adapting to hot or cold climates

The heat/cold and hunger threads had me thinking about this again. Like many of you, I think, I've spent most of my life in a climate that's predominantly cool. I live too close to the sea and the blessed Golf Stream to get much extreme cold, but winters are long, dark and generally below freezing, and summers are cool with only short periods of really warm weather.

I've travelled a bit both as a child and as an adult, but it wasn't until I visited southern Thailand about 13 years ago that I really experienced a drastically different climate. The heat and humidity was so overpowering, every single day, and I was struck by several things. First how it affected my way of moving around outdoors. In Norway it's hardly ever too hot to move briskly and the sun is something to enjoy, in Thailand I had to resort to moving slowly and carefully and keeping to the shade as much as possible. I felt like a ponderous giant sloth, conserving energy as much as possible. Second how sunlight went from being this lovely, warm yellow thing to bask in, to being intense, white-hot and potentially dangerous. And thirdly I missed being cold. I missed the stimulating feeling of cool air on my skin and the energy it brings. And it struck me how people who live in very warm climates maybe never have experienced that feeling at all, ever, and I realized how terrifying extreme cold, the kind that makes your nostrils stick together when you breathe, must be to them. And they probably felt that we were "mad dogs and Englishmen" to want to lie out in the scorching sun...

Has anyone had similar experiences, where a change in climate has affected you more than you expected it to? I felt more than ever that cold is something you can cope with by eating well, dressing warmly and moving briskly, while heat is at some point hard to do anything about except flee into an air-conditioned room. But my whole pattern of behaviour is obviously built around a cold climate.

I lived in southern Ontario for over the first 40 yrs. of life and hence, I can adapt to hot humid summers ..cycling-wise up to a certain point. Meaning cycling up to 35 degrees C with nearly 100% humidity.

However, I was surprised to learn I found cycling in Hawaii harder because it's closer to the equator, the sun is more powerful. I did not even enjoy lying out on any of the beaches because I got enough sun just cycling around (meaning under 35 km. each day trip) and the sun drained my energy faster.

2nd visit to Hawaii I found it more energy sucking...because coming from Vancouver at that time where I lived for 8 yrs., Vancouver never gets too much heat nor high summer humidity like Ontario in because it is near the Pacific. I always found it amusing when Vancouverites complained about "hot" summer days....at 27 degrees C. Their summer weather is perfect for cycling.

The cold winters in Alberta are ONLY made bearable because: we get lots of sunny winter days, our air is drier (people have home humidifiers so that their home wood furniture doesn't dry out) and hence melting/slushy snow disappears much faster than more damp Ontario winters. Hence, one can winter-cycle for a wk. or so, before another snow dump happens, then melting and the winter pattern repeats all over again. My adjustment at this time...is helped alot after winter living in Ontario.

I like sunny weather for cycling but not at high noon and cycling for hours without any shade, is less enjoyable for me, which is often enough when living out in the prairies.

For the past 20+ yrs. since returning to cycling, my preference for cycling weather tends to be: earlier in the morning or in evening when the sun is beating down less in my face. I prefer to cycle at slightly cooler temperatures...which some people here would consider cold. I think my tolerance for very hot weather has gone down as I age.

Despite some wildly fluctuating temperatures in some parts of Canada and extreme weather, I do like a 4 season climactic area with distinct seasons.

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Originally Posted by lph

The heat/cold and hunger threads had me thinking about this again. Like many of you, I think, I've spent most of my life in a climate that's predominantly cool. I live too close to the sea and the blessed Golf Stream to get much extreme cold, but winters are long, dark and generally below freezing, and summers are cool with only short periods of really warm weather.

I've travelled a bit both as a child and as an adult, but it wasn't until I visited southern Thailand about 13 years ago that I really experienced a drastically different climate. The heat and humidity was so overpowering, every single day, and I was struck by several things. First how it affected my way of moving around outdoors. In Norway it's hardly ever too hot to move briskly and the sun is something to enjoy, in Thailand I had to resort to moving slowly and carefully and keeping to the shade as much as possible. I felt like a ponderous giant sloth, conserving energy as much as possible. Second how sunlight went from being this lovely, warm yellow thing to bask in, to being intense, white-hot and potentially dangerous. And thirdly I missed being cold. I missed the stimulating feeling of cool air on my skin and the energy it brings. And it struck me how people who live in very warm climates maybe never have experienced that feeling at all, ever, and I realized how terrifying extreme cold, the kind that makes your nostrils stick together when you breathe, must be to them. And they probably felt that we were "mad dogs and Englishmen" to want to lie out in the scorching sun...

