An Australian Discovers Canadian Winter

Kirrily "Skud" Robert is enjoying her winters in Canada:

Things you didn't know about snow

Just some random trivia for Australians and others who don't live where it stays below freezing for months on end. Ten facts about snow and related subjects.

1. When it's cold enough, your nostril hairs freeze together. This is actually fun, in an odd way.

. . .

10. The Inuit do not in fact have sixty words for snow, but Anglo-Canadians come close. The following are all words for frozen precipitation either as it comes down or afterwards, and each has a specific meaning: snow, sleet, slush, hail, ice pellets, freezing rain, blizzard, winter storm, frost, powder, sheet ice, accumulation, dump, black ice, drifts, flurries, snowbanks, snowstorm, whiteout, icicles, ice dams, and [. . .], snood (rhymes with hood, not food). Then there are things made from snow (snowman, snow angel, igloo, snow fort, ice palace, ice sculpture) and semi-permanent icy or snowy landscape features (icebergs, glaciers, snowfields). [. . .] However, I am reliably informed that when it comes to snow, there is only one proper adjective.

She then followed this up with a further posting for the uninitiated:

Ten more things you might not know about cold climates if you are Australian or whatever:

1. Dehydration. Gah. The climate here sucks moisture out of you worse than anything I've ever experience in Australia. Sure, both places you have to drink litres of water every day, but when it's not hot and you're not *noticeably* sweating, it's harder to remember.

. . .

8. Small children are approximately spherical. It's really quite cute watching them try to move their limbs when padded with parkas and snowsuits which take up greater volume than their bodies. Think Kenny from South Park.