Which is the best part of winter: the sun setting at 5pm every day, or it literally hurting when you go outside?
Which is the best part of winter: the sun setting at 5pm every day, or it literally hurting when you go outside?
The best part about winter, is that it's nice inside. In summer, it can get to a point where it isn't even nice inside anymore.
But also all the downsides of winter outside can be mitigated and navigated. The downsides of summer outside can't be.
There are humans that hang out outside at -70C all day. For all you F users, that is -94F. The coldest winter ever gets where I am is -40C(also -40F for F people), it's usually only about -20C(-4F) on an average cold day in winter.
If you are too cold in winter, you aren't dressed right. There are options available that you haven't taken.
Agreed. My house insulation sucks. Summer would be 85°F outside and 90°F inside. Now it’s 56°F outside and 65°F inside and I’m not running any sort of heating. I can tolerate the inside temps at this level too. The summer inside temps were unbearable.
But what about the darkness? How do you mitigate the fact that it's pitch black so early in the day?
Darkness doesn't bother me. I like to go for walks at 3 am in summer, seeking out the times when it's still at least a bit dark.
why do you think christmas lighting exists?
The mosquitoes are dead.
It's the chiggers for me. I can't go to my camp in the swamp without bathing in repellent.
Mosquitoes are, surprisingly, not much of an issue. Tiny fish eat the eggs and there's a thousand dragonflies to eat the adults.
Not having to tear my own skin and the AC running at -20C in order to feel comfortable.
I love the winter, thank you very much ☺️.
Why is your skin tearing?
To get cooler... that might not have been the best choice of words 😂.
Other than super dry skin, taking 3x the time to leave the house and white knuckle driving every day?
My honest favourite part of winter is 4 fold:
- Christmas season. There's an overwhelming positive energy in the air. Family, drinks, friends and good food.
- Every thing is quiet, fresh and sterile. It looks amazing after a fresh snow.
- It's hockey season.
- No yard work. Fuck leaves (and leafs)
A bunch of leaves fell at my place this year after snow was already on the ground. As if raking leaves out of bare grass weren't bad enough.
Yeah that does suck. My neighbours did that this year, so I'll be dealing with it in the spring
Probably the stunning beauty, no rain, no bugs, and snow is pretty great for so many activities
Snowmobiling and Ice Fishing are my favorites.
Returning home after work, hands freezing as they touch the cold metal doorknob. Turning on lamps, lighting candles, making a lovingly tender and warm cup of coffee, snuggling up with a pet and a partner on a couch, cozy under the various old blankets you've collected over the years, and playing Stardew Valley, Skyrim, or any other comfort game together.
Grab some warm stew or curry, throw on a well-loved hoodie, and enjoy the security and hospitality you give yourself and your family.
Warm pie and cookies for dessert, and a book to sip on and savor.
And still being chilled to the bone hours after all this.
Fuck the sun
As a photosynthesizer, I disagree with this comment. Just went to Oregon for 3 weeks and got massively depressed. And it's not even technically winter yet
Fuck yea, fuckin POS
Long live the fuckin beast!
I like the long dark, it's like 13 hours of that 3am feeling of being the only person awake, so I'm free to exist unbothered by the rest of the world. I end up far more productive and content at this time of year too, and mostly nocturnal. Living by lamp light is far too nice.
I wish it set at 5pm.... 4:25pm here and it's not even December!
That said, I honestly don't mind winter. You can always add layers, but heat and humidity are just plain miserable. Plus I think it's much more pleasant to come inside to a warm house after being out in the cold than it is to come into an air conditioned house from the heat. The former actively feels cozy and relaxing while the latter just feels like relief.
IMO summer and winter are just the price you have to pay to really appreciate those fleeting perfect weeks in the spring and fall.
You're my spirit animal
The sun will set at 3:47pm today where I live. It's kinda crazy.
