chilly, put on a sweater. Coming in from 30-40 degrees it feels good. Summer a/c is at 76. Coming in from high 90's, it feels good. It's all perception of temp.

As for bad winter drivers... When we first moved out here to the high desert, the first snow storm I experienced in Albuquerque,NM (that was 1 1/2 - 2") resulted in delays on the interstate taking up to 2 hours to go 1 mile! I'm not kidding! The entire city only had 2 snow plows / cinder trucks. Paralyzed the city for 6 hours. (I grew up in the NE and learned to drive in snow, thought this was insane). About 4-5 years ago, there was a freak storm that dumped 24" in about 8 hours. Literally shut the city down for 5 days. .....now talk about the drivers, toss an ice cube out the window and there will be a major pileup....when it rains the drivers are no better.

When I was there, when it rained as much as a 1/4 inch, the downtown businesses were flooded! I thought the climate there was great; you could wear a T-Shirt with snow on the ground, and being from Oklahoma, the heat didn't bother me at all. We had a water cooler for the house, and that was good enough.

 

[fried1765]

No offense, but working out in the cold?

Bismarck, AR Weather averages

Month High/Low(F) Rain

January..........................53/34 6 days
February--------------------58/37 6 days
March-----------------------67/45 8 days
April------------------------75/53 7 days
May-------------------------82/62 9 days
June------------------------90/70 6 days
July-------------------------94/73 6 days
August----------------------94/72 5 days
September------------------87/65 4 days
October---------------------76/54 6 days
November-------------------64/44 6 days
December--------------------55/36 7 days

I'm sorry, but if it doesn't get to freezing, it isn't yet cold out!

Those temps seen rather balmy.
Ever been to Bismark, ND?

 

[newbury]

This is a subject dear to my heart. I was raised in Northern Vermont, moved to Virginia in 1975 and have been TRYING to retire to a place we bought in Mississippi since 2010. Life gets in the way.

It's probably different for everyone but I find that the closer my house temps are to the outside, within reason, the more likely I am to do stuff outside. Before I retired I was often training the field Army outside, in places like Ft Hood in the summer and Alaska in the winter. SWMBO was an attorney and rarely had to work outside in the last 20 years. So in the summer I'll let the temps go to 78F or 80F, in the winter I let temps drop to around 55F. My shops in Mississippi are not air conditioned/heated and I routinely work in them at 85F in the summer, 50F in the winter. SWMBO is hot bodied and likes 74F to 76F in the summer and will accept 60F in the winter. I like LL Bean flannel shirts.

I don't mind cold as much as heat. I can usually put on more layers but I can only take off so much before it becomes a safety hazard. Welding in the winter w/ an extra coat - OK, welding in the summer nude - NOT.

Speaking of logic and weather, how is it that in my lifetime, we the taxpayers have been the sponsors of billions of dollars for satellites and radar systems to predict weather. If anything I think the forecasts are ,at best, not improved and it sure seems to me that they are worse.
Yes I am a grouchy old man and I really like warm weather.

NOT!

I have to disagree with this...the NWS (IMO) does a good job...sure they CTA and tend to be overly cautious with severe warnings but overall they are quite accurate...their forecasts are updated hourly...National Weather Service

AGREE!
20 years ago the 3 or 4 day forecast was fairly accurate, now we are routinely getting good 7 to 10 day forecasts.

 

[ultrarunner]

One of my friends lives in Hawaii and it never fails when she visits to be the only one wearing a sweater...

Acclimated is a term I use to hear a lot... some do it fast and some never.

Those out working seem to have a greater tolerance... those that spend their time in climate controlled environments often have little tolerance... even a 1.5 degree change at work will generate comments.

