It’s cold

It stays below zero Celsius (That’s 32F) for about 5 months, meaning that we never go above freezing. Actually, the temperatures are rarely ever above -6 C (20F), so the roads are hardly ever salted. Salt will not melt snow at those temps.

So the road outside my house looks like this.

Oh sure, when we get a snow storm, the city comes through with Caterpillars to scrape the roads, and they even clear the end of each driveway of the snow that they shoved to the side. But they never scrape all the way down to the pavement, and the road is never truly cleared.



They do spread sand at each intersection to make it easier for cars to stop.

I’ve gotten more used to the winter since we moved to Canada 2 years ago, but I am still surprised by the weird sensation you get in your lungs when the temps are below -25C(-13F) and the way your eyeballs hurt when it gets below -30C (-22 F).

Even weirder, are the people that wait at the bus with just a coat and no gloves. Or a baseball cap covering their head when all the people around them are bundled up beyond recognition.

Kids are out sledding if the temps are above -17C (Zero F) and if we get all the way up to about -8C (17 F) the kids walk to high school wearing nothing but a hoodie.

They only cancel school if daytime highs are not slated to get above -30 (-22F).

And this is not even mentioning the wind chills. You barely even notice the cold if there is not a wind. But walk (I mean RUN!) through the grocery store parking lot in a 20 mile and hour wind, and your entire face is stiff and numb by the time you make it to the doors!

Plus if there is a wind, we usually have blowing snow. Since it is hardly ever warm enough for the snow to melt even a little, that means it is still loose and sandy. So even a little wind sends it blowing and drifting, all over.