16:30 here, right at the end of my last meeting of the day here in ~ one hour :/
Winter:
-10°C outside, sometimes colder; comfy +22°C inside. Sun sets at 1600, but that's what tea, candles and mood lighting is for. Everything is nice and quiet outside, with an occasional noise of snowplows after it snows.Summer:
30°C outside, 30°C inside (aircon is not common here in older houses). Hotter in the sun in the middle of the sea of asphalt and concrete that is called "city". Sun sets at 2200 and rises at 0400.When the sun rises it's like fucking Jurassic Park outside when all the birds wake up and start making noises. And by "birds" I mean not lovely songbirds like blackbirds and skylarks but pidgeons, crows and seagulls (and no, I don't live by the sea; I live pretty much as far from the sea as one can in my country. The city is overrun with seagulls.). They seemingly love to scream right into the ventilation shafts of apartment buildings.
When the sun sets in summer all the inebriated revellers come out and start making noises including loud and off-note singing, loud laughing and loud inarticulate screaming. Add loud boomboxes to the mix and it's one hell of a racket.
Also, mosquitos. Lots of mosquitos.
I live in the bottom half of the planet, I think I it's been over a decade since I last saw a negative temperature after dawn. It used to be pretty common when I was a kid. It's now easier to get a 35°C day in the middle of winter than any negative temperature at all.
I like your writing style.
However as a warm weather enjoyer: you're just wrong. That's all
The sun sets 14:56 today where I am, still love winter. It's so quiet outside with the snow muffling sounds, it's beautiful, I prefer being too cold to being too hot(I can always put on more clothes, can't take off my own skin), the sun sets properly(it doesn't in summer) .
So what's it like, having the ability to spawn more clothes at will? Do you have to recite a spell or is just thinking about the clothes enough to magic them into existence?
I’m sorry, is this some sort of Northern/Southern Hemisphere joke I’m too close to the equator to understand?
To actually answer your question: In the northern US and most of Canada days get shorter and weather much colder in winter which is generally considered unpleasant.
So this is asking the sarchastic question of which shittyness do people "like" the most.
The best part of winter is the double down on depression and the constant ache in my bones because I can't get warm no matter how many layers I put on. Even though the mind blowingly cold temperatures haven't hit us yet this year, all the wet is still making me ache.
I've come to appreciate summer more as I age.
I get an excuse to stay indoors.
Touch grass? Can't, its under 3ft of snow!
Also!
No. bugs. Especially spiders
Spiders are cool tho :(
I'm from Florida and what is this?
Ex-Floridian here. It's a wild ride every time. You can probably handle it, since you can definitely handle extreme weather. But you need a lot of equipment for it. You need a whole winter gear and skill loadout you swap to every autumn. I enjoy the adventure element of winter the same way I enjoyed the storms of Florida. Both make you face off against nature to be outside. But people are afraid of the weather here. Florida is filled with brave and foolish weather warriors. People don't die to idiocy every big snow like they do every hurricane. I'm not saying it never happens, but there is no equivalent to the guy on the news before every hurricane declaring his faith in God and his boat.
I don't know... have you ever seen those massive pile ups on highways during winter? Doesn't even have to be a lot of snow. In my experience, people generally don't know how to properly drive when conditions are perfect, let alone when conditions are harsh. Unfortunately, it leads to a lot of unnecessary deaths.
It isn't even idiocy, just a lack of understanding how to properly handle a vehicle, making sure you have the proper equipment (snow tires vs summer), the equipment is maintained, etc.
I always hate feeling like "that guy" whenever I have to explain that AWD is not a safety feature, but a performance feature. AWD isn't going to do dick if you're riding on summer tires, driving 10mph over the speed limit while visibility is trash, you're up the ass of the person in front of you, and snow's coming down. It also isn't going to help if you don't know how to make corrections or if you hit a patch of ice.
I'm from the north east, so I can't speak to what people are like with hurricanes in Florida, but it's frustrating how many people up here don't take driving in inclement weather seriously.
Just imagine the opposite of your hurricanes and humidity.
It creates such a calming atmosphere. The grey sky during the day, the darkness setting earlier and the white sky far into the evening when it's snowing is so therapeutic for me for some reason. It gets me in a state where it's enough just to be alive.
And the biting cold is such a pleasant sensation, especially when going for a run. And there are no mosquitos. Winter is all I like manfested in nature.
a funny thing i've realized is that a big part of the reason for the calm atmosphere is that cars are slowed down and their incessant noise is absorbed by the snow.
