.....or is it?

http://www.calgaryherald.com/Weather...074/story.html

but its a dry rain in vancouver

I love the way the Bow River "steams" in temps below about -24!
So pretty!

Maybe they found that humans can't detect any temp differences between dry and wet colds, but I certainly can feel the difference in my back and knees...

They ache something rotten if the humidity gets up!

yeah I'm not convinced. I've lived in lots of places in Canada - east and west - and I'd take -20c over -5c in western Scotland any day of the week.

Who am I to argue with the science , but from personal experience it seems like much more of a bone chilling cold when its just damp and miserable in Argyll (and that's coming straight off the plane from Toronto).

I will also unscientifically disagree with this scientific study

Hair and skin so much dryer here (even when it's not windy!) - but that suits me fine. Other people, not so much. Daughter Number One's hands look like mine, ie, someone much older!

Seems much colder a few degrees under 0 in the UK, than -10 or -15 here.

See - dead scientific me - it seems so much colder .....

But isnt that what they are saying?..because of the lack of wind and low humidity -20c calm amd sunny does not feel as cold as +5c in wind and rain

Perhaps I'm reading this wrong but isn't this comparing somewhere in Canada with somewhere else in Canada whereas we're comparing anywhere in Canada with the UK?

Err, what's your point mate? Physics in canada is the same as physics anywhere else.

<BTW the original article wouldn't load for me>

Is that a euphemism ?

The heading on the article is That would seem to be saying that perceived differences within Canada are not really differences.

Physics may be the same anywhere but there are variations in the way things are from place to place aren't there? Different effects of gravity and all that. Different climate to the UK so is it so unlikely that something used to UK conditions might react differently to something apparently the same?

I dunno...there may be better examples but put a glass under cold water and nothing happens. Put a hot glass under the same temperature water and it reacts differently doesn't it?

It's entered the water in a different state and reacts differently.

So someone from the UK who feels very cold in UK -5 may not feel as cold in Canadian -5.

Is there not a certain logic to that?

I'm not altogether serious, but there's something to question isn't there? Like questioning the experts who said the world was flat? Or those experts that one day say something is bad for you but then change their mind?

Time was when Cholesterol was bad for you but now there's good cholesterol.

So when these experts say humans can't detect these climate differences, maybe they can if they come from a different climate.

Maybe there's insufficient differences in North American air for there to be much variation while the air of another continent might behave differently. Can some expert answer that in layman's terms?

Shoot me down but it's a reasonable question isn't it?

If it is, it's way over my head.

Have we perhaps been drinking?

Certainly it (how cold it feels) depends on your recent experience. That article simply and correctly reports that relative humidity (i.e dry/less dry) at very cold temperatures is irrelevant since it affects heat loss from exposed areas of skin barely (groan) at all.

Just a couple of glasses of Chardonnay with dinner earlier.

So what is the reason that so many of us who are used to more mild temperatures feel more comfortable in -20 than we did at zero in the UK?

If our recent experience is mild temperatures, then -20 should seem bloody cold shouldn't it? But many Brits on this forum actually seem to do better in the considerably colder temperatures here than we're used to.

We express that as a "dry cold" but what should we say to explain why it doesn't seem so cold?

There's either "something in it" or we're all wrong.

My wife and stepkids (Canadian) feel the cold more than me. Nothing scientific in that. But when it's just 10 below and I'm out it seems almost pleasant.

I wouldn't say that at zero back in Bristol.

Maybe we need an alternative expression to a dry cold.

What's recent? Between Christmas and New Year it was chilly here (around -10C for a few days): no problem. Then it warmed up to +10 on New Years Eve and stayed that way for 36 hours. Then back to a seasonal -2C.

Which felt cold.

How about "you get used to the cold and dress appropriately so it's not that much of a bother" (within reason)?

When the temperature drops below zero for the first time in the Fall, I always comfort myself by reminding myself that 'this will feel warm in March".

Nothing to do with relative humidity.