 

[aczlan]

At the start of winter I get acclimated pretty darn fast so I can go ice fishing in comfort. I stop shaving around Thanksgiving, and start going out to get the mail and newspaper barefoot and with no jacket, even in the snow. And I'll drive around with the truck window open, too. It doesn't take long at all to make yourself used to cold weather. Heat's another animal. :ashamed:

That reminds me, as kids we moved from NY to GA. The first year down there we rented a house down there and we had CPS called on us because (being crazy Yankee redneck kids who didn't care much about the cold), we went outside after the Christmas ice storm and were cutting up the tree that the ice took down with the new bow saws that we got for Christmas and we didn't have coats on.
Apparently us not wearing coats (note that there was ice on the ground, but air temps were above freezing and we were cutting up a tree by hand) translated to us not having coats, shoes, electricity or beds (per the neighbor who never came outside even to say hi to us and had never been inside the house since we moved in).

Aaron Z

 

[MossRoad]

That reminds me, as kids we moved from NY to GA. The first year down there we rented a house down there and we had CPS called on us because (being crazy Yankee redneck kids who didn't care much about the cold), we went outside after the Christmas ice storm and were cutting up the tree that the ice took down with the new bow saws that we got for Christmas and we didn't have coats on.
Apparently us not wearing coats (note that there was ice on the ground, but air temps were above freezing and we were cutting up a tree by hand) translated to us not having coats, shoes, electricity or beds (per the neighbor who never came outside even to say hi to us and had never been inside the house since we moved in).

Aaron Z

Awww, at least they cared... :laughing: Old busy bodies.

In all seriousness, though, at least someone said something when they thought something was wrong.

A long time ago, I had a friend in his 50's. He had MS, and he had some trouble walking. He moved into a neighborhood with his wife and kids. In the evening, he'd go for a walk around the neighborhood. A few days into it, the cops pull up to him while he's walking, and tell him they had a report of a drunk person in the neighborhood. Several more times it happened after that, too. Once or twice, he could understand, but half a dozen and he was ticked.

 

[bunyip]

I have ski'ed in shorts and a T shirt when it is clear and still but it certainly takes some skin off when you fall over, I wear shorts most of the year and short sleeve shirts all year and our cold doesn't really worry me, I do not handle excessive heat and humidity well though which is why I won't live in Queensland, reminds me a bit of Vietnam without the noggies.
Cold here is single digits with the odd minus 2-3°C early morning mid winter.

 

[/pine]

Re: Weather and logic

You mean like...?

If you want wind schedule a golf tournament...
If you want dead calm schedule a sailboat race...

Seems to work pretty well in my experience...!

 

[3930dave]

We have a lot of dirt roads around our area and they become corrugated after a while between grader visits, first time I drove a car with ABS I was approaching a T intersection, applied the brakes and went halfway into the intersection, ABS does not like corrugations, in the snowfields near us I watched two girls fitting chains to the back wheels of their small hatchback in the snow, the car was a front wheel drive.
People drive to the snow and spend the night at the resorts, the snow is light and the tyres are warm and melts when they park, next morning after an overnight freeze they can't work out why the car won't move.
We take old hessian bags to put under the tyres for these occasions.

There are certain conditions (deep fresh gravel, or unplowed snow) where most vehicles will stop faster w/o ABS. IE. lock up all 4; you may rotate around the centre axis of the vehicle, but you are stopping faster because of what you are pushing up in front of the tires. Audi used to have an ABS Off switch, for that reason. Outside of rally drivers, not a lot of the public understands that issue, or even the general issue that ABS does not guarantee you a faster stop, it may allow you more steering control. You still have to actively steer around things, to take advantage of what ABS delivers, some of the time. Enough ABS, before we get in trouble with OP

My neighbour swears his wife keeps their (large) house @ 80F+ in the Winter here, and 65F- in the Summer. So, this seems pretty universal around the globe, as long as people have money to burn...... ironically, my neighbour is an HVAC contractor.....

I'm not a fan of AC in general (I've been to the American SW, I do get that there are built up areas today that would be tough to live in w/o AC), and usually run it very little, house or vehicle. Haven't studied them extensively, but I've come across a few articles in recent years indicating that not adapting our bodies to wide ranging temperatures can have a negative impact - I like to spend time outdoors year round, and found years ago I got the worse summer colds once I started working in heavily air-conditioned labs.

Yep, people are funny....... many will complain all Winter long here about the cold......... get the first Spring day with a bit of warmth and strong sun, and many of those same folks drive around with their windows up and AC on... :confused3:

Rgds, D.