I don’t know why, but people saying it very regularly gets to - 30 really grinds my gears because we record the temperature, we know exactly how many days a year are like that.
I think we have different ideas of ‘very frequently’, I’m curious how many days a year you think very frequently is.
You are failing to take into account wind chill. In SK, with our high winds, a -15C day can turn into a -25C day pretty easily. I am a big baby when it comes to the cold and I fully accept this. But when the wind chill puts things into “frost bite in 5 minutes” territory, I’m sorry, but I’m not riding my bike to the grocery store and risking frost bite on my fingers and nose. Nor do I want to stand at an outdoor bus stop waiting who knows how long for a bus. Now if zoning wasn’t so dumb and put my grocery store so far out of residential areas, it wouldn’t be so bad. But city planning is centered around having a car, sadly.
I didn’t tell you to ride your bike to the grocery store in - 30 weather, because that would be a very stupid thing to tell someone to do. I don’t know who you are arguing with. I’m saying that you likely don’t have very frequent days below - 30, and that this is information that can be looked up.
I do this because I usually see this idea, the frequency of days below 30, used as an escape valve against electric cars. The realty is though, that the cars work in that weather and that those days are rare, so I don’t like to let the frequency claim go unchallenged and speak up when I see it to help ensure people think critically about the claim when they see it.
Unchallenged claims become memes, which can be indistinguishable from truth for a lot of people.
Yup. I surprised myself when I pulled the last decade of data for my nearest Environment Canada weather station (Lucky Lake, SK). I don’t remember the number, but it was shockingly few days with a low colder than -30C. I was similarly surprised by the low number of days with a low colder than -20C.
Point taken, but I didn’t forget about it. I go hiking and tenting on the ice on Lake Diefenbaker, so I know all about it. I just didn’t know how to bring it in without lending yet more credence to all the myths and misconceptions.
There are a lot of differences between actual -25C with no wind and windchill of -25C. For example at -25 with no wind, my wool parka with a fairly open knit is perfect on its own for a wide range of activities. But with a windchill of -25, I’m better off with my fleece bunny hug under a windbreaker, then layering up with a tightly knit wool sweater when I’m inactive.
When I still biked, -15 with no wind quickly turned into -25 windchill, but if the windchill was already -25, hopping on the bike didn’t make a huge difference, so I dressed about the same in both cases.
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I don’t know why, but people saying it very regularly gets to - 30 really grinds my gears because we record the temperature, we know exactly how many days a year are like that. I think we have different ideas of ‘very frequently’, I’m curious how many days a year you think very frequently is.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/saskatchewan/cold-weather-snap-saskatchewan-1.4997353
Edit: Just FYI, I’m not griping at the rest of your comment at all, not really addressing it, it’s just that one thing.
You are failing to take into account wind chill. In SK, with our high winds, a -15C day can turn into a -25C day pretty easily. I am a big baby when it comes to the cold and I fully accept this. But when the wind chill puts things into “frost bite in 5 minutes” territory, I’m sorry, but I’m not riding my bike to the grocery store and risking frost bite on my fingers and nose. Nor do I want to stand at an outdoor bus stop waiting who knows how long for a bus. Now if zoning wasn’t so dumb and put my grocery store so far out of residential areas, it wouldn’t be so bad. But city planning is centered around having a car, sadly.
I didn’t tell you to ride your bike to the grocery store in - 30 weather, because that would be a very stupid thing to tell someone to do. I don’t know who you are arguing with. I’m saying that you likely don’t have very frequent days below - 30, and that this is information that can be looked up.
I do this because I usually see this idea, the frequency of days below 30, used as an escape valve against electric cars. The realty is though, that the cars work in that weather and that those days are rare, so I don’t like to let the frequency claim go unchallenged and speak up when I see it to help ensure people think critically about the claim when they see it.
Unchallenged claims become memes, which can be indistinguishable from truth for a lot of people.
Yup. I surprised myself when I pulled the last decade of data for my nearest Environment Canada weather station (Lucky Lake, SK). I don’t remember the number, but it was shockingly few days with a low colder than -30C. I was similarly surprised by the low number of days with a low colder than -20C.
Don’t forget Wind Chill. A -15C day in SK with a good wind is suddenly a -25C day.
Point taken, but I didn’t forget about it. I go hiking and tenting on the ice on Lake Diefenbaker, so I know all about it. I just didn’t know how to bring it in without lending yet more credence to all the myths and misconceptions.
There are a lot of differences between actual -25C with no wind and windchill of -25C. For example at -25 with no wind, my wool parka with a fairly open knit is perfect on its own for a wide range of activities. But with a windchill of -25, I’m better off with my fleece bunny hug under a windbreaker, then layering up with a tightly knit wool sweater when I’m inactive.
When I still biked, -15 with no wind quickly turned into -25 windchill, but if the windchill was already -25, hopping on the bike didn’t make a huge difference, so I dressed about the same in both cases.