Have we actually Forgotten what cold is

[The PIT]

Noticed the cold spell thread was going rather well when I got back this morning and I thought well it's ended. Yet people think it's cold. Got to admit myself I thought today was cold certainly compared to some days last Jan. Mainly the reason why I thought was cold was the strong breeze but I then realised I was being rather soft "nesh" as we would say round here. Got home and Max temp was 1C to 1.5C above what we normally get for Jasn and the evening temp going to likewise unless we lose the wind. I spent part of the walk looking for the first signs of spring and they were there. Tree buds well swollen up and green but further back than last year no doubt due to mid December.

Overall I think we've forgotten what cold is. Dec inversion was impressive but comp;aired to some DEcs in the past it was a heatwave.

One of the problems is that people have got used to having temps in the house between 70F and 80F when you used to be lucky to get much above 60. So when they step outside into a mild Jan morning at 7C they do a Carol Kirkwood and say it's freezing.

Talking the in the Pub news year day about 79 when we had the Windows frozen up outside and in and Snow Blowing through the secondary glazing. Every House had tons of Icicles hanging of them as did street lights drainpipes now you're lucky if you see one. Last time there was a good display probably was 87. Sadly it looks like we're all getting soft and doubt possibly keep getting softer until the fuel runs out.

[swfc]

Have to agree there and some of the headlines just before Thursdays "big freeze" do nothing to dispell this theory.I like you remember severe spells esp in the late 70s but people just got on with things.Maybe one day people may get a proper jolt to the system but the down side is the uk would come to a standstill.

[PersianPaladin]

Noticed the cold spell thread was going rather well when I got back this morning and I thought well it's ended. Yet people think it's cold. Got to admit myself I thought today was cold certainly compared to some days last Jan. Mainly the reason why I thought was cold was the strong breeze but I then realised I was being rather soft "nesh" as we would say round here. Got home and Max temp was 1C to 1.5C above what we normally get for Jasn and the evening temp going to likewise unless we lose the wind. I spent part of the walk looking for the first signs of spring and they were there. Tree buds well swollen up and green but further back than last year no doubt due to mid December.

Overall I think we've forgotten what cold is. Dec inversion was impressive but comp;aired to some DEcs in the past it was a heatwave.

One of the problems is that people have got used to having temps in the house between 70F and 80F when you used to be lucky to get much above 60. So when they step outside into a mild Jan morning at 7C they do a Carol Kirkwood and say it's freezing.

Talking the in the Pub news year day about 79 when we had the Windows frozen up outside and in and Snow Blowing through the secondary glazing. Every House had tons of Icicles hanging of them as did street lights drainpipes now you're lucky if you see one. Last time there was a good display probably was 87. Sadly it looks like we're all getting soft and doubt possibly keep getting softer until the fuel runs out.

I had a decent display of icicles in 2005....indeed on the bridges there were massive ice-stalagtites that were a hazard to vehicles.

Yes; we've become softer as a nation...one snowflake falls on a train line and its game over. Pretty pathetic.

[Snowly does it]

You're probably not wrong in many ways, I grew up with ice on the inside of my single-glazed, metal-framed windows and relied on a hot water bottle and as many teddy bears as could fit under the candlewick. Central heating didn't really exist.

Having said that, whilst its not deep cold, 7 degrees with wind IS cold and will do you no good if you are out in it (inactive) for long periods of time. Its cold, its just not noteworthy cold.

[Stratos Ferric]

I very much agree PIT. Even the weathermen get in on the acto nowadays describing a day which, twenty years ago would have passed as fairly average, as 'cold'. To see 7s and 8s described as cold just goes to show how much expectations have changed. Fair enough, if they're behind a cold front and replacing air at 12-13, then it feels colder, but it's not cold.

I find as I get older I'm less heat tolerant than I used to be, but even so, I can often get by without an overcoat, and a thick overcoat is nowadays an exceptional requirement. When I was a kid going to school in winter there were few days when a coat wasn't necessary, and a few more when even then a thick Parka wasn't enough.

You're probably not wrong in many ways, I grew up with ice on the inside of my single-glazed, metal-framed windows and relied on a hot water bottle and as many teddy bears as could fit under the candlewick. Central heating didn't really exist.

Having said that, whilst its not deep cold, 7 degrees with wind IS cold and will do you no good if you are out in it (inactive) for long periods of time. Its cold, its just not noteworthy cold.

