I'm going to assume that most people in North America know that the eastern United States just had a huge snowstorm. From what I could tell of the news coverage, the predictions were pretty accurate. I know that my husband's relatives in the south had some prepartions to make. I also know that a could of his cousins took advantage of the snowfall and played and built snowmen with their children.
Someone posted a picture of their jeep on Facebook, made a comment about the weather and said that they were perpared. A Canadian commented, saying that the best preparation would be snow tires. An American (presummably also from the south) replied to that comment a little jeeringly and then said that they were used to great weather.
The exchange left me thinking, what constitutes "great weather". Most would say sunny skies and warm temperatures. But there is a point where warm is too warm (at least for me). I have been to the American south in the summer. I remember looking outside and seeing empty sidewalks and parks in the middle of the day. Why? Because it was too hot to go outside. I remember looking at the temperature on the car dashboard and it saying 42° C (that's 108° F). I felt like my skin was going to burn off and I was only going from the parking lot to a building. Is that what this person meant by great weather? That's not for me. Can good weather only happen in the spring/summer? Because we had great winter day today. Mild temperatures, a light snowfall that the children could play in, and almost no wind.
Though I understand what we consider mild winter weather is a big deal in the southern US. They don't have the infrastructure to take care of it they way we do. We have plows and salt trucks. We have shovels just for digging out our driveways. It's part of our regular lives the way it isn't down there. But while I can throw on a coat and still enjoy a walk outside on a winter day, that 42° summer day removed outdoor enjoyment as an option. Maybe that person does think 42° is great, I just don't.
Do you want to build a snowman?
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