20.02.11 – Finns love talking about the weather. Saa is the word for weather in Finnish. I’m still at the point where I can only pick out words in conversations to guess at what people are talking about on the trams. You hear “saa” a lot.
The temperatures have really been diving down. -20°C has been the norm. One day it even dropped to -41°C in Lapland, which is luckily way far in the North. A number of factors make the freezing temperatures bearable. Longer days mean more sunlight, more sunlight means cold temperatures during the night make warmer days. Also, luckily, we haven’t had much wind which makes the wind chill factor exponentially harder to deal with. Lastly, the nights are usually the coldest so you plan on staying in where your apartment is warm and toasty.
One side note, I bought something called a Boxee which allows me to stream movies via the internet and so far it’s pretty cool (Thanks Mikko for the idea). The selection of movies I can download are way better than what I find in the local video rental stores. The qualities of the movies and tv shows on my HDTV and the speed at which they download are very impressive. At least now I don’t have to hustle down to the video store in the cold.
The shots above are from an advertising display on the trams in Helsinki. As you can tell, they’re talking about the current saa.
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Helsinki always looks like Christmasland —- but it was us who had -27.7 celsius here a couple of weeks ago. That’s respectable bragging numbers even in Lapland, I think.
So enjoy the balmy breezes over the snow!
The Boxee sounds really cool to have in good old Cold Finland!
It sure beats a large cable bill every month and the selection is way better than anything I can find in Finnish video stores.
Uutiset and Saa, always good subjects to start a conversation. I admit I enjoy talking about the weather and the forecast. I see you are having some really cold days this next week and you will have plenty to talk about.
Speaking of cold weather, we have snow in the forecast later part of the week. Possibly 4” on the valley floor on Thursday. That’s big new for here as you well know, Tom…:)
This cold spell is getting on my nerves but our patience will be reapaid when spring arrives and the days start to get really long.
I agree Enrique, it’s been a bit on my nerves too having to add even another layer of clothing. I recently went out to get a balaclava. I think only children use them here but I don’t care anymore. I refuse to freeze during my first Finnish winter 😉
Us Floridians discuss weather alot, too! You can hear people bitching about how cold it is (40’s and 50’s) but, in no time they’ll be bitching about the heat!! It’s comical, especially coming from Cleveland!
when i was at weaver’s last spring, it was 82 (that’s probably about 300 degrees kelvin). a teeny tiny rumor of a wisp of vapor scooted by on a soft puffy wind off the gulf in an otherwise crystal clear sky of blue, and weaver, in his trademark, sardonic way remarked, “oh look. a cold front.” the little cloudling vanished over a horizon of palm trees waving lazily in the moist breeze in about 20 seconds.
so much for how “us Floridians” discuss the weather.
Where’s Weavers?
steve weaver, tom. he lives in clearwater, florida now, about a half a mile from the gulf of mexico. i vsist him every spring break when he is off work for the week (he’s a public school teacher).
Love the post, though as a resident of the UK, I don’t find weather discussions anything out of the ordinary. 😉
That said, it does take some getting used to Finns telling you “lovely weather today” when it’s -20c. But you soon realise “lovely weather” = “we can see the sun”.
Keep posting Tom!
Thanks Olli. You nailed it. Its all relative and this time of year, no ,matter what the temperature, if the suns out, it’s a dang good day 😉