Winter is great because it makes urban areas more less hostile.
I have to wear so many clothes, just so many clothes. I wear as little as possible in the summer. That's such a hassle in the winter. And real, closed shoes all the time. Hopefully my wool wildlings will be warm and I can have barefoot winter shoes.
I love getting up in the summer and just throwing on shorts and a t shirt and being ready as opposed to underwear, sox, t shirt, sweatshirt, sweatpants, slippers. I’m a crabby motherfucker all winter long
Sometimes summer is just sundress and go x_x I can see dresses in my closet from here. Most of them are parked there until spring ;_;
Pro tip: study how people of the past dressed. I've settled on tight-fitting wool underclothes, a fluffy mid-layer, and a simple ruana cloak ontop. This seems to keep me comfortable at least between 0°C and like -7°C
I'm not as bad about shopping for winter clothes as I used to be. I mostly wear thrift store clothes, but I do have an Aran Crafts knit wool coat that is fairly old fashioned. I got it used on Ebay, but it's still pretty magical. I need more long, warm skirts, but they can be hard to find in cute colors or designs.
Winter is the best season for a lot of reasons, and for sure they're geographical reasons. Here we have 9 months of summer, 2 months of winter, and 2 weeks each of fall and spring. Summer is awful because it's hot, dusty, dry and the ACs are loud and noisy. Spring and fall, it's either allergies or I'm sick. Winter is quiet, it's cold, and the humidity is just perfect! You get to snuggle under a blanket and enjoy a hot drink while everything is serene around you. It doesn't get very cold here, so it all works out great!
The cold, pretty much. Rather live in 0 deg. temperatures than deal with sweat, mosquitos, and people asking about swimming / go to the beach / sit out in the sun for no reason and get skin cancer.
The ponds and lakes freeze over for ice fishing or skating, the snow itself is often an activity (build stuff out of snow, eat the snow, throw the snow). The cold is refreshing and pleasant in the mornings and really helps to wake me up when I'm feeling sleepy. Perfect time to make soups, stews or breads. No BS about "it's too hot to make this type of food, we should make hamburgers for the sixth day in a row".
Which of these options is correct:
-you're wrong
-I'm right
I live in a hot country so the best part of Winter is that it's not hot and I don't need to turn on the ac to sleep at night. Also, lower temperatures mean lower chances of getting a migraine for me. I'm always wishing for the weather to get colder!
For me, the best part is that it's over and we're heading in to summer!
I'm jealous.
The hurting for sure. It hurts so good. I love winter air. And the scilence from a blanket of snow. And the crushing sound when you walk on them. Nothing like it. I've moved to Canada from a tropical place for over a decade now and everyone (Canadians and family alike) looks at me like I'm mad every time I tell them I love the weather here.
Where do you live that you have such long days with apparently such a cold weather? In my area we have cuddly 0°C/32°F with the sunset happening at 16:15. I would categorise so cold that it hurts around -20°C depending on the weather.
The thing I dislike the most is not directly the cold, but it is the feeling that nobody is outside just for the sake of it and nobody is enjoying it. Like, when summer comes everything feels alive. Not just the nature but people, hiking, walking, doing picnics, hanging our, eating ice cream etc. People outside look like they're enjoying life. But during winter? Fuck no. And everyone looks the same, oh look 10 people in thick as balls black / grey / dark winter coats who look like round blobs. A bit of a hyperbole but that's how I always feel like.
And the darkness sucks. Fun to go to down when it is pitch black and it is again pitch black when you get back home.
this isn't an inherent winter problem, but something we have to design our environments to encourage.
it's perfectly normal to go on a winter walk just because it's enjoyable here, and i highly doubt people would be choosing to walk as much as they are if they didn't find that to be the most enjoyable option, considering that we have good public transport in the town.
Early sunset is the best. I begrudgingly admit that the burning light of our star is necessary for life, but I appreciate that during the winter it is mostly inflicted on other people.
Shoveling for myself and my two elderly neighors, notwithstanding, I prefer Minnesota winters over Minnesota summers.
