1. It's almost always cold...sometimes bitterly cold...like cold as in if you're outside with exposed skin (face or hands, get your mind out of the gutter people!), you could get frostbite within 1 minute. If you don't know what frostbite is, consider yourself lucky and then google it.
2. We do things in degrees Celsius in Canada...the average temperature for February in Regina (the city I live in), is about -13 Celsius (about 9 F). Brrr...hope you brought your toque (google that too if you don't know what it is, eh!)
3. The temperature isn't the only thing to consider before you go outside, you need to account for the windchill too. For example, it maybe -20, but with the wind it might feel like -34. Oh, and for those of you who haven't been so lucky to experience a winter day in Saskatchewan, there is rarely a day where he wind doesn't affect the temperature.
4. Residents flee the province to warm locations like Mexico and Cuba when the Mercury dips downs and it looks like we're in for a long cold snap. You're welcome foreign economies!
5. Although it gets so bitterly cold where cars don't start and people want to hibernate for a few days, school is almost never canceled. In fact, in all my years of being a student and a teacher, I can't recall a single day where school was cancelled. And as for snow days...the same goes for them. We're tough (and a little crazy!)! We warm up our cars for 15 minutes before we get in and make the drive across the city where the exhaust from cars is as thick as pea soup. And, we still get out to the grocery store, a movie theatre, the mall or some other place we likely shouldn't be because, as I mentioned, we're TOUGH (and crazy)!
6. We complain about the cold and threaten to move away to a tropical island near the equator but we never do because we've invested so much in winter clothing and a snowblower that we wouldn't want to give that all up! After all, we've got to get our money's worth right?
7. Life goes on, business as usual, regardless of snow, ice, temperature and windchill. Businesses stay open and gas stations hike up their prices because we clearly do not pay enough for fuel grouch out the rest of the year!
8. Many of us like the crazy temperature swings despite all our complaining. Bring on the tail end of a Chinook! You might need to put the Google machine to work again if you don't know what a Chinook is.
9. It's not really that bad. If it was, we wouldn't stay in this nearly inhospitable place...kind of like Hoth (Star Wars fans will get the reference).
10. Sometimes it's so cold that it feels like your teeth are frozen or your face is going to crack when you walk a block outside into a stiff northern wind.
So, I know that I may never again in my lifetime get the opportunity to run outside in February in shorts in Saskatchewan so I had to embrace the opportunity. I think the temperature got up to about +12 today and I can say that I loved every moment of it that I was outside because I know that next week I'll likely need my running pants with long underwear underneath, my wind proof jacket with several layers underneath, my running mitts and gloves, toque and neck tube to keep me warm as I brave the elements for a quick 12km dash.
An El Niño fan,
Crazy legs Bussiere
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