Lesser of Two Evils - Heat or Cold?
 

With extreme weather being the focus of the news in the past year - would you rather endure extended periods of heat/humidity or deal with freezing temps/snow/wind?
I'm finding it harder every year to deal with the cold/snow/wind for such extended periods of time, and especially with having to diligently check road conditions/weather forecasts (for months) every time I want to go somewhere! I'm a "throw shoes on, grab keys,go out the door" kind of person, so I LOVE heat! And sunshine is easier to shovel than snow, even when it's humid!
What's your weather "poison"?

Hate the heat--there's a limit to how much of my clothes I can take off and still go out in public.

Love winter--cool crisp air, and my favorite activity--skiing.

Fire and Ice

Some say the world will end in fire,
Some say in ice.
From what I've tasted of desire
I hold with those who favor fire.
But if it had to perish twice,
I think I know enough of hate
To say that for destruction ice
Is also great
And would suffice.

Robert Frost (1874-1963)

We get both extreme heat and extreme cold where we live. My daughter and I were talking about this very topic the other day--it's been over 100 degrees every day where we live for the past couple of weeks. We're all pretty tired of it and decided that we'd rather deal with the cold and snow. At least there's hot chocolate and fireplaces to keep things cozy in the winter. In the summer, about the only thing that helps is sitting in a swimming pool. One caveat to the cold, though, is a nice vacation to somewhere warm about Feb. 1 :-)

Hate both extremes. But more andmore, the humidity just totally wilts me...and makes me feel actually ill. So, hard as it is, to feel housebound in the harsh cold, and hate the early early dark and wonder how in the heck we will manage to pay the fuel bill (way more than doubled in the past 10 years), I think I might have to opt for...cold.

Thing is....humidity (at least for us - in the upper midwest) does not last ALL summer. Eventually, usually, there is a break to lovely summer weather. Winter..................goes on and on and on and..........on.............

Thank you, Orcas.

If we were talking about just temperatures and humidity, then I'd definitely vote for cold -- at least you can dress for it and be comfortable outdoors. But if you add in snow, then I'd have to say no; I got a bad case of cabin fever last winter after we got twice the normal snowfall, and no melting, here in Boston.

Love cold, Love snow - except when it's been sitting onthe ground for a week - but even thenit's way better than 90 and hunid - when I hate leaving the house. After all - it's so easy just to slip on an extra sweater,.

I can;t stand the idea of going out to run a couple of errands - dorp clothes at the cleaners, pick up shampoo at the drugstore and a few things at the market - and come back drenched in sweat and have to shower and change. Completly enervating and way too much trouble.

(I suspect that most people who prefer the heat do so because they're not really in the heat - they just go from AC house to AC car to AC mall or movie or restaurant etc. If they had to go out and walk 10 or 12 blocks to do a few errands I think many would change their minds. They don;t prefer the heat - they just find it easier to avoid.)

Reporting from Dallas, Texas: The heat, of course! I spent my first 23 yaers in Illinois and truly don't know how I did it. I have no cold tolerance whatsoever. I can't even stand to swim in the evenings here, because it's maybe 85 degrees instead of 95...I get cold when I get out of the water.

I would much rather deal with the heat.

I'm miserable when the air temp falls below 75 degrees. The hotter, the better.

I live in the Boston area also and so far this summer I've been to Virginia and Memphis and am heading to Florida in August. I know cold and snow and I will take the heat and humidity any day. And I spent lots of time outdoors while in Virginia and Memphis so I wasn't just dashing for air conditioned car to air conditioned building. I actually enjoyed the heat.

Now when I was younger, I definately would have answered in the reverse, so maybe these old bones need the heat more.

Give me heat and humidity any day over freezing temps, ice and snow.

I'll vote heat and humidity too. I grew up in the Berkshires, moved south after college. We were transferred to Boston after 7 years in New Orleans. The kids were little. It was winter. Snow. Wet. Snowsuits. Boots. Wet feet. Shoveling a long driveway, dirty streets, dirty snowbanks, slush in parking lots. Long dreary overcast days and it got dark around 4 something. Just when you think Spring may finally be here...it'd snow again. Waaa! I couldn't wait to get out. DH asked to be moved and off we went to Dallas.

We were almost transferred to another snowy climate this past fall. He told them &quot;no&quot;. So, although we've left sunny warm, humid FL, we are now in sunny, warm, but a little less humid San Antonio and thanking our lucky stars that this was the next offer that came up. We didn't know how many &quot;no's&quot; he had in the bag before they said, &quot;too bad, you are <i>going</i>!&quot;

There were some absolutely glorious days in the summer and fall in New England, but I really hated the eternal winter. The absolutely glorious days just come at a different time of year in FL and TX, but I'm personally better with heat than I am with cold, but more than the cold, its the dreariness that so often accompanies it that time of year that got to me.

As all my friends know, I love the rain, snow and ice! Yes, a bit odd...but I love it. I wilt in the heat. Being stationed in GA about did me in! The cold is refreshing, and you can dress for it very easily.

Heat and humidity or cold and snow? hmmmm...let me think......hmmmm.... still thinking.....

Perhaps it is because I've never lived where it really gets that icky humid stuff, but I truly can't stand snow and freezing temps. And no matter how much one piles on layers, there is always one part of one's body that is exposed to cold to wet that gets uncomfortable.

Nope. Give me the heat! I love summer!

Living in NC now, I'm not sure I could handle the winters of central NY as I did growing up. I do not enjoy the hot weather as much as I did when I first moved here, but it's still better than the long, long winters of central NY.

Blood must be thinning out with old age -- I now wear a sweatshirt when it's 72 degres. Considering I grew up in snowy, cold, dark Sweden, and moved to snowy, cold, dark PA, and freaked when I had to drive if a snow flake fell, I'm surprisingly happy in 120 degree real-feel (yesterday off coastal SC). Besides I no longer cry over $800 per month heating bills. That money will buy a LOT of air conditioning -- but I still spend a lot of time outdoors.

B/

Rather be cold than hot. Liv'n in NH we get both but are better prepared for the cold.

mm

Having lived in Boston during one of the worst winters and now living in Charleston where it was 120 with heat index yesterday, I pick the cold any day! You can always layer up to get warm but its all over when you're in the pool and still roasting!