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?"
It was 50 last night when I took the dog for a walk. I was too lazy to put on socks, so it was in sweats with sandals and bare feet. Was surprisingly easier on the feet than I expected
I mean room temperature is 20 °C (68 °F) so wearing shorts and T-shirt should be the norm imo. If it isn't colder outside than inside, why put on more clothes?
Wind is a factor too
True
also if it's 20c inside imma be cold.
Seriously? I've seen people go to 18 °C on the thermostat but not above 20. Are you from a super hot place?
I'm from Sweden which I don't consider super hot, but most people I come across would have their homes warmer than 20c. More like 23-25.
Believe it or not, I'm also from Sweden, and most people I know have it set to 19-20, and one guy 18. I've never seen 23(!) I can't believe they're native Swedes.
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.
These contrasts are funny. I remember this story about a football game in Italy in October between Glasgow and AC Milan, and as the camera was panning the crowd the 60k Italians were all wearing a jumper, a jacket, scarf and hat, and the 500 Scots were topless.
I’m over here wearing shorts a short sleeve shirt, with a light running jacket, and the warmest gloves and socks I can find.
I’m warm, but not evenly so.
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.
All over Asia every time the temperature in the evening goes from scorching to bearable for me, everybody there starts pulling out sweaters and jackets.
That was me, I live in the tropics near the mountains where you can go from 42⁰ at crazy humidity near sea level to 15⁰ up around 2000m in about an hour's drive. I lived near sea level and when we were kids we'd meet halfway with friends who lived in the mountains. They'd be running around in just swimsuits and I'd be sitting on the side wearing 3 layers.
This is me. I have had people say I make them sweat by looking at me when I wear a sweater in 75F just because it’s not yet hot enough to make me take it off.
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.
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
My legs generally don't get cold. Even in that -20 C weather my legs just don't seem to be bothered. I have no idea why, other than I'm acclimatized to cold weather or something, though it's possible there's some nerve issue in my legs that makes me not feel the cold - again, no idea.
Other parts of my body get cold, like you won't catch my shirtless or shoeless in that weather.
On the other hand, if I wear pants, my legs will sweat profusely and get itchy, which is way more uncomfortable to me. I'm also generally a very warm person, and usually sleep at night without a blanket covering me (otherwise I'll sweat all night and be uncomfortable). If I turn the thermostat down then blankets become tolerable, but then everyone else in my house will complain it's too cold.
I'm also aware of the dangers of frostbite, so if I expect to be in -20 C weather for extended periods of time (like an hour or two) then I'll put on pants. If it drops to -30 C then I always put on pants no matter how long I plan to be outside.
Hopefully this clears up some of the confusion, though I expect it also raises new ones.
I don't believe I've ever experienced my legs sweating noticably at all... And I grew up in the Southeastern US where it gets nice and hot.
I am this mans, and to be honest if there is no wind, I wouldnt be wearing the hoodie. Just run super hot. If I could afford it I would keep the house at like 62 and still have the ceiling fans on.
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That's a very southern idea of "cold" though.
It's still autumn on the Canadian east coast, and temperatures are now staying below the freezing point. Still seeing the occasional shorts wearer, now with boots on.
I was born in Minnesota, so I know cold, in the south they think snow is cold, they are unaware of so cold it cant snow. I still shovel snow in my crocs
I agree that snowy weather isn't that cold. But shovelling snow in crocs?? There is no worse feeling than that particular cold wetness of snow getting in your shoes. I wear a big snowsuit to prevent any snow from getting on me.
The shorts kind of help feel warmer if you are bundled up everywhere else. It focuses the feeling of cold on your legs where it feels less bothersome.
As an Okie, I'll admit that our "cold" isn't truly cold. Our coldest nights on average are like -3°C. In fact, the coldest it's ever been in my neck of the woods is -25°C, and that was that freak polar vortex that knocked out power in Texas for several days in Feb '21. The coldest verified recorded temperature in Oklahoma happened in Nowata in Feb 2011, where it dipped to -35°C. And that was also a freak occurrence, and it was 24°C again within a few days. In my part of the state, it gets above freezing point about 355 days of the year. Rarely do we ever spend a full 24 hours below freezing, though it happens once or twice a year. We also get a decent snow or two most years, but it never sticks around for long. New snow is beautiful. But once it's a day or two old, it's disgusting. It's nice that it all melts away within a few days.
And yes, I am a white man, and I wear shorts all year and in any weather.
Don't ask me about the hot, humid hell we become over summer.
Am white guy that cab spend hours in a -10F freezer with just a lightweight coat and beanie. I wear shorts as long as it's not windy and walked a mile in -15F one winter. That was a bit cold and had to take a warm bath after that.
Might I recommend Denmark? Too damn cold here much of the year and other than the weather, which it sounds like you might enjoy, it's an excellent place to live!
