Truly Perplexed About Cold Weather in TV
 

I'm somewhat sure this has been discussed before but I can't find the actual thread.

I am still in the northeast where the weather has dipped to minus temps and it sure is cold. In TV, people feel really cold when temps dip into the forties. That would be a heat wave up here.

Since it's a fallacy that one's blood doesn't thin and people don't lose fat in their bodies which is possibly a reason people would feel cold.

I know I truly perplexed and would be saying the same thing after living in warm weather for a while but I was wondering why people in TV feel exceedingly cold when temps go down to the forties?

Just what you get used to after a couple of years.

A lot of us grew up in cold climates and did just fine. However, we are now in Florida and have gotten used to the warm weather and do not tolerate the cold anymore.

It does make me wonder, however, on the reverse side how someone who has never been in a cold climate would acclimate to the the cold. Case in point - Lutheran World Relief in Minnesota has relocated many refugees from Mali and Somalia to Minneapolis and St. Paul. How do those people survive their first winters in the sub-zero temperatures of a Minnesota winter?

Good point.

I think a lot of it has to do with managing expectations. Your expectations often determine how you will feel about a given event. If you expect it to be warm and it is not, you feel cold, if you expect it to be cold, and it is not, you feel warm. Case in point, we moved to Fargo North Dakota, from Springfield, Missouri, after living all our lives in Missouri. The first week following our move in November, it snowed a few inches and someone on my staff remarked to me "you can say goodbye to the ground until April". I joked that I had moved there because I was banking on global warming. However, after hearing stories of incredibly vicious winters and blizzards that buried people alive, my expectation was that Fargo winters would be something just short of armageddon. The reality was that we had several thaws throughout that winter, and the five winters we spent there were mostly cold with a little more snow than we were used to, but nothing like we had been led to expect. The result was that we found the winters there relatively enjoyable. I think people who have lived in Florida for awhile have grown to expect warm weather, so that a mild cool spell is almost intolerable. We went to South Padre Island Texas a few winters ago and during the two weeks we were there it was unseasonably cool for that part of the country. Again, it was far warmer than it was back home, but our expectation was that it would be tropical, and we would relax on the beach every day, but not so - too chilly with a stiff wind, for much beach time. If I mention going to South Padre for a few days now, Lila will say "no, It is too cold there", as if that was the way it always would be ---- expectations!

When people carry a lot of extra weight (body fat) it acts as insulation and probably works as well, or better, than heavy clothing. So I don't think heavy people are complaining about the cold. I think, for the most part, the ones who complain about the cold are on the thin side.

All I can tell you is this:

Living in NY (Long Island mostly) for over 50 years, I used to look forward to April when the weather would approach 60 degrees. AAHHHHHH 60! Coats off, maybe a long sleeve shirt but mostly short sleeves and very comfortable.

Fast forward to now. Been in South Florida 7.5 years. Now if the temps go DOWN to 60 I am C O L D ! It is possibly time for a long sleeve shirt or a sweat shirt.

I used to laugh at my family members who moved here years ago. Now - I have become them.

I could not tolerate what you are experiencing now. My son knows - he comes down here for Christmas, NO WAY am I going up there. Besides, I no longer have the clothes for a winter in NY. Heck, I am even worried about moving North to TV - It is colder there during the winter than down here by Fort Lauderdale.

Guess it is just what your body gets used to.

It is definitely what your body gets used to. The first few years I lived in Florida, I couldn't stand the heat in the summer. Now it doesn't bother me at all.

It was chilly and dampish and coolish this morning when I put my stuff in a crockpot, my contribution to a pot luck we are going to this evening.

It is NOW 83 degrees and I have a pot of chili to take.

How dumb will I look?:(

Oh well.

sorry villages pl - i personally disprove your theory re those of us who are carrying more than the suggested weight/fat for their age/height...and i don't feel that i am an exception to the rule. 60 degrees is cold to me no matter what section of the country i am in!

I think you ARE an exception to the rule, and here's what I base it on. I have conducted my own informal study of this. And, it's easy, anyone can do it. Pick a Library, any library, and go there. Then see how you feel. Are you cold? If so, you will usually find that the library manager is a relatively heavy person. The manager usually controls the thermostat. A heavy manager will turn the temperature down very low in the summer. In those libraries I have to wear a jacket and a hat and I still shiver.

If you don't like cold, go to the Lady Lake Library. It's never cold and I have never had to wear a jacket in that library. And who is the manager? The manager is a very thin (slim) person, although she will be retiring soon or perhaps already has.

And I have tried this in other towns where I have lived. It always works.

Maybe part of the reason it seems colder is because we here in Florida don't wear the warmer clothing worn in cooler parts of the country. There are times when the temps are low and the humidity is also low....the body perceives the temp to be much cooler than it is. When we lived in So CA, we had friends who call the Arizona desert home for years. They then moved to the CA coastline where it can be foggy, damp and have much cooler temps than even a few miles inland. They froze their butts off, finally deciding that they had to move more inland. They lived for many years just down the street from us, but for a few of those years, they found even our climate conditions to be so much more cold than it actually was. Temps in the 100's most of the summer make even 75 seem cold.

I believe I have to go with the "dressing appropriately" theory. When you come from colder climes and you get a 60 or 70 degree day it's almost shorts and t shirts. Yesterday we played golf at 2:30 in shorts, but by the end of 9 holes things were cooling down. The drive home after dinner we about froze to death. Would have never made that mistake up North. And I'm talking North Carolina as our last stop before TV.:MOJE_whot:

Expert Floridian Reptile
 

Look, not all of us whine, and lots of folks here love cold, but I hate it. suggest you not try to lump everybody in one pack to understand the dynamics. It's a motley group of very different people. I am a reptile whose blood requires sunlight and heat to feel normal. I am most comfy at 74-80 degrees, but that's just me.

I'm convinced that we acclimate! Last night, as I came home from the Central States Club get-together in my golf cart, I thought, "Why didn't I bring/wear my 'heavy' coat; I'm freezing!"

When I came into the house, I checked the temperature reading from my lanai; it was 60 degrees. Had I been up north [read: St. Louis, Missouri] I'd have thought, "How balmy it is!"

Of course, I've been here 8 years, so I am inclined to think that anything less than 65 degrees Fahrenheit is "cold!"

Additionally, I am pretty sure that we are less tolerant of cold as we "grow more mature," (which is my euphemism for "as we age.")

SWR
:beer3:

People think because they move to Florida that it is always warm. Florida is a big state with many different temperature zones and two different time zones. It's over 500 miles from Jacksonville to Key West and over 800 miles from Pensacola to Key West.

Central Fl where The Villages is located is much cooler in the winter than say the Tampa area, which is only 100 miles south, because it is further north plus it is not close to the water. Plants that grow well there do not flourish in Sumter County.