Let’s talk about life in Canada for a moment. Growing up in Toronto, I always mocked people for their views regarding extreme cold. They would say stuff like, “Yeah, it’s minus 40 where I live, but it’s a dry cold,” which somehow justified their choice of living conditions.
To me, minus 40 was minus 40, no matter how intent your spin was on making it more palatable. It wasn’t until I moved up north into my log-cabin that I realized there was a notable truth to this odd perspective of weather extremes.
Dampness and humidity have a definite bearing on chilling one to the bone. While maintaining my mural-painting business for several years in the big city, the 6-hour drive south proved to me that a minus 15 celsius indication near a large body of water could easily feel more uncomfortable than a minus 40 one at home in the woods.