Toadfish Monastery

Tomorrow 4^o C - dry. Some flooding but not in Greater London.

Yesterday maxed out at 39.6°C, today is forecasted to be a much more reasonable 26°.

I am inclined to call the weather outright unpleasant

It's going to be a two duvet winter. Oh, wait, it already is. I hate the cold...

Well, I understand your POV my elephantine friend, but I rather look at it this way.  When it's cold, you can always put on more clothes, more layers, until you feel warm.  When it's hot, however, there is a physical limit to how much clothing you can remove in the attempt to stay cool.  Once you are stark bollicky nekkid there is absolutely no guarantee that you will in fact be comfortable.  So, although in general I prefer warm weather to cool weather, the extreme form of neither appeals very much, but if I had to choose and supposing I had appropriate clothing, I would go for very cold rather than very hot.

Quote from: Bluenose on November 30, 2012, 02:17:16 AM
Well, I understand your POV my elephantine friend, but I rather look at it this way.  When it's cold, you can always put on more clothes, more layers, until you feel warm.  When it's hot, however, there is a physical limit to how much clothing you can remove in the attempt to stay cool.  Once you are stark bollicky nekkid there is absolutely no guarantee that you will in fact be comfortable.

^ Why is so difficult to make the cold haters understand that? 
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In all fairness there is a point in which you can't get warm and it makes you feel miserable, OTOH once you live in a hot place you adapt a bit (I couldn't stand the heat when I moved to FL and now I can tolerate it), but yes, I wholeheartedly agree with you, there are so many clothes you can take off.

IMO it depends on ones circumstances. If living on the streets (homeless) seriously cold must be much worse than hot.

Yeah, fair point.  I guess we were talking about ourselves who live in relatively comfortable circumstances.  Being homeless would be no fun regardless of the weather, but in the cold it would be downright appalling, not to mention life threatening.  of course, I also keep in mind those unfortunate people who despite having a home cannot afford to heat it in winter in cold climates and consequently so many of whom perish.  How we manage to be so unwilling to share our over abundance in the West with our fellows saddens me.   

I better climb down now...

I also, if there is no other choice, prefer cold to hot. But please dry and calm.
Currently it is not very cold (4°C) but clammy and possibly windy. That is really unpleasant.
In general I think changing temperatures around zero are worse than stable sub-zero.

The thing is that really hot (ie: deadly) places are generally inhabitable unless you have a shelter (like the middle of the Sahara or those mining towns in Australia where the average temperature is around 50C/122F), while you don't have to go to the poles to die of hypothermia.
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Getting warmer here but still very livable at 70F/21C in the morning.

People can get hypothermia even at quite moderate temperatures if lacking clothes and/or being wet for extended periods of time.
And in water anything below body temperature will be detrimental over time.

It seems suspiciously warmer here as the week goes on...

Today dry, 3^o C.

Blue, our elderly get Winter Fuel Allowance of £200 per winter. It of course does not actually cover the cost of much fuel. It's tokenism. There's also the possibility of severe weather extra allowance for them if really really cold. I don't know why I say "them" - I just received my very first Winter Fuel Allowance.

What is worrying me at present is all the people falling into flood water or being overcome by it, because it must be so much colder than being dry.

It's the 1st of December and we have proper winter in Stockholm!

That is not very common any more, most winters have been wet and grey the last decade.


Being Scandinavian I do like my summer sunny and reasonably warm...
But if we are talking about extremes I to prefer the cold. I can't really stand heat very well, anything over 30°C is too hot and makes me either submerge myself in water or sit panting in the shade drinking copious amounts of water so I won't faint...   

That said, one has to have proper clothing when it gets below -20°C or there will be damages (and with proper clothing I mean several layers designed to work together, long Johns and jeans will no longer do).
I've been out in - 40°C which isn't a pleasure in any way, it hurts to breathe and you better cover your face to avoid frostbites on nose and ears. Still it's manageable.

I've never known anything colder than -15°C, that was quite enough, thank you.