Northern New York is unusual in terms of its weather. I’m writing this in the midst of a snow storm. A storm that no one predicted, by the way. They say if you don’t like to weather in Northern New York, wait a few minutes and it’ll change. That’s mostly true. We experience all four seasons, sometimes in a single day.
Cold is probably our most defining feature. Buffalo, NY (so named because buffalo once roamed there) probably receives more snow than any other city on the East Coast. Where I live in Malone, we are mostly shielded from that by the Adirondack Mountains. But we still get quite a lot of snow. Many people complain about it, and I used to complain, but I realized one day that complaining only makes things worse for you and drags down everyone else. So I don’t complain about the cold or the snow. Well, I don’t complain about the cold much anyway. The snow is hard to get around in, and can make things inconvenient. Cold, however, isn’t much of an issue for me. I had often considered moving to a warmer climate, but then the summer of 2018 happened, and I changed my mind.
During the summer of 2018, Malone experienced the worst heatwave I have ever lived through. Temperatures skyrocketed up to 108 degrees Fahrenheit one day and It stayed in the hundreds for over a week. That may not seem like much to those of you in warmer climates; some in Texas and Florida will scoff, but that almost never happens around here. In general, we have maybe one 90 degree day a year. Sometimes, two. One year, we didn’t get any. Up to that point, I didn't know what 100 degrees felt like. I felt like my brain was boiling. My Northern blood just couldn’t take it. One of the advantages of living in a cold climate is that you can almost always add another layer of clothing to keep you warm; another shirt, another sweater, and another jacket. You'll look like the Stay Puffed Marshmallow Man, but at least you'll be warm. But when it’s hot, there’s only so much clothing you can remove. I doubt the world is ready to see Ian Wilson running around in a loincloth! Then it dawned on me; it’s like that every day of the summer in the South. After that, I decided that I had to live in a northern climate for the sake of my sanity. I even considered moving further north, briefly; like Canada or Alaska. No matter how cold it gets, or however much snow we get, I will not complain. I will look back on the summer of 2018, and remember. And I will welcome Old Man Winter’s icy embrace.
