I've heard it rumored that it can happen, but have never seen it. In real world terms, to get lightning you need something like a 40C (40C ~= 70F) difference in temperature between the top and bottom of the clouds (colder on top). If the ground temperature is already below freezing, that calls for an awfully cold upper air layer.
What are some of
> the more powerful or unusual effects of snow and snow storms? What
do
> (non-hibernating) animals do?
>
> And what does it mean for it to be so cold 'you can hear it'?
I'm not sure if this is quite what you are looking for, but here is way too many words about snow and cold and winter. (it is dangerous to ask about winter on a list with so many canadians.....)
However, it is very typical that snow storms announce the arrival of a cold front. It is the line between the warmer, moister, air and the cold air that gives you good amounts of snow fall. Going from cold to cold the amount of snow that you get is usually trivial (a centimeter or two, hardly worth thinking about).
Generally winter is a very bright time of year around where I am. In the cold weather you don't get a lot of clouds, and the snow reflects the light. Many people around here get depressed in late November when the days are getting short, and it is cloudy a lot, but the ground is bare (and soggy), and it is generally dark and dismal. Then the snow arrives and the world can seem almost blindingly bright. (You can even get sunburned in the winter if you are for long because the snow reflects UV rays too, although this is usually only a factor when you are up in mountains where the UV levels are higher). With fresh snow on a sunny day the world is also surprisingly colorful, at least to my mind. The snow is white, the addition of all colors, not white, the absence of all colors. Mind you, in certain weather you get a thin white hazy cloud, which sucks the color out of everything. Nights in winter can be surprisingly bright, as the snow essentially doubles the amount of ambient light.
With winds, snow blows and drifts very dramatically. When I was a child out on the Canadian prairies (where the total accumulation of snow is small because it is a dry climate, but the winds are strong), I remember snow drifts almost touching the eaves of one story houses, even thought there was only a couple of feet average accumulation. In a real blizzard (heavy snow fall plus wind) the snow seems to `fall sideways' and it is almost impossible to look straight into the wind, as the snow batters your eyes too much.
Snow storms can also be very hard to see in. The clouds darken things quite a bit of course, then the snow flakes block out even more light. Also, all that blowing whiteness, with white on the ground, and no texture to your sky (it is lost in the snow) can really rob you of orientation. Up north planes really worry about "white out conditions" as it they become totally reliant on their instruments, unable to tell direction or even up from down, and I suppose this could happen to Orlanthi flyers (although they'd at least know where the wind is coming from I think). Fortunately, standing on the ground, with a wind blowing,, you don't generally get quite so turned around, but it can be VERY hard to make anything out more than a few meters away (especially when everything is covered in snow).
In a gentle snow fall (no howling wind, even if the snow itself is coming down thickly) sounds are muffled by the snow (both on the ground and in the air). Add in hats and hoods, and saner creatures staying huddles somewhere warm and cozy, and the world can seem eerily quiet.
Wind makes cold seem much worse, in a manner vaguely like humidity making heat feel worse. The weather forecasts up here always give a "wind chill" temperature in the winter, telling you what windless temperature it feels like. On a windy day, this can be a lot colder (10 or 15 C easily) than the actual temperature. Even in a reasonably modern house with weather stripping and what not, on a windy day you may be able to feel drafts under the doors, or tell which way the wind is coming from by how cold walls or windows are. In Heortling long houses this would be quite a bit more noticeable! Places next to the north wall would not be in demand in winter time.
In cold weather, snow flakes will be small and hard. The snow that accumulates from this behaves a little like fine dry sand (it shifts around easily but doesn't pack all that well), however it sometimes squeaks when you walk on it. In milder weather flakes may be big and fluffy and soft—yielding fluffy snow that packs down a lot—or wet and usually mid-sized—yielding wet snow, the kind that makes good snow balls and snow men. There are degrees of all of these of course, from the wet snows that soak your clothes to the perfect going outside to play snow to the stinging pellets of near ice that just keep blowing around.
When snow falls warm (especially wet snow) and then things get cold (especially with a wind) you often get a crust on top of the snow. Often this is thick enough for kids to walk on, sometimes lighter women, seldom (at least around here) for adult men. Depending on how wet the original snow was, this can have the texture of a dry biscuit, or be more ice like. The difference between being able to walk on the crust (like walking on a floor) and punching through it, possibly sinking hip deep in the soft snow underneath, can be dramatic, and most amusing for kids.
