weather

[Guest artef]

Is the winter weather in Kingston really as bad as everyone says it is? I hear stories of the wet blowing in from the harbour making you damp cold to the bone, stories of unconquerable slush that consumes everything including all the pants in your wardrobe, stories of endless snow and long winters. :eek Any of it true? Yeah, we ARE in Canada, but is the weather better in say, Western, Mac or Toronto?

[Guest aneliz]

Winter in London sucked this year. It was long and cold and snowy. In London we got our first round of snow on the ground by about 15 November...and we had constant snow on the ground (usually about a foot of it at any one time) from Dec 1 - middle of March. It was reported that we had only 9 days from Dec 1 - March 1 where it didn't snow at some point during the day. Then in April we had a spectacular ice storm, more snow and more cold....the last snow piles have only been gone for about two weeks. I am sure that you could probably STILL find snow somewhere in this city right now.

 

As for dark, the problem for UWO students is that our classes start at 8 AM...so in late Nov, Dec and January, it is still DARK out when you go into the med sci building. And you sit in a windowless lecture hall all day...and by the time you get out again at 4:30ish, it is already getting dark again. That is our biggest complaint with med at UWO in the winter...we never get to see the sun!

 

I don't know how much different it is in Kingston...but it is hardly tropical in London!

[Guest UWOMED2005]

What Aneliz neglected to mention was that UWO is the furthest south of all the med schools (almost as far south as California!!). . . so if it was cold and snowy here, it must have been frigid everywhere else.

 

But seriously, coming from Ottawa, London on average has about 3 weeks less of winter on either side as compared to Ottawa. We are on the edge of the "snowbelt" though, so we are supposed to get a fair bit of snow. The last two winters though, have been a bit wierd. Hmm. . . global warming.

 

Every location will have its advantages and disadvantages weather-wise. I lived in Halifax for a few years - it was warmer than Ontario during the winter, but there was also a lot of freezing rain.

[Guest ozymandiasking29]

Well, aneliz's description perfectly fits the pattern here in Toronto! I would imagine that all the schools in the southwestern Ontario region would be in the same situation, unfortunately:rolleyes

[Guest bearman14]

Just to add to the conversation: we've had ONE FOOT (i.e. 12 inches!!!!!) of snow in Calgary today!! AND IT'S STILL GOING!!! I'd consider Ontario balmy right now!

[Guest QM6]

Well, I'll sum up by saying Kingston's winter is what you'd expect from a Canadian winter. You just grin and bear.

 

One thing though is the City of Kingston is pretty cavalier about getting the snow off the streets and pavement, so getting to class in the morning is a bit of an adventure. At least we don't start until 8.30 though. (Classes at 8? That's crazy!)

[Guest TimmyMax]

Yeah, I'd be the first to agree that the 8 AM classes are virtual insanity. I'm still trying to make the adjustment!

Although, as anyone in my class could tell you, it doesn't always work...

[Guest Jerika81]

It is still snowing right now in Calgary. I am stuck in my house, the cars get stuck as soon as you try to back them on to the street. At least this will force me to study for my last final...oh wait, I'm not even doing that now.

Although we do get occaisonal days of 16 degrees in the middle of winter in Calgary due to the Chinook phenomena, I am looking forward to going to school out east next year (hopefully) because at least there is an end to winter there. Not so much here, I'm sure we will still get more snow in May, and possibly even in August like last "summer".

Jenn

[Guest lcloh]

UWOMEDS2005 is absolutely right. This winter was an atypical London winter. Usually we get way more snow and more constant than, it seems, Aneliz would be able to put up with! Usually we get snow near the beginning of November, and it doesn't really clear up until late March although mid-April is not uncommon.

 

I have lived in London for a good 14 years and there's always a ton of snow during the winter. However, being in SWO, we're closer to the infamous 42nd parallel which Point Pelee sits on, the same parallel as Barcelona and Rome.. so our summers are saaaa-weet!

 

As for 8am classes... well... I don't know how many of them I actually make! But I would suspect that not seeing the sun during the winter is a function of being in medical schools. When winter days shorten to between 8.30am and 4.30pm, all across the province it sucks. At least London is further west within the Eastern timezone, which basically means the sun sets about 20 minutes later than it does in Kingston... (I can explain this if someone is confused.)

[Guest UWOMED2005]

Yeah, coming from an undergrad university where the earliest classes started at 8:30am, that extra 30 minutes is looking pretty precious now. But we're all going to have to get used to even earlier than that - I'm not sure about the rest of the blocks, but surgery blocks in clerkship usually require you to be at the Hospital for about 6:00am. Yowsers!

[Guest Ian Wong]

Floating to the top...

 

Ian