Showing posts with label winter. Show all posts
Showing posts with label winter. Show all posts
Baby it's cold outside!
Each year Winnipeg gets a deep freeze, some years it lasts a few days, others a few weeks, but it is something you can count on dealing with at some point over the winter months. Usually it hits at the tail end of January or the beginning of February and it is by far the worst part of winter.
While there are other major cities in Canada that are cold, the other prairie cities and to a slightly lesser extent Quebec, Winnipeg does hold the distinction of having the coldest winters. On days like today it’s not hard to see why.
While other cities are basking in temperatures as warm as +2 (St. Johns) most are sitting somewhere in the teens (Edmonton, Charlottetown, Whitehorse even) Winnipeg is currently -30 celsius, with wind chill it feel like -43.
That is actually as cold as it sounds and unless you’ve experienced it first-hand you are not going to be able to grasp quite how that feels.
The downside-
· With wind chill heading outside today is absolutely numbing. Exposed skin will develop frost-bite in under 2 minutes and let’s face it no matter how hard you try some skin will show…..and you WILL feel it.
· Just breathing on a day like today is difficult. Your lungs do NOT want to breathe in air so much colder than your natural body temperature and so particularly the first few moments outside will literally leave you gasping.
· Getting dressed properly will take a minimum of five minutes, ten if you are under the age of 13 (note that teenagers are even worse and may never actually dress appropriately).
· You will still be cold no matter how many layers you have or how well you are dressed.
· Eye glasses. You have two options, either you keep your nose poked out of your scarf and risk frost bite to avoid fogging up or you can pull up the scarf, take off your glasses and walk blind.
· If Manitoba Hydro were to ever have major issues half of Winnipeg is going to freeze to death.
· Black ice forms and Winnipeg drivers are already scary enough.
· Chapped lips, ha, try chapped everything!
· IT IS MINUS FREAKING 40!!
Not great selling points for experiencing these temperatures yourself I know.
Here however are the “good” points.
· No mosquitoes, yes this is my first point and trust me it is the big one (as are our mosquitoes in summer).
· It’s a dry cold and yes a dry cold really does not feel as bad as humid cold.
· It’s warm inside and the desire to share body heat encourages cuddling.
· It makes you appreciate the heat of summer
Ok that’s all I got. A regular winter day has quite a few more good points but to be honest there really is nothing good about the experience of an arctic deep freeze.
I’m going to go hug one of the radiators now…….
The Days Are Long
Long are the days
When the sun rarely shines
And the wintery wind blows in a blustery gale
Long are the days
When outside frost covered windows
Nothing shifts but endless white drifts of snow
Long are the days
When nothing can be seen
Creatures hidden from cold and from sight and nothing in bloom
Long are the days
When the cold is felt inside and out
Warmth only found in moments which are quickly fleeting
Long are the days
When each one is the same
Blending from one to the next without change
Long are the days
Until spring
A White Christmas
While parts of the country are facing the prospect of a green or at the least a brown Christmas Winnipeg is absolutely covered in the white stuff. No chance of anything but a white Christmas around here. The past few days in fact have had quite a bit of snow falling and the most gorgeous hoarfrost covering all the trees. This type of frost is usually rather short lived, only seen first thing in the morning before the heat of the sun melts it away but this time it’s stuck around.
We’re had a week of overcast balmy days and we are now on day 5 of being surrounded by these lovely dressed tress. Photographs don’t really do it justice despite my best efforts….ok maybe not my best efforts but none the less there was some effort there, I just can’t capture the magical feeling that hoarfrost contributes to on a near Christmas morning.
The sight of hoarfrost, a freshly fallen carpet of snow, Christmas lights glinting all along the street and the slowly dawning sun really is quite magical. It reaches a spot deep inside that warms you from the inside out. You just can’t be cold when you look at such a beautiful sight. There is something about it that is just oh so comforting and peaceful.
Or perhaps this is just me waxing poetic once again about the beauty in nature. It is after all a bit of a reoccurring theme around here. What can I say I’m a sucker for the outdoors and there is always something new to appreciate around here. Sure I should be used to the change of seasons by now having lived in Manitoba with its extremes my entire life but inevitably the changes still hold me in awe each and every year.
An Ode To Winter
My fingers have frozen, the cold wind does blow
I’ve lost out again to that once icy place.
Slipping and sliding I fell to the ground
It’s cold and it’s wet and it’s not very nice
My bottom is wet, my back does now ache
My dignity demolished, I sit in disgrace.
Left on the stoop, I admit my defeat
It didn’t take long to see that winter has won.
Snow
Judging by appearance it seems the remainder of fall has been skipped over and we’ve gone straight into winter. A strong northern wind is blowing hard, clumps of snow cover the ground and the temperature has plummeted.
Last week we were still wearing shorts, most of September had been quite cool but for the last week or so we returned to, while not quite summer heat, fairly hot days. Then in true prairie’s fashion as if a switch had been flipped the wind reared up and the snow began to fall.
I’m used to the sudden switch into winter but even for Manitoba this is a little on the early side. I don’t doubt that it may again flip and we will return to warmer weather but I could have done without the winter pre-view.
The yard has not yet been winterized and it is not fun to do when fingers freeze. Halloween is just around the corner and with it all the fun annual events that really are not much fun when winter days come early.
Snow on Halloween is usually the earliest we get this type of weather and although I do enjoy a white Christmas I could do without a white Thanksgiving.
Hecla Provincial Park, Winter Days
The resort initially closed down the year after our last visit having been sold and set to be completly updated and re-vamped. What was developed in place of the family friendly experience was a luxury resort too expensive for the every day families which had previously frequented the area. It was also a little too far from Winnipeg to attract the more upscale clientele the developers had been hoping for.
I feel no joy in recalling my own predictions that this plan would fail that it was the wrong course to take but I was indeed correct. Hecla resort now sits empty having been brought up to modern standards it is locked up and falling quickly into direpair. It was damaged by last years flooding and is set to become yet another fatality of Manitobas faltering tourism board.
A Winter Rain
It rained last night and it is raining today. As the temperatures hover a few degrees below zero the rain falls and instantly adds to the layer of ice which covers every glittering surface like glass. The trees bow down the air itself has a gleam and even dirt has a shimmer and shine to it. Light glints off a million precious diamonds as the sun struggles to make an appearance through the swirling rain and snow laden clouds. From the safe haven of a warm house it is nothing but sheer beauty.
Stepping outside however is another matter entirely.
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