Freezing rain (falls as rain, freezes upon hitting the cold ground), is especially nasty, coating everything in ice, and leaving a layer of ice on top of the snow (of varying thickness). Really heavy freezing rain will take branches off of trees (or even shatter trees) from the weight of the ice.
Icy crusts are bad for horses, as their hooves punch right through it, and it can really cut at their legs if it is nasty enough. Alynx, of course, skim across any sort of crust with ease! A crust also makes it hard for grazers to dig through the snow, so a bad crust can decimate the deer population (and drive the hungry deer to places they wouldn't normally dare go in search of food). It can also trap rabbits and similar creatures under the crust, which if it lasts long enough can again be lethal.
The top of the snow is almost always the coldest part of the snow. The ground is frequently warmer than the snow, and the pressure of the snow on top warms up the snow below a bit. This means that when expose lower layers of snow, they tend to freeze into a crust. You can exploit this for a temporary winter shelter by digging a big pile of snow (bottom snow on the outside), and letting the outside freeze. Then you tunnel in and hollow out the inside. It is quite cozy on the inside (your body heat will easily bring it up to 0C). Also, even if the surface snow is too cold to form into snowballs, sometimes if you dig a little deeper the lower snow can be so formed (kind of like digging down to find moist sand to make sand castles with).
Your ideal snow shoe depends on the conditions. For fluffy snow, you want really big snow shoes. For going through bush, you want much smaller ones so you can maneuver. . Snow shoeing in wet snow is tiring, as it tends to stick to the snow shoes (not to mention soak them), making them much heavier to pick up, so you want a smaller shoe that doesn't get so heavy. For climbing, you want spikes under the ball of your foot. Those heortlings who go out a lot in winter may well have two or more pairs of snow shoes, switching depending on the conditions and where they are going. In light snow, a snow shoe makes a pretty good shovel, but they don't' have a narrow enough edge to cut into heavy, wet, snow. (I recently saw a stat, something like in ten minutes of shoveling wet snow, you can shift a ton!)
I'm not at all sure that Heortlings have cross country skis. Ideally you want to curve them in a way akin to a composite bow, and I don't think they have that wood working technique. If they do have skis they are probably pretty flat, and they probably don't have an array of waxes. That would means most of the bottom of the ski covered in pine tar, with a stretch under the foot lined with deer hide with the under fur rubbed out but the coarse outer fur left on (keeps you from sliding backwards, and yes, the Scandinavians apparently did use that technique). But without a camber to keep the fur off the ground during the glide, this may not be all that much faster than snow shoes.
When it gets reasonably cold, your breath often forms clouds of steam. I imagine in certain weather, this makes ambushes difficult to pull off! When it is really cold, this can freeze your eyelashes together (it happened to me frequently when delivering the morning paper in my youth). You'll also get steam off of running water frequently, and areas around a rapids may get coated thinly with ice from it.
Working hard in the cold, especially when you first go out in it, can really chill your nose, throat, and even lungs. You can even get an "ice cream headache" if you are particularly unfortunate.
When it is really cold, wood tends to get quite noisy, making cracking noises when under any stress (I'm not quite sure what causes that). Wood also seems to split a little easier when cold, which is a good way excuse to get out of the long house. Leather gets stiff when cold, and freezes if damp (but your best Heortling mitts are still probably leather outer mitts with a couple layers of wool inside, all in layers)--undoing frozen snow shoe straps is a real treat. A fur ruff lining your hood is wonderful, if you have your hood pulled tight, as it traps some of the warm air of your breath near your face, but still lets you see out (at least straight forward). Handling metal in the cold is nasty, as it just pulls away all the heat it can grab. If you have to stand guard in the winter, you probably prefer an axe or spear (easier to hold with mitts on anyways, most like).
Once you are used to winter, if you have good clothes, a day around - 10C, with some sun and not much wind, is gorgeous, and you can very happily spend all day outside if you are moving around and staying warm. Closer to the freezing mark your clothes often get wet from the snow, ultimately chilling you if you don't change them. Colder and it gets harder and harder to keep all of your warm, especially face, hands, and feet. By the by, the beat cops in Winnipeg (one of the colder places that you'll find a decent sized city) used to wear bison fur parkas. Apparently they weighed a good deal, but kept you warm enough even in Winnipeg's notoriously windy and cold weather. This could be a trade item into Sartar!
--Bryan
Powered by hypermail