Are Times Changing?

in #hive-12615219 hours ago

Not long ago I saw a post by BBC on X, announcing readers that schools are closed in some part of United Kingdom, due to the extreme weather. There was a photo attached, in which you could see like 5cm snow, melted already at some places.

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It wasn't a joke at all, it was quite serious and I bet the weather was causing serious problems, but it made me smile and made me think back what weather was like when I was a school kid.

I remember winter for us meant -25°C temperature at times and snow as high as our knees. For those of you who have never experienced this kind of temperature, it feels like the air is biting your skin, like many needles are punching your skin and when you try to breathe, your nostrils stick together. It's not the end of the world, but you need to adapt, as otherwise you can get into trouble.

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Roads were cleaned occasionally to some extent, but were still covered by snow and after so many people walked on them, the top became icy and walking became an act of balance for adults and fun for children.

For us kids, it was a real winter paradise, because we had the chance to throw snowballs at each other on the road to school and back and during recess between classes. After we got home, we had an hour or two, or sometimes more, to go outside and play in the snow. This ended in us going home totally frozen, literally frozen. Our knitted gloves were covered by ice, our feet were frozen to the extent that I remember my mom put our feet in look warm water, to warm us up as hot water would have caused more damage.

Even with these conditions, schools were never closed. I asked my dad to be sure, but we have never had one day when schools were closed due to bad weather. Not once.

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I remember when autumn began, our parents started to hunt for winter clothes, which meant boots, serious warm, winter boots, warm pants and warm clothes, as well as beanies, gloves and scarves.

After so many years, my mentality is still the same, but the weather is not. I still have proper winter coat for -25°C or even -30°C, if necessary, boots and the rest, bit god knows when was the last time I wore my proper winter coat. This morning was -10°C outside, which is normal temperature for winter and not something you have to worry about. However, I think this is the second or maybe the third time we get so low temperature and it doesn't last either. Maybe a day or two, but not more.

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Snow? We're almost at the point where we have to ask "what's that?" This winter we had snow for 3 times I believe. The first time I went out in the morning, to take some photos quickly, because I it'll be melted in 5 hours and I was right. There was almost nothing left till moon. All I could do is gather some already wet snow for a snowball, to take a photo and that was all.

After that, we got some snow two times, but it was more like light sprinkle of snow, nothing more. Last time was three days ago and I couldn't even collect enough snow for a snowball.

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Obviously no one knows what's going to happen in the future, but the good days are gone, that I am sure of. Those winter months, when snow was dominating for months are long gone. You can still enjoy snow, but only high up in the mountains.

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These pansies are not winter flowers, because we don't have winter flowers here, yet they were doing fine outside still. They got covered by a thin layer of snow for a couple of hours, but I don't think it did much damage to them. The cold we have today on the other hand can be fatal to them.

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Thats some bad weather

I have always heard of snow, but all my life, I've lived in a hot weather and I have never witnessed it on person before. I doubt if I can endure -10⁰C, talk more of -25⁰C.
Im just here imagining how people survive in such hostile weather conditions

It may seem hostile to you but if you get used to it at a young age, it seems normal. You would get used to it, trust me.

They say there's no bad weather, just badly dressed people 😄

It's an odd year here in my locale. Only a dusting of snow i think three times. Everything has hit all around us. Now the temperatures here have been cold still. I'm wishful if the snow stays away but I doubt that happens, haha.

What I forgot to mention in my post is that we sometimes get snow at the end of March or the beginning of April, which is way too late as that's spring already and the beginning of the gardening season.

Is it the same for you where you live?

Yes we get snow pretty often in March sometimes in April. When I lived further North when I was younger sometimes even in May.

I could not imagine my life having snow in May on a regular basis and then again im October and summer being on a Monday afternoon at 3pm, as we say here for colder regions.

In my childhood and school years I remember how we met first snow at the beginning of November and it didn't melt till somewhere the middle of April or even later.
So for me also -10 degrees it's normal and yes even in previous season we had -19and it was ok. Children were glad to have fun with snowballs, snowmen, sladges and skies.
But now weather became so unpredictable. Even now we had nearly 0 +1 Celsius temperature and it's so cloudy and foggy sky that unusual and gives bag feelings without sunlight and clear sky. 🤷🏼‍♂️

Yes, times are definitely changing and I have heard some terms to refer to the new generations.
You belong to the snow-tanned generation. Hahahaha... Come on that ball... throw it, for hell!

Your text is very descriptive and it was nice to imagine all that.

I've only lived here for a few years so I don't have a good frame of reference but people say the winters used to be much colder with more snow. The weather forecasters actually show some data on average temp and average snowfall. So yeah the times they are a changing...

Loved your post, love your sentiments, I too remember, harsh winters and going to school .....in shorts, as long trousers were not permitted in my grammar school until you entered the second year. Not a thought was given to closing the schools and stopping the world from turning.

We had proper winters then, deep snow that sat for weeks, not this "dusting" we had this year.

The Uk has turned into a "nanny state", the kids are growing up risk averse, it is a joke this country. The mainstream popular press doesn't help they continue the "scare the sheeple" narrative that went full on during the covey scamdemic.

Still it keeps the doomscrollers orgasmic in their sad little lives.