We can still easily wear shorts at least part way into October in Denmark. It's a great place to live. I do hate the rain though.
I keep mine at 69! Heheheheheh
Ok, sorry. I've ruined your perfectly nice comment with sophomoric humor. I apologize.
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
I'm closer to you than to the other person, but damn, 60F is just about perfect for me. Nice, comfortable T-shirt and jeans weather.
That's me as well. I typically don't even start thinking about shorts until the triple digits.
On the other hand... I'm starting to layer up at about 65...
I do also have a higher than normal body temperature. I'm usually hovering around 99.3 and I always have to explain to the doctor that I'm not running a fever that's just my normal temp.
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.
Tip over protection ftw!
In all seriousness, I do point it away from him explicitly because he swears he can feel it across the room.
Space heaters are fantastic! My partner and I have very different ideas of comfortable, and they make liberal use of blankets and space heaters. That's waaaay better than turning the entire house into an oven! Plus I still make use of the space heaters, too -- making the bathroom toasty so you're not freezing when you step out of the shower is the best.
It's more likely that it's from poor blood circulation than actually being cold. Commonly, because they need more cardio.
Women are biologically more susceptible to getting cold than men are (or conversely, men are more susceptible to getting hot than women are). Also most people in America need more cardio; it's not a gender thing.
Didn't say only women get cold from no cardio. Obviously, there are other factors like mild Raynaud's syndrome
You're still making this out like it's an individual problem and not a genuine (and major) gender difference.
From a BBC article on office temperature wars:
Boris Kingma from Maastricht University Medical Center decided to take a closer look. He found that women have significantly lower metabolic rates than men and need their offices 3°C (5.4F) warmer.
That's a huge discrepancy! Obviously not something you can chalk up to individual factors like exercise rates or medical disorders.
LOL, this was great. Im a big guy who wears shorts cause I like the cold, and I have to ask, what other answer do yall expect to the stupid question of "aren't you cold?" or "how are you not cold?"
This unironically
I work in Louisiana, people down there freak the fuck out if it drops to low 60s and I'm in a Tshirt and shorts.
Granted I'll wear exactly that in 30 degrees
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Lived in Phoenix for a bit, and was surprised the first autumn when people started wearing jackets in the high 60s
I've lived in SoCal for most of my life, but I love wearing sweaters. As soon as it gets cold enough for me to not have a heat stroke, I'm wearing one.
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.
I swear I sweat constantly and its so annoying Like I'm not bothered by the heat I'm bothered by the constant feeling of being soaked in sweat
It's like a game of chicken where you win by being the last one wearing shorts deep into winter.
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.
I don't even think it makes sense, since your skin senses it.
It makes sense when you learn that your skin doesn't sense ambient temperature at all, but rather it senses the rate at which you are losing or gaining body heat. This is why metal can feel cold at room temperature while something like a blanket actually feels room temp, it's a better heat conductor so it absorbs body heat from you faster.
Having more body mass means you produce more body heat at any given time, so the rate at which you lose body heat to the air is decreased, making you warmer.
Could it just be a weight thing? So not necessarily fat, muscle could also help.
If you're body is heating your whole body, the amount of heat added will increase linearly with volume. But your surface area, i.e. the skin, increases sublinearly with volume. So you get more heat per surface unit?
I don't know... , I've never been fat and I completely disregard the cold like it's not even there
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I have high testosterone levels and I am always warm. In the winter I get tired of scraping ice from my car and just use my hands to melt it off the windshield.
Yep. My friend started testosterone recently and said that he went from always too cold to being a furnace.
Is it? Because I’m a transwoman and my levels are all within cis woman ranges for going on a decade now, yet I’m basically full-time Chandra, Awakened Inferno unless it’s subzero temps outside.
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.
It’s called brown adipose tissue aka brown fat. Old people are always cold because they often lack brown fat.
Not really. Babies have brown fat as default. Adults have white fat which can turn brown in response to cold exposure (not as much as in babies, so it's also called beige fat). Brown of beige though, it works the same - there's a high count of mitochondria in the cells and the tissue can produce heat and make you feel (and be) warmer. It also helps with weight loss, stimulates the immune system and lowers inflammation.
With socks too! Gotta keep them toesies warm
This is my first winter after turning 30 and suddenly socks and sandals is the greatest thing why do people shit on this? My outfit for grocery shopping today was literally shorts, hoodie, socks, sandals (slides style with the single thick band over the arch)
Honestly the only issue I have with socks and sandals is the one where the support goes in-between your first 2 toes
I still find it comfortable tho lmao
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.
Hmm see going barefoot or flip flops everywhere stops my Raynaud's from flaring up. Different for everyone I guess.
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.
They've done studies on Win Hof and some people at least are just physiologically resistant to the cold.