By David Leonhardt
There is a popular assumption that if you move to higher
latitudes (toward the poles) you can escape the heat, and that by
moving to lower latitudes (toward the equator) you can escape the
cold.
The equation is simple. But is it real? If it was, then the
most northerly capital, Reykjavík, would also be the coldest...at
least until they establish a country on Antarctica. Yes, it
appears that latitude is slacking off and failing to keep
temperatures in line.
This was brought home to me when preparing for a radio interview
in Dublin, Ireland. February had just roiled in and I was
sitting back comfortably in my good old Ottawa weather, scraping
icicles off my toes. I was giddy with excitement over our warm
spell, which it was reaching a high of minus-5 (that's about 20- degrees American). I always ask questions the day before an
interview, to learn a bit about my audience, so I asked the
producer, "So what's the weather forecast in Dublin?" asked.
"Oh it's horrible," she told me. "People are bracing for a deep
winter freeze that's supposed to hit tonight. It might even get
as cold as minus-5!"
This blew me away, that the folks in Dublin would be worried
about the thermometer dips as low as ours spikes high. After
all, isn't Dublin about the same latitude as Ottawa?
I whipped out my trusty atlas. We live almost exactly on the
45th parallel. If we lived exactly on it, we would have to share
our bed with a cow and a dozen chickens across the road - that's
how close we are.
I turned the pages to find Ireland. Could I have been mistaken?
Is Dublin really quite south of us? No, it turns out that Dublin
lies at the 53rd parallel. Hey! They should be getting colder
weather than us. That's not fair.
The weather is not fair. Dublin is way to the North of us, so
why do we get all the cold?
I decided to take a peak at a few other pages of my atlas. Lo
and behold, Venice is also on the 45th parallel. Let me tell you
that the Venice weather forecast never calls for getting buried
in snow for three or four months of the year. In fact, the
average temperature in January is +1 (that's about 34-degrees
American).
Hmm. I wondered what else lay along the 45th parallel. The
French Riviera. Not too much ice going on there. Portland,
Oregon. I checked the Portland weather forecast. Yup, same as
Venice in January. Sevastapol, Urkaine, also with January
temperatures near Venice.
In fact, no other well-populated area of the world endures so
much cold (except parts of Russia, but many of those people can't
afford the taxi fare to go somewhere else).
So why do so many people with so much wealth live in such an
inhospitable climate? I don't know. Maybe we are waiting for
latitude to correct this little anomaly.
Or maybe our brains are simply frozen. Or maybe that's why so
many people around here head south to enjoy that Orlando weather
forecast.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
David Leonhardt is a website marketing consultant: http://www.seo-writer.net He is building a travel directory at: http://www.wv-travel-directory.com
Get your weather forecast at
http://www.weather4you.info
ABOUT THE AUTHOR (in html):
David Leonhardt is an Ottawa,
Canada-based website marketing consultant. Get your href=http://www.weather4you.info>local weather forecast or
check out his upcoming vacation travel directory.