Hot enough for ya? or, The eternal weather discussion... Posted by Gabriel on 10:19 pm

The weather.

I find that the weather was always a bit of an obsession in Canada, at least in my neck of the woods (south-western Ontario).

In the winter, if it snowed a lot or was very cold, it'd be front page news, in the summer, if it rained a lot or was hot, it’d be front page new.

At my parents’ house, we used to have The Weather Network on the TV for hours on end. In the kitchen it would be on as background noise whenever we were making dinner, as it was far more relaxing (some would argue informative as well) than CNN.

I always used to love the severe weather alerts that would come up once in a while, usually in the spring or summer at the height of the tornado season. We used to pride ourselves in being in the Tornado belt.

It'd give me a tingly sensation in my spine, like if we were close to the end of the world whenever the warning tone would sound and one of those blood red severe weather alerts would come up. You could almost feel the electricity in the air when a tornado or severe thunderstorm warning was announced.

And when the summer thundershowers would pass, as you'd step outside you would be greeted with clear skies and the sound of dripping water, with flashes of lightning and the low rumble of thunder in the distance. Later on you'd have a breathtaking sunset in hues of violet and red.

Though summer also brings allergy alerts and UV warnings.

In the winter, seeing the Arctic front coming down was always a bit depressing, that spelled cold snaps and wind chill warnings and having to plug in the block heater.

When I moved to Portugal, invariably any phone call with my parents would include a weather report, including local humidity and wind chill. They would, of course, expect the same from me.

Unfortunately, Portugal's weather isn't very temperamental (ha!). I can count on one hand the number of thunderstorms I've experienced here, and have only seen snow once, most of the year the weather is either sunny or rainy.

We may not talk about anything else, but we'd always talk about the weather.

I can't feel my toes. Posted by Gabriel on 4:23 pm

In line with current Summit on climate change in Copenhagen, it appears that in the next few days a cold spell is going to pass through Portugal, and temperatures are expected to drop below zero! With next Monday being one of the coldest days of the year. This motivated a communiqué from Civil Protection, warning residents to be careful with ice formation on roads.

This reminds me of how blessed we (residents in Portugal) are with the weather here.

Since about 90% of national territory has no snowfall, and therefore there is no need to salt the roads. For this reason you see cars without a spot of rust, and many 30 and 40 year old cars in pristine condition on the roads. During the day, when it’s sunny out, you can actually hang outside with friends, or take a walk downtown without worrying about frostbite. No ice or snow on the roads theoretically means fewer accidents (Portugal, despite having little to no snow, is one of the most accident prone countries in Europe). Energy bills are much lower since heaters are not needed (I actually have my windows open while typing this, it’s about 18C now).

The other side of the coin is that people here don’t know what they’re missing by not having snow. Making snowmen and snow angles, tobogganing, snow fights, soaked snow pants and snow days are all fond memories of Canadian children. Sure you'd throw out your back shovelling snow, see your car rust away to nothing due to salt, rarely savour sunshine, and lose a finger or two to sub-zero temperatures, but all that is a small price to pay for the sight of a magical white blanket of cold fluff covering everything in the morning after a snowstorm, and all that’s associated with it.

On the issue of climate change; what can I say? I truly hope something is done, since it is an issue that affects us all.

But I doubt that the developing countries are willing to abdicate their own economic development in order to benefit the climate. After all, the current industrialized countries were able to expand and develop without any checks or limits with regards to CO2 or other greenhouse gas emissions, so why should currently developing countries be subject to limitations? Equal opportunities and all that... Well, let’s see what happens.

Anyhow, don’t forget to bundle up!