Pros of winter: you get to see snow, maybe
Cons of winter: literally every conceivable aspect of it. Being cold is the worst sensation. And no, clothing doesn't magically fix it.
The opposite for me. Having an AC doesn't magically make me feel coler in the summer. I still have to go outside to pick up groceries or something and sweat like a pig.
Oh, not to mention sweaty thighs and skin rashes, trouble walking...
Also, people never mention how expensive all that special clothing is. No, thanks, I'd rather not spend hundreds of dollars just to be able to step outside. Plus special equipment for the snow, etc. It's too much.
Right? Everything about cold reminds me that humans are a tropical species. Just because we found a way to survive cold, doesn't mean we should. Why do we live so far from the equator these days?? Shit's miserable.
lol have you tried not buying designer clothing? i literally just wear a department store wool base layer, a fluffy jacket, and a cloak made by cutting a recangle of some random fabric i bought at a crafts store, and it's great.
if you can accept looking a bit medieval then it only has to cost like 50 bucks for the whole getup.
I actually love winter because it's cold. A lot of my ancestry comes from the UK, specifically around London and various parts of wales so genetically I naturally thrive in it.
I often find myself very hot and am very happy when my room is around 62-68f (17c to 20). Family members (especially from my Chinese and Japanese side) are always very surprised at how warm my fingers, ears and nose are even when it gets really cold and how quickly I warm up after returning inside.
Oooh, what about the air getting so dry that my sinuses crack and bleed, seeping blood in a post-nasal drip into my stomach, making me low-level nauseated for months on end! My skin and lips I can moisturize, but not much I can do about my sinuses unless I want to humidify my house to the point where the windows start growing mold. Fun times!
Living in a place that never exceeds 85°F (29.5° C) and never gets below 40°F (4.5° C)
NZ?
IB, CA, US
I love it being dark and cloudy. Also the cool temperatures are fantastic! Unfortunately, we'll be going back to positive single digits in Celsius for the rest of the week
Definitely my shoes and socks being wet for the next 5 months.
Sun sets at like 1 PM where I live, midwinter. It's depressing.
As someone who sleeps inconsistency, it's nice to have extra hours of darkness.
I also love feeling warm and cozy under my blankets after being cold at times during the day. Makes bedtime that much better
Cold winters are worth it for cool summers. But now I live somewhere where the winters are cold but the summers are hot :(
Man, I feel that. Used to live in MN for quite a few years, and both the summers and winters could be brutal. I'm about 300 miles south now and somehow both winter and summer are milder 🤷♂️
I live where winter is short and mild, and most people love it.
Even so, even here, when you ask people what they like about winter, it's sweaters and boots, cuddling up with hot coffee, sitting around a fire. Literally describing warmth. They like being warm. Why not enjoy the summer then?
Because the summers are now scorching hot
I like the burn of frigid air going through my lungs.
It sets here a little after 15 T_T, and even before it sets, it's so low in the sky that the houses and trees still block it.
But at least we have a little snow right now which makes everything brighter. Here we don't even get that much snow anymore.
I don't have to listen to leaf blowers and lawn mowers at 6am and the neighbors aren't mowing lawns every day of the week.
Any time not winter here is allergy season and none of the above helps.
I love the cold. It's the best.
cries in SAD
literally just dress better, learn to apply layers correctly and suddenly going outside in -10°C is actively comfortable.
Tight-fitting wool underclothes, fluffy mid layer, and wind-proof outer layer. This wicks away moisture from your skin and traps insulating air.
Toothache 😌
I was just thinking about something similar to this as I appreciate the first snow of the season in my region, and scroll through events across the world. But it was more along the lines of ‘does the hardship of a tough living season which we all endure as a collective actually enhance our condition?’
The past year I ponder the events of my life and how they have unfolded, and in some way they come around to start of another season, returning that familiarity, that hardship.
Having never grown up in a year-round temperate environment, where there is a lack of this variation, I can’t relate. But anecdotally I wonder if that the lack of that cycle removes a sense of urgency, to prepare for the hard season ahead, and results in a regional complacency.
Floridaman: "Wut?"
Take a few cold showers, and then the suffering from the ambient cold is just over.