Weather Junkies
David Phillips, Senior Climatologist with Environment Canada is largely regarded as Canada’s weather man. When speaking at Carleton U last winter he told the audience including myself that Canadians are unique when it comes to weather, that is we can carry on a lengthy conversation with a complete stranger about nothing more then the weather. After hearing this comment I laughed since it’s the complete truth, Canadian weather is so dynamic that especially during the change-over seasons (fall & spring) as seen in my hometown (Ottawa) you can experience the full spectrum of uncertainty i.e., snow, rain, thunderstorms, cold, warm, etc. As David Phillips went on to explain this is the precise reason why outsiders can see Canadians as €œweather junkies€. I’ve been thinking for some time that maybe my own curiosity for weather has been dictated by the ever changing Canadian weather-landscape and can help explain the discovery of the invention sited throughout this website.
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I agree with Phillips when he says that we are able to carry on conversations with complete strangers regarding Canada’s weather. I believe that it happens to be an “ice breaker” to the beginning of most conversations, whether your speaking with someone you know well or someone you’ve just met. Also, us “weather junkies” seem to complain in the fall when the temperature starts to drop, and then in the spring, when it reaches that same temperature, we appreciate it. 0 – 10 degrees celsius seems to be a lot colder in the fall than in the spring. Of course.
Every year I hear the same conversations, as if Canadians haven’t experienced both sides of the extreme weather that we are lucky to have each year. It’s too hot. It’s too cold. At least we don’t experience tornados and hurricanes!
I agree with Casandra that every year we hear the same old conversations about the extremes in terms of weather. In fact, this morning’s City Section of the Ottawa Citizen showed a picture of a buddy of mine surfing the Ottawa river and next to it people in Victoria BC making a snowman, I believe the caption read “What’s wrong with this picture?”.