Has anyone had similar experiences, where a change in climate has affected you more than you expected it to? I felt more than ever that cold is something you can cope with by eating well, dressing warmly and moving briskly, while heat is at some point hard to do anything about except flee into an air-conditioned room. But my whole pattern of behaviour is obviously built around a cold climate.

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I grew up in a place with very cold winters. Weeks could go by of below zero Fahrenheit (-18Celsius) weather and 40 or more below zero was not at all uncommon. When I was young I was adapted. We would ski and snowshoe. We would shovel snow over the dog house so the dog had a nice warm place. We would enjoy the stars and the aurora borealis at night. Summers could be warm but rarely were hot. Lake Superior has a cooling effect.

I was good with this until I hit my 40s. I worked long hours. Was too sedentary. I was cold all the time. I lived right on Lake Superior and the winter winds off the frozen lake were harsh. The spring was cold and damp. Fall could be beautiful but you could be sandblasted from cold winds off the lake. Summers were beautiful but too short.

I retired and abandoned winter. Maybe some year I'll spend a winter back up there but I am not ready yet.

I grew up in a lot of different climates. I've experienced temperatures from -45°F to +115°F, but those were the limits of the ranges, not the norms. I've been frostbitten four times, not counting my ears (most painful thing I've ever experienced) - and been chronically subclinically hyponatremic from sweating so much.

I don't doubt I'd have a lot harder time with the temperatures than I did when I was young, but here's the thing - even as a kid I could NEVER deal with damp. Never liked sledding or building snow people because I never found a way to keep my hands and feet from getting soaking wet. All my life I've much preferred a bracing 15°F, when it's dry of necessity, to 40°F when the damp goes right through me.

But I've never lived anywhere that the temperature didn't budge from the extreme for months.

Interesting that you mention Thailand, because one thing I'll always remember is what my first husband told me about coming home from a year-long deployment in Thailand, to Ohio in August. Eighty-five F and humid, and he was so freezing cold he spent his first couple of weeks home wrapped in blankets and wearing all the clothes he could. :eek: Then again, obviously he was young then too.

My dad really wanted to move full time back to North Dakota before he died. While I'm sad that he didn't get one last chance to walk the prairies, I really discouraged him from trying it. Forty below isn't the same thing for a very unhealthy 70-year-old as it was for a hale 35-year-old.

Definitely. I thought I could handle the heat and humidity here in Belize since I came from North Carolina, and our summers were hot and humid. But it's different here. Closer to the equator, so the sun is hotter even if the temperature is not as hot as it sometimes gets in NC. And it goes on and on for most of the year. We are currently getting a little break during the winter, where the highs tend to be in the low 80s instead of upper 80s, and it makes a HUGE difference in how hot it feels, though it is still humid most of the time. In November, we had three weeks of lower humidity that felt like a desert after being used to the sweltering humidity to me. But I loved it, other than the dry skin and lips!

It gets tiresome sweating all the time, literally dripping with sweat when we're in town doing our shopping. I thought I'd adapt better, but after close to 1.5 years here, I still have as tough a time with it as I did at first. To the point that I can't even bring myself to run on the beach any more, it just drains me.

Locals do move slower, lph. They ride their bikes and walk slowly, while we whiz by. They tell us we're going to get a speeding ticket, a not-so-subtle way of telling us to slow down and take it easy. But we just can't bring ourselves to "saunter". Just another sign that this is not "our place".

I miss four seasons, and I miss cool (not freezing cold) weather. Did not think I would, but I do. The grass is always greener on the other side!

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Originally Posted by emily_in_nc

It gets tiresome sweating all the time, literally dripping with sweat when we're in town doing our shopping. I thought I'd adapt better, but after close to 1.5 years here, I still have as tough a time with it as I did at first. To the point that I can't even bring myself to run on the beach any more, it just drains me.

