In the column Time Out Zone I will post in common themes, topics and essays without political background. The first part of the series reflects the actual season and why we are sensing it as unusually cold.
After all the months analyzed with the atttributes 'most', 'lowest' or 'highest' Frebruary 2012 seems straight too shoot on top of the category 'coldest since'. Even here in the inner city where the average temperatures are 4 - 8°C higher than in the outback the thermometer doesn't climb over the -7°C during the warmest time of day. And that since nearly two weeks.
Having only the winter periods of the last two, three years in our memory record the frosty phase appears in deed as stronger than one year before in comparison. But in effect the icy climate is normal for this time. We only forgot it.
The bars and coffee shops here in downtown are crowdy. All in all it became a touch more cosy. The weather is literally an ice-breaker to start a conversation with your coffee drinking neighbor on the next table.
Of course the snow is kind of bothersome carrying it in a grey muddy consistence containing elements of grit and road salt into the house floors. And if you have friends in the southern hemisphere who send you their pics posing on the beach in trunks (and you belong to those preferring generally the warmth) a tide of envy overwhelms you at least for a short moment. Counting the number of garments an outdoor trip requires and the time you need to get dressed and stripped makes you wishing the soon beginning of spring.
A closer look to the calendar reveals we are exactly in the middle of the winter now. Accepting and making the best out of it. Enjoying the cold air and the clear atmosphere. Watching the thick clouds of smoke which appear like overdimensional cotton strings ascending from the heating plants' chimneys. And knowing that the first day the temperatures are rising over the freezing point will become felt surprisingly warm.
Truly, this winter is objectively regarded simply normal. Only our own perception is due to the climate change of the last decades not normal. Therefore I have decided for my part being glad to witness a nomal winter after years of unusually warm ones ..
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