Dear Northerners: We get that this weather is no big deal for you. Now please shut up.

[elleng]

'Hello! Good morning! Washington metropolitan area, you have woken and you are on your eighth day of being very cold. Which means, if you are originally from a place accustomed to lower temperatures — New Hampshire, say, or Ely, Minn. — you are on your eighth day of pompously explaining how you used to ice-pick your way to the office while riding the carcass of a frozen walrus.

And you know what? Just stuff it.

“I mean, I have dealt with cold weather,” says Alexandra Palombo, current Washingtonian. “I went to college in central New York. But there’s a certain smugness Northerners have about cold and their ability to handle it. We get it, you’re from a tundra. But I just think, why are you here, if it was so great?”

Plus, as Palombo has considered while walking to her office near the currently frigid Union Station neighborhood, “a lot of the cold in those other places is lake effect. It’s more snow than ice and wind. For those four years I was in Ithaca, did I have better coats? Was I just a dumb college kid? Or is it possible that it actually does feel more bitter here? Is this whole city a wind tunnel?”

“I think it must be a wind tunnel,” offers Mike Koschak, who has pondered this question on his own commute to work in Washington. “Look, if you are in one of those Midwestern states where everyone boasts that they’re used to the weather — you are driving everywhere. Here, you are walking, or you’re biking, or worst, you’re just standing. You’re waiting for the bus, and you’re standing.”'>>>

https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/dear-northerners-we-get-that-this-weather-is-no-big-deal-for-you-now-please-shut-up/2018/01/04/2084459a-f0ba-11e7-b390-a36dc3fa2842_story.html?

[LisaM]

1. Speaking as a Michigander who now lives in Seattle - there is a difference, and it's ice.

They don't really invest in snowplows here, and with the dampness of the sea air and the hills, ice is a huge, huge issue when we have snow. Streets will freeze back up at night and they are very, very dangerous to drive up or down. There's also a lack of sidewalks in some neighborhoods, and a lot of people don't have snow shovels, so even where there are sidewalks, it can be difficult to walk safely.

[mythology]

2. Compared to some of the temperatures in northern Canada, even the hovering a bit over zero here

is downright balmy.

I went to shovel a friend's driveway/front steps since he's in California and getting back Monday with his two year old. I debated saying screw it and going home halfway through it was so damn cold.

[rurallib]

3. Iowa here - actually it hasn't been that cold here for many years

and this recent cold snap is not welcome at all.

[elleng]

4. Gotcha,

and my brother lives there now, we grew up in NYork!!!

[smirkymonkey]

5. Northerner here, and I am fucking sick of this weather!

It totally sux! There has just been too much cold for too long and I am so over it already. Thank your lucky stars if you are not in the northeast or northern midwest. The weather just totally blows.

[elleng]

7. Yes it does totally blow,

and I am in the northeast, 'southern' MD (NOT the south, 60 miles south of DC, 15 degrees fahrenheit here now, WNW wind @ 11 mph, and HIGH tomorrow forecast @ 19 degrees F!)

[jpak]

6. It hasn't been this cold in Maine for a while

When I was a kid - this was normal.

But now my poor old Corolla is literally frozen solid - I can't even turn the key in the ignition.

Gonna have to wait until April to start it ...

[elleng]

8. OH NO!

Didn't lock door of my old Camry wagon, but haven't started it for a couple of days (due to snow, NOT going out! HOPE it starts Monday!)

[jpak]

9. Luckily, my 26 YO truck with 365K on it starts up like a champ

When the temps get into the 20's - the Corolla will start.

But not tomorrow -25 in the AM.

Going smelt fishing tomorrow - rented ice shack and wood stove

[elleng]

10. WOW, you are SOMETHING ELSE!

Camry's 15 years old, 170,000 miles; 19 here now, high tomorrow 20 (- wind!) Temps NOT in 'minus' but for wind chill!

[jpak]

11. It's really too cold and windy to go lake ice fishing or skiing

Sitting in a heated smelt shack isn't "roughing it".

[elleng]

12. If you say so!!!

[Tobin S.]

13. I have to work outside for short periods

Through the night. About.15 minutes at a stretch 3 or 4 times. Last Monday it was 14 below here with a breeze. A couple of nights ago it got up to 15 above and it felt tolerable to me. You really do get used to it to a certain degree. I have a story I'm going to relate later on in an OP about the cold weather. No time now.

[elleng]

14. Thanks, Tobin.

Be well.

12 here now, going down to 8, NW winds @ 8 mph. Has been much more windy recently.

[RobinA]

15. Classic!

OMG!!! I’m crying! Ain’t it the truth.

[Akoto]

16. I'm in South Florida and we've been in the 20s.

Freeze warnings and everything. A little bit further up the state, it even snowed.

Keep in mind that we're used to the 80s and 90s. For us, weather this cold is just not something we are acclimated to. I can certainly thank my late grandfather for building a fireplace in our house, because we're getting a lot of use out of it!

[raven mad]

17. I gots an extra snow shovel!

Don't mind using it........:

[Blue_Adept]

18. WaPo posts this kind of story every year

Here's the 2016 one, for example

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/capital-weather-gang/wp/2016/01/28/northerners-washingtonians-arent-winter-weather-wimps-were-just-uniquely-vulnerable/?utm_term=.c410affd42d8