I would like to dedicate this next post to my two friends south of the border…Jim and Jason!
I’m beginning to think that the conversational topic of weather is highly underrated. While it used to be the last resort of ice breakers and the clear sign of a struggling conversation, to discuss the weather is to discuss something that universally affects us all in one manner or another.
Jim and I will often discuss what it’s like to live in such varying climates and it goes without saying that the winter months tends to spark the most questions. You don’t really realize how much a community has to adjust to seasonal changes until you meet others who don’t have to so in quite the same way. Always having lived in colder parts of the country, it has always just been second nature to me to adapt to the colder months…but low and behold…it turns out that many people have no idea what we endure for a third of the year!
Canada is by far, one of the coldest countries in the world (alongside Russia) and Ottawa is one of the coldest capitals in the world (number six or seven on the list, I think!) but believe me, we know how to work winter like no else! Normally though, it gets so cold in Ottawa that we don’t often deal with large amounts of snow. We’ll always get a big storm in December or January…then settle into perma-freeze (with temperatures dropping as low as – 40 C. with the wind chill) for the remainder of February and March, during which time, we see very little snow at all because it’s too cold for precipitation. In a nutshell…it sucks!
Since Ottawa sits in a valley, the wind here is horrendous. It’s seldom ever the cold that will get to you…it’s the frigid air that blows through that makes you want to cry! You adapt though. You learn to cope with the temperatures and the cruelty of Mother Nature at times.
This year though, we have experienced a winter unlike any that I’ve seen in my ten years in Ottawa. We have had one dump of snow after another for four straight months now. The slight increase in temperature during the colder months has finally opened the window between “too cold to snow” and “tipping point to endless snow”!!! I have to say…it’s been an adjustment!
Just this morning, we woke up to fifteen more centimeters of snow and are expecting potentially ten more as the day goes on. For a city that is very well equipped for winter, even this brings us to a screeching halt! The snow drifts are starting to look like archeological digs sites in which you can track each significant snow fall of the season. Layer after layer represents each passing snow day and the tell tale of endless shoveling!
On the bright side though…at least we don’t have to cut the grass!!
I’m beginning to think that the conversational topic of weather is highly underrated. While it used to be the last resort of ice breakers and the clear sign of a struggling conversation, to discuss the weather is to discuss something that universally affects us all in one manner or another.
Jim and I will often discuss what it’s like to live in such varying climates and it goes without saying that the winter months tends to spark the most questions. You don’t really realize how much a community has to adjust to seasonal changes until you meet others who don’t have to so in quite the same way. Always having lived in colder parts of the country, it has always just been second nature to me to adapt to the colder months…but low and behold…it turns out that many people have no idea what we endure for a third of the year!
Canada is by far, one of the coldest countries in the world (alongside Russia) and Ottawa is one of the coldest capitals in the world (number six or seven on the list, I think!) but believe me, we know how to work winter like no else! Normally though, it gets so cold in Ottawa that we don’t often deal with large amounts of snow. We’ll always get a big storm in December or January…then settle into perma-freeze (with temperatures dropping as low as – 40 C. with the wind chill) for the remainder of February and March, during which time, we see very little snow at all because it’s too cold for precipitation. In a nutshell…it sucks!
Since Ottawa sits in a valley, the wind here is horrendous. It’s seldom ever the cold that will get to you…it’s the frigid air that blows through that makes you want to cry! You adapt though. You learn to cope with the temperatures and the cruelty of Mother Nature at times.
This year though, we have experienced a winter unlike any that I’ve seen in my ten years in Ottawa. We have had one dump of snow after another for four straight months now. The slight increase in temperature during the colder months has finally opened the window between “too cold to snow” and “tipping point to endless snow”!!! I have to say…it’s been an adjustment!
Just this morning, we woke up to fifteen more centimeters of snow and are expecting potentially ten more as the day goes on. For a city that is very well equipped for winter, even this brings us to a screeching halt! The snow drifts are starting to look like archeological digs sites in which you can track each significant snow fall of the season. Layer after layer represents each passing snow day and the tell tale of endless shoveling!
On the bright side though…at least we don’t have to cut the grass!!
November 22nd, 2007
December 5th, 2007
December 16th, 2007 ~The largest amount of
snow on the ground at any one
time in Ottawa's recorded history...
75 centimetres!!!
TODAY! ~ March 5th, 2008
2 comments:
Whoa!! That is unbelievable; we get nothing like that down here. I was going to post a couple pictures of the “little” ice storm we got a couple weeks ago but your weather puts ours to shame. At least it gives you the opportunity to ski and snowboard. Good pictures btw, did you take them? I especially enjoy the first one. I am in the architectural/engineering industry as well as ministry so I enjoy buildings. Which one is that? I like how the spires are symbolic of stretching toward God. They force your eyes to focus upward. Very nice…
You're looking at the Notre Dame Cathedral...which is across the street from the Gallery. (the spider belongs to us though!!).
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