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Yup, that was another thing. We were in Thailand at the time to rock climb (the climbing there is awesome!, absolutely spectacular), and I quickly realized I just had to get used to climbing soaked with sweat all the time, even in the shade. At home I'd get all nervous and chalk up if I had even slightly damp hands, but in Thailand I just had to suck it up and keep climbing. Our chalkbags were pretty useless. (Heh, especially after I fell off this one route overhanging the water, and ended up with a chalkbag full of sea-water.)

You adapt to the climate you are in.
I grew up here in the Boston area until age 16. I remember the winters as colder and snowier than what I live with now. I always played outside, went swimming in freezing water when it was 60 degrees and generally disliked heat. We only had 2 bedroom AC units. We also spent almost the whole summer at the beach.
Moved to Florida (Miami) where no one went outside for most of the year and it was so humid, you had to leave your closet doors open, even with central AC, so they wouldn't stick. I hated the hot sun, being further south and got a very bad sunburn during my first month there, March. I missed the seasons.
I moved to Phoenix at age 20 or so, where from November to March, it was nice, cool (30s-50s) at night and goes up to about 65-70 in the day. It also rained a bit during these months. However, I was working or in school, and never really got to enjoy the weather. I spent my time in a gym! I liked being able to drive to a 4 season climate, unlike Florida. I hated the summers. From April through October it would be 100-112 degrees and in Phoenix, it does not get below 100 at night from mid May to mid September. I learned to live inside, much worse than anything in a colder climate. When people say "it's a dry heat," yeah, stick your head in the oven at 450 degrees! That's what it feels like. You can dress right for the climate I live in now, (wool), but you cannot be comfortable or be safe exercising outside when it is 110. I had no trouble acclimating back to 4 seasons after 23 years of almost endless summer. I enjoy the constant change and the seasons. I love the fall and I took up a couple of snow sports to be "in" the winter.
Now, I understand that the winters here are not as harsh as what some of you describe. We do get below zero weather, but usually not for more than 3 days at a time. I've done plenty of x country skiing at temps of -5 F. I still don't like exercising outdoors in the heat, but I've improved my tolerance in recent years.

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Originally Posted by lph

Yup, that was another thing. We were in Thailand at the time to rock climb (the climbing there is awesome!, absolutely spectacular), and I quickly realized I just had to get used to climbing soaked with sweat all the time, even in the shade. At home I'd get all nervous and chalk up if I had even slightly damp hands, but in Thailand I just had to suck it up and keep climbing. Our chalkbags were pretty useless. (Heh, especially after I fell off this one route overhanging the water, and ended up with a chalkbag full of sea-water.)

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That sounds just like hiking in the jungle in Belize during the summer. The scenery and birds were absolutely spectacular, but you do have to be able to tolerate basically being soaked to the skin in sweat the entire time, through your underclothes, dripping off your face. It's not like cycling where you can create a breeze in hot weather because you're moving fast. My DH loved it, but I was dying. It was just so very uncomfortable. But we were traveling "off season" when lodging rates were low, so that is what we had to deal with. Not a fan.

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Originally Posted by emily_in_nc

That sounds just like hiking in the jungle in Belize during the summer. The scenery and birds were absolutely spectacular, but you do have to be able to tolerate basically being soaked to the skin in sweat the entire time, through your underclothes, dripping off your face. It's not like cycling where you can create a breeze in hot weather because you're moving fast. My DH loved it, but I was dying. It was just so very uncomfortable. But we were traveling "off season" when lodging rates were low, so that is what we had to deal with. Not a fan.

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Sounds like the Amazon rainforest. I can handle climate changes if they come gradually - like going from a cold winter to a hot, humid summer like we get here. But if it's all at once and involves heat and humidity, I am doomed. Abrupt changes to extreme cold I can handle, heat, not so much. DP and I spent less than a week in the rainforest a few years ago (Ecuador), where our clothing was never dry, there was certainly no a/c, and by day 3 I had completely lost my appetite. I'll take Minnesota over Florida any day.
:)

I will take the cold over heat any day. As others have pointed out you can dress for being out in the cold, but there is only so much you can do with heat. This is part of why we're moving to Montana. Last summer here was so excruciatingly humid and hot that we resolved to not go through another one. I lose any motivation once the temp passes 85F.