Difference between Winters in the North and South

@string said:
40-50 and high humidity is awful. Not nearly as life threatening, but bone chilling to the max.

True but the roads stay clear and it warms up in the afternoon… We had several days in the 30’s a few years ago… just brutal. It sucked the O2 out of the shallow water and created large fish kills.

@grayhawk said:

@string said:
40-50 and high humidity is awful. Not nearly as life threatening, but bone chilling to the max.

True but the roads stay clear and it warms up in the afternoon… We had several days in the 30’s a few years ago… just brutal. It sucked the O2 out of the shallow water and created large fish kills.

We have no bugs. That’s a positive.

We learn to live with the little blood suckers, sort of. Mosquitoes, no- see-ems, horseflies, deer flies, chiggers (red bugs) ticks, and a black fly that looks like a house fly.
I was bitten so many times as a kid ,skeeters hardly bother me.
No-see-ems come straight from hell.

Reports from last night’s meeting was the Everglades last week no skeeters.

We kayak with ice. … in the cooler.

Very little salt used here. Usually it’s too cold for salt to work on anything other than a margarita
Sand however. Agh. Sand everywhere. It comes in the house. I’d rather be in sand wheee it should be. On a beach

In Arizona, we only use salt for margaritas.
BUT, this weekend, I am doing 36 miles down the Colorado River living out of my kayak and plan to do it in shorts and t-shirt.
Maybe it will drop to 50 overnight, probably closer to 54. High 70’s day, no rain.

And yet, somehow, with weather like this, ALL the sporting goods stores put away anything related to watersports and unpack the winter clothes and skis!
Corporate decision by people who live 24/7/365 in Vermont!

Another aspect of the salt on roads is that cars driven on them rust out more frequently. This only happens at the coast in the Deep South. However, too many salted glass rims can also ruin a car being driven.

But as Overstreet noted ice in the cooler or in the glass is preferable to ice in the trees, and on the road.

As for skiing both North and South do it on water, the big difference here is the hardness of the water skied upon. In the North try not to hit a tree, and in the South avoid the gators!

I feel sure the witty folks on here can come up with some more interesting contrasts between the Regions!

@Rookie said:

We have no bugs. That’s a positive.

Snow Dune Buggies

In frosty-freeze of Great Lake breeze
a Yuper stoopers down,
into root cellar where dormant feller
in old box slumbers sound,

then opening box the Yuper shocks
and sought photos tumble down,
for in a blink winter really stinks
with stink bugs still around
(as cockroach scurries from yelled sound)

There are a lot of Canadian and Northeast license plates down heah.

A lot of Carolina plates here…

@grayhawk said:
A lot of Carolina plates here…

I wish mine was one of them.

After our artic plunge into the negative digits, 32 and sunny feels practically balmy…

We were snow and ice-covered in single digit temps and negative number wind chills last week here in Pittsburgh – today it’s in the 60’s, most snow is gone and people are out jogging in shorts and tee shirts. But we’ve got another snowstorm coming tomorrow evening. The only thing you can be assured of about weather in SW Pennsylvania is that you won’t see snow in July or August. Other than that, anything goes on a daily basis…

Sounds like parts of Texas.

Any support here for the 4 seasons? I enjoy the changes, if it snows, I hope for a big blizzard! Nice to see the spring come alive, summer’s balmy days are welcome as well, And fall colors are extraordinary to behold.

Yeah, I’ll second the four seasons preference. The problem in Wisconsin this year was a that there seemed to be a lack of “shoulder season”. It seemed to go from 40s and 50s directly to single digits and sub zero with no time to adjust. This probably isn’t unique to this state.

This time last month some friends did an over-nighter on the river which had very little, if any, ice at that time. On New Year’s Day our local club did our regular paddle (on a lake that serves as a cooling pond for a power plant so its always open) but it was too cold for me this time. (With age comes at least a smidgen of wisdom.) The hardiest among us went out in their dry suits and full winter regalia and lasted for about half an hour before retreating to a local bar for chili.
Then came a few balmy spring like days. This morning it was almost 50. Almost all the snow has melted. Kinda’ crazy for January. I went out to check the river. It was still frozen solid on Tuesday, water on top of the ice this (Thurs) morning but the channels still weren’t moving at all. About noon it started raining, which turned to sleet and now were back in the deep freeze. They didn’t spread salt this time because it would have washed off. Its dangerously slick out there now.

I believe those of us who go through this sort of thing for a few months develop a true appreciation of spring and especially of flowing waters. I’ve heard it said that hunger is the best sauce. Similarly, I think we four seasoners develop a bit deeper appreciation of liquid water after enduring a bit of stuff like this.

I favor the seasonal transitions also. Good thing, since in Pittsburgh we often get all 4 within one month! Last winter it got so warm in early February that I had bulbs blooming all over the yard – the flowers ended up crushed by heavy snows and ice storms shortly thereafter. But then the same thing often happens in late April or even mid May. Some winters we have no snow at all, other years we are paralyzed for weeks with drifts that bury cars and cover first floor windows.

I grew up outside metro Boston and recall distinct seasons there. When we moved here when I was in high school I was shocked by the unpredictability. Our first Christmas here it was 65 degrees out – I recall walking out in our back yard in my bare feet to fill the bird feeder. The following May we students were sent home from school early due to a heavy snow storm.

The lines of weather demarcation are drastic too (Rookie probably has the same thing – Michigan has distinct lateral bands of weather year round.) Adjacent counties and even neighborhoods can have completely different weather at any given time. We have a lot of long highway tunnels here – the area is corrugated with steep hills and deep river and stream cut valleys – it’s not unusual to enter a tunnel in bright clear sunlight and exit the other end less than a mile later in the midst of a swirling blizzard. I’ve even been driving down a highway here and entered a snowstorm on monsoon-like rain like it was a wall. Or been driving in sunshine on a high ridge looking down on an isolated storm dumping on the valley below. It’s an interesting place to live.

viva la difference

I’m afraid I need 4 seasons of water, and prefer it warm (Seattle worked, but water never got (FL) warm).

However, I’m a 1-dimensional type of person, only kayak.
When I lived in MN, I tried cross-country skiing, snow-shoeing, just plain hiking around (in my Steger mukluks), just didn’t do it for me. In the end, to keep myself from atrophying over the long winters I would alternate between a ConceptII rowing erg. and a Nordic Track ski machine.

I do miss following the Spring ice-out on the MN & WI rivers, travelling a little further north each weekend.

Growing up in South FL I knew it was winter when the Bald Cypress lived up to their name and lost their feathery leaves.

Living in SC we have very distinct seasons, but winter has infrequent snows with many winters never turning white here in the piedmont. However, a short 2 to 4 hour drive you can be in the NC mountains and snow if you want as it often snows at those elevations. Both the Smokies and Black Mountains have high ridges over 6000 feet. In fact the highest mountains in the Eastern USA are there. I spent 37 years backpacking those places and the AT for 5 to 6 day winter trips. Many years it would be in the snow.

However, even though my winter paddling rarely includes any ice here in SC the water gets cold enough to justify the expense of a good dry suit.

I love the fall and spring. Fall brings the leaf colors and relief from the heat and Spring blooms and green up relief from the cold drab greys and browns of winter.

A real plus to living in the piedmont region of SC is I am only 3 hours from the mountains and 3 hours from the coast. What a fabulous variety of paddling venues within easy driving distance, from white water to flat to lakes to swamps to marsh to Ocean. Allowing year round paddling. Oh Drat! I let the secret out!