Very true. I even remember ice on the INSIDE of my parent's windows (admittedly single glazed) back in 1978/9, but the window was right above a radiator and the central heating was on all the time. Reading Paul "ramper" Hudson's "Frozen in Time" the other day, and seeing pictures of snowdrifts as high as houses, and stories of lorry drivers having to light fires under their tanks reminded me of the spell in December 1981 when my Dad came back from Scarborough telling the same story of lorries all along the A64 doing the same. So cold the diesel turned to wax in the tank! I also remember a visit to Malham Cove and Gordale Scar at the same time, and the waterfall at the latter being frozen with a glaze of ice on the rocks about a foot thick.

[Louby]

yep I think we have forgotten what it was like, When I lived in Germany had a couple of winters where we had -15c temps and believe it or not they didn't grind to a halt. I loved it, felt like a proper winter.

[Mondy]

I can assure you, as one who forgot his gloves for work this morning and arrived home with red raw hands/fingers, it's still cold outside!

[Snowly does it]

Very true. I even remember ice on the INSIDE of my parent's windows (admittedly single glazed) back in 1978/9, but the window was right above a radiator and the central heating was on all the time. Reading Paul "ramper" Hudson's "Frozen in Time" the other day, and seeing pictures of snowdrifts as high as houses, and stories of lorry drivers having to light fires under their tanks reminded me of the spell in December 1981 when my Dad came back from Scarborough telling the same story of lorries all along the A64 doing the same. So cold the diesel turned to wax in the tank! I also remember a visit to Malham Cove and Gordale Scar at the same time, and the waterfall at the latter being frozen with a glaze of ice on the rocks about a foot thick.

I remember not being able to see out of my window for the ice on the inside - thick and opaque, that grainy quality to it.

December 1981 was brutal, I do remember the forecasts which my mother would watch intently and tut at the lows progged. Our pipes burst that winter.

It was a different time and I'd be giddy for half of its brutality. I live in hope.

[Stratos Ferric]

I remember not being able to see out of my window for the ice on the inside - thick and opaque, that grainy quality to it.

December 1981 was brutal, I do remember the forecasts which my mother would watch intently and tut at the lows progged. Our pipes burst that winter.

It was a different time and I'd be giddy for half of its brutality. I live in hope.

Yes, I remember as a young child the patterns of icy fern that were magically drawn on the inside of windows overnight. There's a scene in Dr Zhivago that always reminds of that, when Yuri sees the candle inside Lara's window.

[Snowly does it]

Yes, I remember as a young child the patterns of icy fern that were magically drawn on the inside of windows overnight. There's a scene in Dr Zhivago that always reminds of that, when Yuri sees the candle inside Lara's window.

Yopu're making me nostalgic, stop it.

[Rollo]

Obviously recent winters are unlike those in recent past decades but 2c in bright sunshine and no wind will always feel warmer than 6c with a strong polar maritime westerly or should I say that is my experience whilst out on the golf course. The freezes of the sixties are of course now but a distant memory but I do remember thick ice in the inside of our windows but today we are pampered with double glazing and should we get the mythical beast from the east in its proper form it will come as a rude shock to many of us.

[0000]

I just wish i'd made more of the 80's winters.But I suppose nobody knew about this ongoing temporary blip back then.

[Toppler]

Farming from a 17c property we 'used' to have a darn good indicator of cold, the water here is pumped from a well but the supply is only 6inch underground. Wake up to no water and you new it was cold, it also meant a darn hard day ahead, can't remember the last time it happened.

In fact my eldest is now 10 and hasn't known a day like it.....

This 'modern' cold is just not the proper stuff........

[mezzacyclone]

,,,and lets not forget when the council gritters went on strike to every childs joy !

Just about every road in South yorks was on-piste as i remember seeing someone ski-ing and trapping down a main road into town,

I'll never forget deserted streets during rush-hour,

kinda spooky and (in my terms) sadness to never re-materialise - imagine the uproar?

