Crazy Weather

Well since every one else is talking about I thought what the hay I will too...

I live in Northern Alberta, Canada. This means that winter is usually very cold, especially the months of December, January and February. Now I know that every one has a different opinion of cold, earlier our blog group did what winter meant to them and depending on where they were from their opinion of cold would vary. Since I live in Canada the temperatures are in Celcius and if you want to convert them go to this website it is pretty quick.

Living in Canada puts me a colder range than most of my blog friends as just being farther South makes you warmer, but being in Northern Alberta puts me pretty far North...Just to make things easier for you I am about 1000 miles South of Yellowknife which is on the same parallel as Anchorage, Alaska... perhaps that might tell some of you that are really far South how far North I am... My point is that winter here is cold and before Global Warming and all that the temperatures at this time of year were unbearably cold. Usually school is closed for a few days at this time of the year...now you have to understand that because we live so far North they don't close the schools often. We have to get a lot of snow all at one time...which we usually don't we get a bit at a time, over a two or three day period all through the winter. And the temperatures have to be so cold that the buses won't run before they close the schools...and then the schools are not actually closed. If you chose to send your child to school you can do so as the school is actually open but there are no classes. The rule for school closures is if the buses won't start or the temperatures are -40C without windchill or -50C with a windchill...let me tell you that is damn cold. We are conditioned here for it to be cold so once that first snow fall comes you dig out the big winter boots and all the other gear snow pants, coats, belclava, mitts, scarves the works...and you never travel anywhere without them because you never when that Northern wind will blow in.

A friend of mine sent me this picture and it really shows what life is like here. This is the marina just a few blocks from my house in one of really cold spells...beautiful but very cold...

This winter has been totally crazy... winter didn't start until much later than it usually does, we usually have snow for Halloween but this year it was late November. Then the temperatures have been all over the place. One day it is +10C and the sun is shining the next day it is -20C with a windchill -30C and you never know from one day to the next what to expect. Every morning I look at the weathernetwork.com to see what the weather has in store for the kids that day as they leave for school. This little link gives me the weather for the rest of the week and it amazes me how crazy the temperatures are especially for winter...right now they are calling for -15C over night and then up to -4C by tomorrow afternoon, then up to +2C by Wednesday afternoon...which is crazy especially since it is -15C with a windchill of -23C out there right now. We rarely see temperatures above 0C here in January and February, but this year we have a few stints of these warm temperatures...

So like I said earlier cold is pretty relative depending on where you live but for me -4C is balmy for a winter day...which for my American friends is about 24F...so remember when you are thinking it is really cold at your house because you are down to the low 20s that some of us are up North enjoying the beautiful winter day :)