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.
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)
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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!
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.
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 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.
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.
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.
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!
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.
I like the burn of frigid air going through my lungs.
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.
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.
Toothache 😌
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.
cries in SAD
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.
Take a few cold showers, and then the suffering from the ambient cold is just over.
Floridaman: "Wut?"