Winnipeg has very cold winters — its flat prairie lands make perfect conditions for unbridled winds, and the snow piles up quickly. Canada on a whole is most often associated with snow and cold; an inordinate amount of people I’ve encountered in the UK have been under the impression that Canada is cold all the time (it’s not; only in the winters).
I went to school within one of the biggest school divisions in the city and we never once had a snow day. School was always open no matter how much snow or how much cold wreaked havoc, the exception being if there was a burst pipe or flooding or something that made it an impossibility. Other schools outside of Winnipeg would be closed more often, but that was mostly because kids and teachers couldn’t actually get to school.
I used to walk to school every day. In high school, that was about a 25 minute walk. No matter the weather, we would walk (unless the neighbour or my grandpa were available to take pity on me). One day, I remember the weather being -52 degrees Celsius with the windchill. Still, school was open. But because I walked to school, I ended up getting a snow day because my mom wouldn’t allow us to go out in that temperature (where frostbite can happen in a matter of minutes).
Manitoba is probably one of the coldest provinces and made news one year for having a temperature colder than Mars. When you walk for a bit outside, your hair and eyelashes freeze so that when you get somewhere warmer, everything has a coating of white. Wearing mascara could be a disaster. Going outside with wet hair was outrageous. Not being dressed warmly was idiotic.
I say all of this because I want to make sure you understand that Winnipeg is cold in the winter and not to be taken lightly.
However, I would take a million winters in Winnipeg over a season of winters in the UK.
In Winnipeg, the winters tend to be quite dry in that there’s no humidity. Being in the centre of a giant landmass will do that. The UK, on the other hand, is damp, and I don’t just mean the oodles of rain that ruin your life. There is moisture in the air ALL the time and it chills you to your bone. So it doesn’t matter if Winnipeg is colder because in the UK I feel colder.
In Winnipeg, despite the cold and snow, it is sunny quite often during the winter. It’s really nice on the coldest days because that’s when the sky is also clear and the sun is shining. If you walk through a field filled with snow on a sunny day, you have to be careful not to catch the snow in the wrong way because it can actually be blinding. And it’s really beautiful.
The UK is in a constant state of misery with few breaks, and that’s not just in the winter. The clear days seldom exist and you also don’t have any snow to beautify the place, so it all just brings your mood way down. I mean, if there was something pretty, the cold might be worth it.
When I was in Thailand, I thought it would be strange to be somewhere hot and snowless but it actually wasn’t. I was a little homesick, of course, but it was LOVELY. If you’re going to do a snowless Christmas, do it somewhere warm and in the sun.
Christmas away from home in a grey and dreary place without even a little snow is the opposite of ideal and is frankly depressing.
And snow is at least dry until it’s not. Rain is just wet and everything is soaked and you’re miserable. I don’t know how the British manage it. I really don’t.
I supposed if you’re used to something, that’s all you need, but winters in the UK are absolutely loathsome.
But I sometimes get snow days, which is nice.
Travelled Adventures 