[Rustynailer]

The last time it properly went cold here in my opinion was 1991, so I must admit I probably have forgotten exactly what proper cold is. In the late 70s early 80s it did the same as above but for longer, I was living 200 miles further North and it was bloody exiting Damn I have forgotten all but the most memorable bits, I know the atmosphere was special though, I will always remember the "smell of cold", Which I have not smelt in a long time

I pray for some proper cold soon, to refresh our memories

Russ

[0000]

The last time it properly went cold here in my opinion was 1991, so I must admit I probably have forgotten exactly what proper cold is. In the late 70s early 80s it did the same as above but for longer, I was living 200 miles further North and it was bloody exiting Damn I have forgotten all but the most memorable bits, I know the atmosphere was special though, I will always remember the "smell of cold", Which I have not smelt in a long time

I pray for some proper cold soon, to refresh our memories

Russ

The smell of cold.....................Yes that brought a flood of memories back

[peterf]

Noticed the cold spell thread was going rather well when I got back this morning and I thought well it's ended. Yet people think it's cold. Got to admit myself I thought today was cold certainly compared to some days last Jan. Mainly the reason why I thought was cold was the strong breeze but I then realised I was being rather soft "nesh" as we would say round here. Got home and Max temp was 1C to 1.5C above what we normally get for Jasn and the evening temp going to likewise unless we lose the wind. I spent part of the walk looking for the first signs of spring and they were there. Tree buds well swollen up and green but further back than last year no doubt due to mid December.

Overall I think we've forgotten what cold is. Dec inversion was impressive but comp;aired to some DEcs in the past it was a heatwave.

One of the problems is that people have got used to having temps in the house between 70F and 80F when you used to be lucky to get much above 60. So when they step outside into a mild Jan morning at 7C they do a Carol Kirkwood and say it's freezing.

Talking the in the Pub news year day about 79 when we had the Windows frozen up outside and in and Snow Blowing through the secondary glazing. Every House had tons of Icicles hanging of them as did street lights drainpipes now you're lucky if you see one. Last time there was a good display probably was 87. Sadly it looks like we're all getting soft and doubt possibly keep getting softer until the fuel runs out.

spot on PIT,i remember the late 70s early 80s. and the ice was quarter inch thick inside my bed room window.

also remember the redevelopment of ST JAMES PARK (KEEGAN ERA) AND WE WERE MOVED OUT OF THE NEW LEAZES END. BECAUSE OF 3-5FT LONG ICICLES CRASHING INTO THE FRONT 10 ROWS OF THE GROUND.caps sorry.

if anyone had been speared by them monsters it would have been awful.

the bloody things had hung for days before the thaw,and would have killed umpteen people.

mass cover cover up of events afterwards by the HALL regime.

Edited January 5, 2008 by peterf

[Rob]

we definately have forgottent the slight bit of cold and the country grounds to a hault you dont see it in colder contries like russia or the USA!

[The PIT]

,,,and lets not forget when the council gritters went on strike to every childs joy !

Just about every road in South yorks was on-piste as i remember seeing someone ski-ing and trapping down a main road into town,

I'll never forget deserted streets during rush-hour,

kinda spooky and (in my terms) sadness to never re-materialise - imagine the uproar?

Thats was my favourite but Sheffield didn't get cut off. One road open. Great days those.

[TEITS]

Have to agree with you Pit and inactual fact I was thinking about this just the other day when my local newspaper had the headline "snow alert" on the front page.

I cannot even begin to imagine what the media would make of another 79, 87 type of cold spell should this occur but I bet this country would grind to a halt if it did. I always laugh when I hear of schools closing just because of 1cm of snow and I remember last year some schools were closed because the teachers struggled to make the journey, when the reality is they just couldn't be bothered and used the excuse of snow to have a day off!

Speaking of temps here is my interpretation of max temps during winter.

6-8C Average, 5-3C cool, 2-0C cold, -1 - 3C very cold, -4 - -7 bitterly cold, -8 -11 extreme cold.

[marty_c]

I really dont get why everyone just cant handle a wee bit of snow?

[Louby]

I just wish i'd made more of the 80's winters.But I suppose nobody knew about this ongoing temporary blip back then.

Only had one decent winter back in the 80's here in southern softy land but it was a good one!!

[BARRY]

makes me laugh, when the temperature drops to say 6c out they come, thick jumpers,

coats, scarfs and woolly hats, good god i have only worn my work jumper 4 times this winter,get rid of the clothes let your body get used to the cold and you will be much healthier

[I remember Atlantic 252]

ive forgotten what snow is lol, how i miss my snow my favourite snow school shutting day 6 inches, bring back winters lol

[marty_c]

I agree. Bring back winter. I miss them