Winter is coming and Jack Frost knocks on my door

A rant about winter and temperatures

It’s seven degrees minus out there, Celsius, and my feet are cold and clammy, although I’m indoor and safely tucked down underneath a warm duvet. It’s like I can feel the cold lurking in the dark corners of the room, baring the tiny icicles it’s got for teeth, longing to sink them into my soft flesh.

I feel fine in temperatures between thirty and forty centigrades in the shade, like the day I took the photo above, still living in Viseu, Portugal as I were then. It was nearly fifty in the sun so it should be needless to say that one should keep in the shade then. If you do, it’s rather comfy, I think. Drink a glass of ice tea, or what’s customary in Brazil, a coconut full of the juice they call its milk – or even the juice of sugar canes. It’s mostly tourists who roast themselves in the sun. Locals keep themselves in the shade.

Perhaps the reason why I feel nice and comfy in the heat, is because my body temperature is almost two centigrades below what’s considered normal, which is 37 degrees Celsius. Mine is around 35,5.

When it’s below 25, I feel the urge to put on a jacket, at least when I’m in Southern Europe. When I’ve been driving across the continent, back to or from Scandinavia, I’ve noticed that what the thermometer tells you, isn’t the whole story. I don’t know why, but when you get north of Paris, more or less, 20–25 degrees aren’t that fresh anymore. I think it was on Quora that a Moroccan told me that his experience was the same. Thirty degrees in southern Scandinavia – yes, it can be that hot during summers there and even hotter – actually feels more like forty in Portugal. Tropical, almost.

Speaking of tropical, I’ve lived a year or so altogether, in Brazil. Up in the interior of the northeastern part of that enormous country, in Teresina, Piauí, forty degrees is suffocating hot and not at all like it is in Viseu or in Spain, Greece or Italy. The first time I experienced it, it was like the heat sucked out all the energy from my body and I felt almost too weak to walk across the street to Carvalho, the supermarket.

So, why this difference? The thermometer shows the same results, but it’s far from being the same. Although this isn’t a scientific article and it’s all anecdotal, I would guess it has to do with humidity, but not any old humidity, because even in northeastern Brazil it gets fresher when you go to the coast, but Teresina is in the interior. The air by the coast would be rather humid, don’t you think, what with the ocean and all? Still, it’s not the same.

I think forests are the answer. The further north you get in Europe, it is more forested. Especially Finland and Sweden are covered with forests and although Norway is a mountainous country, there are lots of forests as well. The northern part of Brazil is tropical and not far from equator and it’s covered with jungles.

Anyway, perhaps I should start planning for a time after Covid, to get away from Jack Frost when he is terrorising these parts of the planet? How’s the winter temperatures out on the Azores, I wonder? A friend of mine has got some kind of resort out there and has always wanted me to come visiting. Next year in December, perhaps? It’s in the middle of the Atlantic, but probably not freezing, at least.