I'm interested to know how much of an impact "the weather" actually has on your day to day life...

I've been known to whinge occasionally () and this past winter (my seventh here) has been a seemingly long and frustrating one, though whether it was really longer and more frustrating than the other six is debatable.

But the reality is I work an office job with standard hours. I'm protected from the worst and I miss the best. If it's minus 15 outside, I miss it. If it's sunny and 23 degrees, I pop out at lunchtime and sit out for half an hour then return to my office.

Driving to work can be adversely affected - I found December exhausting. Shovelling the drive is an inconvenience (but arguably so is mowing the lawn).

In the UK I really disliked January and February but other than that, the weather was rarely on my radar. In Canada, the daily reports are constantly of interest to me, and the skies are gorgeous and fascinating and I can watch the weather roll back and forth for hours from my house on a hill. But winter is three months too long and I need to consider future options, especially the days when I won't be doing those office hours.

Canada has made me obsessed, and when any newbies come on here asking about an area, we all dive in with weather references. So is it really that important to your daily life?

Important not per se but it can impact daily life.
Nothing worse than having to set your alarm clock at 2am to get up for a 4am start time and finding you had 10 to 15 cms of snow overnight and you now have to shovel the driveway so you can get to work. No public transit available at that time in the morning to get me to work and I live in a city.
Finishing a shift at 1.30 in the morning knowing its been minus 26C all day and as you are walking back to your car you hope some twat hasn't knicked your block heater cord as they forgot theirs and plugged in their car. Then finding out its a 12 hour wait for a boost.
Im sure I could think of more.

Generally speaking most of the time the weather has no actual impact on my daily life. I am at work overnight, sleeping all day, so not like I am going out to do anything.

Only time really is when it snow, and only because most of the lower mainland region can't clear snow worth a hoot, and it really causes chaos at times with getting around, but luckily its pretty much just a handful of days at most.

The summer heat causes me some issues as I can't tolerate warm weather, so in summer I tend to spend most of my time indoors with a/c on, heat and I just don't get along, so summer weather does impact me most, keeps me from doing as much as i'd like to do. but its just too miserable on warm days to go outside, so I plan my day around being inside.

It impacts me about the same way as you Ann m, It does get painful walking the dogs when it's really cold and I have learnt that glasses and scarves don't really mix very well. It limits us leaving the city we live in in the winter, due to the bad road conditions on HWY 2 so we avoid making winter plans - forget booking concerts or hotels in mountains in advance.

For OH it impacts him during his working day, a car/truck covered in ice and snow that needs repair is not pleasant and sometimes need to defrost, likewise non starters that have to be started outside - he has learnt to refuse to work on certain jobs until they are in the workshop.

I do think the winters get longer the longer you are here

The weather is the one thing that has impacted my work more than anything I think. You get used to it I guess. The having to divert and get stuck in some forsaken place for days on end was not fun, but then neither was getting stuck in a snow squall with nowhere to go but down. Icing can cause some consternation as well.

Winter weather affects us in several ways:

- road conditions, of course. It's quite rare that there are conditions when I think "no, no, no", just twice this past winter, both times due to blowing snow. We did get stuck once, in a deep drift across the road and we had a scary skidding and wobbling incident; again when the road unexpectedly went from clear to 2' deep. We were rear ended on ice, I think a collision every couple of winters is usual. Roads are often closed due to weather so there's the constant risk of a ticket for going road the barrier.

- time and money to clear the driveway. We have, and I think need, a tractor and snow blower. We have to get out and delivery vehicles have to get in.

- loss of power. If the wind blows there's no mains electricity so we have a generator, a stock of petrol and a good supply of firewood.

- frozen waterers. Even with the best technology things go wrong and the waterers need sorting out.

- flooding. The snow melts, the roads are full of water, some are closed.

Summer weather is an inconvenience only because one's hair can be mussed by driving in a open car.

I suppose I'd say that there are fifteen or so days per year when the weather is the primary concern and many more when it requires attention but doesn't dominate the day.

Just shave it off!

On a serious note we had several power outages due to the weather in the Downtown core and I have had a very slow healing damaged nerve from a slip on the ice on January 4th.

During the winter I have to carry a couple of bottles of screen washer as I use the stuff like crazy whilst driving around.

One of the things I like about Canada is the way people carry on through the extreme weather.

Back in Blighty when it rains it is a flood. When there is sun it is a drought....the media never stops.

If the weather is bad when I am on all I end up staying at the hospital. I usually have to do this once per winter, this winter I stayed 5 times. Which is a bore as it's uncomfortable. Then I usually have to dig the car out so I can leave and the drive when I get home.

Summers are ok now we have AC.

I miss UK winters. I'm from N. Wales and often during the Ontario winters I would love to be able to go for a walk on one of Anglesey's beaches. The Gulf Stream helps to keep that part of the world fairly mild (though of course recently N. Wales has had very bad and snowy winters too). But on the whole it's really nice (can you tell I have a touch of 'hiraeth' (Welsh for homesickness)!

This last winter in Ontario has been the pits and I hope next year's will be gentler. Off with the snow tires I say, off with the gloves and the winter boots and the heavy coats, pack away the shovel and the snow blower, be gone the extra mats in the front hallway and the lip chap - dig out the suncream and the sun hat and the shorts and the tee shirts!

We hardly ever get any snow here so the only weather factor that has any effect on us is rain. It doesn't prevent us from going anywhere - the only difference is that we may have to water the garden on really dry days and we can't sit out on the deck playing our guitars, mandolins etc. when it's raining. We did go out on the beach on Christmas Day, though, and Tweakey McPiddle, our wire-haired miniature dachshund gets out every day. I think some folks find the cloudy days a bit depressing but there are plenty of things to do outdoors even if it's a bit grey so we're not really limited at all by the weather conditions. We used to live in Alberta - horrible winters that never seemed to end.

For the first 6 years or so that I was here, the weather affected my daily routine enormously. Snowfall meant a 4am start to plow driveways and customer parking areas before the business opened, so 3 hrs before a regular start. If it snowed through the day, the process got repeated in the evening.

I worked outside, so there was no avoiding whatever the weather did. In the summer time hay production, maintenance work and shows/events/seminars were all affected to some degree by weather, be it logistics, irrigation issues or providing shade in 40 degree heat.

No sense in whining, just a matter of getting on with things, you can't change it, just be prepared.

I'm a stay at home mum with 2, soon to be 3 little ones, and we're a one car (which hubby uses for work) family. In good enough weather, we'd walk to and from nursery school, the grocery store, library. Our average walking is between 15-20 miles a week. Huge impact here.