I live near a university that attracts quite a few international students/lecturers and I’ve often witnessed the exact opposite of this. You’re outside in the middle of summer, trying not to die of a heat stroke, when a obviously non-native person walks by wearing a winter coat and a hat.
Yep I saw some Indians near Atlanta who were wearing big coats when it was just a hair below 70 F outdoors. I was out there loading stuff into my car in shorts and a T-shirt and they looked at me funny.
The opposite of that, that I also saw was my portly Eskimo friend, who was in shorts and a T-shirt in the actual winter time when I needed a big coat. He was like "You think this is cold?"
Hawaii here. Our line is about 70 too. That's when we wear socks with out slippers.
Wife is a 98lb. Pilipino living in NW Florida.
72°: "Babe! It is so cold!"
She literally has no idea how to dress warmly. Trying to get the idea of layers into her head, but I'm failing so far.
Can confirm, layers don't exist in some cultures. It's either tank top or parka. No in between.
When I visit friends in northern Germany they also run around like it's summer when it's close to winter cold for me.
I had a friend jump into the North Sea to rescue a beer crate we put into the water for staying ice cold that swam away. While I was freezing on two blankets near the fire in a coat.
That beer was also too cold. None of their behaviour made any sense.
This is how I met my wife 10 years ago. It was -20 Celsius outside and I was in shorts waiting for a bus. She came over to ask why I was wearing shorts, which sparked conversations and now we've been married for over 5 years.
Well that's adorable
Okay sure... But moreso confusing... Like, damn... That's cold.
Do that person's legs just not have feeling?
People feel temperature changes a bit differently. Some people come from colder climates and are acclimated to them.
I'm better with tolerating heat. My husband is better tolerating the cold. We're all just a bit different and that's awesome
And for us on the otherside, we see people bundled up like their going on an Artic expedition when its 50F out and they are walking 10 feet from their heated car to a heated store.
Being sweaty all the time sucks. Thats really what it is
You'll be hot as fuck in your home, and then a woman will just turn the AC off and complain about how cold she is
Sir I use my space heater in my home in July, and I live in the US South.
I'm shocked my husband has not divorced me over it yet tbh, but he can pry it from my (literally) cold, dead hands.
He's probably waiting for it to catch fire and end his misery. The most passive aggressive murder-suicide of all time.
Yeah but we also get really hot so we're sucking during August. Meanwhile someone is walking around in a 3 piece suit without so much as a drop of sweat.
My wife and I have been watching "Ballers" and thing I've been trying to figure out the whole time is, who the hell walks around Miami all day in a suit?
A good wool suit is quite insulating. I wore a 3 piece wool suit this summer when it was a bit warm. I wasn't really sweating any more than I would be if I was wearing shorts and a Tee shirt.
Probably a Midwesterner.
It's like a game of chicken where you win by being the last one wearing shorts deep into winter.
Or a senator from Pennsylvania🤘
Funny story.
I lost 50lbs and gained 50 lbs within a year.
I can say, without a doubt, being fat definitely makes the air feel warmer. I don't even think it makes sense, since your skin senses it. But hot damn if my house goes above 72F I have to keep towels around when I'm heavy
It’s not just a fat or muscle thing. Those both contribute of course; fat insulates and muscle produces more heat. But the real player is the surface area to volume ratio.
A bigger person has a lot more volume than they have a bigger surface area, and since heat is lost through the skin this has a major impact.
This is absolutely a testosterone thing according to my transmasc friends.
Yep. My friend started testosterone recently and said that he went from always too cold to being a furnace.
Trans men once again giving me gender envy cause I'm cis and freezing.
Midwest obesity benefits.
As a non-white man from a tropical country now living in a colder state in the USA, this is somehow me too.
There's a lot of bullshit in this thread. People can wear shorts in cold weather either a) if it's not that cold, or b) if it's not for a long period of time. I've been in -50 and -60 degrees fahrenheit weather in Alaska and Montana and Wyoming and when it gets that cold any exposed skin is a huge liability and will become frostbitten and/or severely painful in a very short amount of time. Left untreated it will turn necrotic which is not good. You also, pretty much no matter what you're wearing, can't stop moving at those temps unless you are in some kind of shelter.
When I worked on The Slope in Alaska back in the 90s we used to do 20 minutes outside and then 20 minutes inside for full 16-hour shifts.
That said, it can be kind of invigorating and of course you do get used to it and learn to not let it bother you.
Edit: Also, if anyone cares, I'm not proud of having worked for Big Oil on The Slope back in the day. At the time I was young, it was a big adventure and it paid big money that allowed me to do a lot of other things that I otherwise would never have been able to do. Also, it was all union work through IUPAT DC5 which I am still an active member/activist of today.
I feel seen.
Use your legs for a bit and they won't get as cold.
I've been spotted!
In response to everyone's sandals comments, you're really missing out if you don't go barefoot in the snow every now and then, so long as there's only a light layer. Every step is cushioned and refreshing. It's good endorphins all around, like taking a breath of fresh air after leaving a stuffy room. When the snow gets high enough that it kicks up onto the tops of your toes, that's cold.
When I lived in Stockholm my roommate was from Florida. He never left the house with anything but shorts on, even in -20°C, when I (Icelander) was bundled up in three layers, a beanie and mittens.
I don't know how he could withstand it.
Maybe he didn't own any other clothes and after a certain time he had to keep up appearances. I'm picturing him going to extreme lengths to get realistic prosthetic finger replacements as they suffered from frost bite... because everyone thought it was incredible that he was fine in shorts.
Florida man
John Fetterman has entered the chat.
The importance of properly winterizing for February starts with suffering through October and November.
In my hometown, we had "Mr. Noshirt". He'd walk everywhere in any weather either without a shirt on, or with a flimsy dress shirt unbuttoned the whole way. In Canada, so it got cold. Rumors were "couldn't feel cold" or the more likely "mental health problems."
That's one of the few benefits of being fat.
Actually muscles are what keeps you warm.
The amount of fat required to provide significant insulation is not really feasible for humans with the addition that the feeling of being cold might even be increased.
https://weather.com/health/news/do-fat-people-stay-warmer-cold-weather-thin-people-20140103
I am that white man. I’m just not cold, sorry about your luck I guess.
And then there's those of us on the other side of the hemisphere, where december is summer and 30°C is normal everyday temperature.
I literally start shivering at anything below 20°C.
