How's the Weather?

The most common question we get when people call us is: What's the weather like there?

Yes, we are north of the 49th parallel in the Great White North. But we're coastal, so the currents make a difference. We have had a bit of snow--it was at least 5 snowfalls in December and we've had a few more snowfalls this month. I haven't gotten the snow shovel out yet because the snow is fairly consistently gone within 24 hours. I haven't put the fleece liner into my winter coat. The coldest I've seen the car thermometer read is -3. Mind you it's Celsius, so that's like 26 Fahrenheit. The Celsius/Centigrade scale still doesn't register a whole lot in my mind (until I convert it into Fahrenheit), but I do like the fact that freezing is 0 and not a random number like 32. Anyways, most days hover around freezing. It's been as much from 4 to 8 degrees some days (40 to 48). We see people doing their daily jogging in shorts. I haven't wanted to one of those people who complains about how cold it gets, when this is very moderate compared to the Midwest (heck, it's almost tropical in comparison). But there are days I can't get warmed up (we rely on space heaters in our offices at church instead of turning the heat up during the week and I probably should dress warmer when I'm outside); but I think the coastal factor makes a difference in how the temperature feels.

That's enough of weather talk--but I wanted to give a picture of what it's like here, since that's what we get asked. Melted snow does freeze overnight, so there's ice on the roads in places, and sometimes there's a thin layer on it on ponds and other standing water. But we're still forced to ice skate indoors (as demonstrated by Anders in his third week in this round of skating lessons).