How Cold Is Cold ?

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Today the temperature is around 0° C / 32° F. This appears cold to us because up to now the temperature hasn't been so low. This winter in general has been much too warm. Older people know that the climate has changed because when they talk about cold winters with a lot of snow, it's not that their memories have become befuddled. It's the truth. We'll be reminded of the olden days during the coming night for which -18° C / - 0.4° F are predicted. That is really cold - or is it? Five years ago we had a Russian language assistant in our house. She lives in Ulan-Ude, a city in Siberia, east of Lake Baikal. Before she arrived at the beginning of October, she wrote an email asking how cold our winters were so that she'd know what kind of coat to bring. I wrote back that we consider -10° C / 14° F during the day as very cold. I mentioned that it often is only between 0° C and 5° C / 32° - 23° F. She came with a thin anorak. Such a temperature means spring in Siberia. She told me that she played football at home. In winter they had to do this indoors. But when the thermometer showed 0° C again in March, they were happy because they could play outside again. Logically, she didn't take the whole German winter seriously. It was one long spring for her. What got to her was the grey sky, however. The drabness pulled her down. What makes the cold in Siberia bearable is that there's hardly any humidity. In fact, there's a lot of sunshine in Siberia. When in Europe, people from Siberia often get a cold. Occasionally I check the temperature in Ulan-Ude, just for fun. Today they have -18° C / -0.4° F during the day and will have -29° C / -20.2°F during the night. Now that is what one can call COLD! When talking about Russia, not only about Siberia, one must mention something else. Nearly all flats and houses have district heating which can't be regulated. It's always turned on at full blast. Russian language assistants cost us a lot of money because they turn on our gas heating to the max. I tell them that we get our gas from Russia and must pay for it quite a lot, but always in vain. The rooms are hot like a sauna and the girls have sleeveless t-shirts on. Now back to Russia. In winter they have constant changes of up to 50° between indoors and outdoors. Obviously this is not unhealthy. Anyway, I haven't heard that Russians suffer from more diseases than we do, at least not weather related ones. I look forward to comments. Should you mention a temperature, please give it in Celsius and Fahrenheit. I'm a Celsius person like the majority of myLot members. Fahrenheit is only used in the United States as well as the Bahamas, Belize, and the Cayman Islands. --- photo: pixabay