Winter stuff

From: ALISON PLACE <alison_place_at_...>
Date: Sun, 7 Dec 2003 15:22:59 -0800 (PST)


Winter, a Canadian's favourite topic! Enjoying the discussion so far.

Snow clouds for us are mostly just a uniform grey overcast. Not very dark, except that if it's snowing near sunset you notice the dark coming much earlier than you expected. If you haven't been paying attention, this can catch you by surprise, and it's not good news if you don't have good lights! Hunters and trappers beware.

Occasionally I've seen snow coming out of individual clouds, with the sun still out. This is a magical effect, as the snow then twinkles in the air as the crystals catch the light. It's like diamonds in the air. It makes you want to run outside and catch the snow as it comes down!

Gloranthan moonlight on snow is going to be different from the bright white light that we know. A ruddy, bloody snow - bad omen! (Well, for Heortlings, anyway...)

Freezing rain - a wonderful condition to see when you have had a small touch of it, as if you get the sun out the next day everything sparkles and glistens like the most beautiful crystal you've ever seen. As the wind comes up, or the sun warms the dark branches under the ice, it falls off with a tinkling sound, and looks like broken glass test-tubes everywhere! The worst winter condition, bar none, to drive in, and I assume to hike or ski in. It frightens us much more than an ordinary snowfall, or even many blizzards.

Supercooling is one cause, but you can also have a colder air mass underneath a warmer one, so it actually starts as regular rain, but then freezes on contact. Conditions like that are usually fairly ephemeral, which is why the Great Ice Storm of '98 in eastern Canada and the US was so unusual. It lasted about 4 days, allowing many, many tons of ice to accumulate. Buildups of a cm or more happened, and that much ice did things like crumple the Hydro pylons to the ground, not *merely* break branches down over the lines. Some were without power for three weeks or more. There was a hell of a run on generators (sorry, not applicable to Glorantha, unless someone can think of a magical version!), especially for farmers who still had to milk cows, feed chickens, etc.

To prevent ice build-up on hood edges: a fringe of wolverine fur has been considered for many years to be one of the best non-matting furs to use. I don't know of much other use for it; I've never seen a whole wolverine coat, anyway. I would think that many people might use a sheepskin coat, also (wool inside, of course). It's heavy, but it should be warm. Anything woven or knitted will let the wind through, even felt won't work that well (and gets damn heavy).

Down is the favourite choice for most people I know. It's bulky, but much lighter than a wool, fur or leather coat, and cuts the wind just as well. I know that we're used to using it with modern, bright synthetics as the covers, but a good tight weave of anything should work. Anybody know when down coats came in? Two things against them; originally, down was very valuable, as it took a long time from a regular flock to build up enough, and secondly, you then have to use twice the usual amount of woven goods to quilt the down. If it gets wet, it's insulation value drops, too. I assume you could waterproof it somewhat.

Another weird weather condition nobody's mentioned yet is sun dogs. These are a refraction effect associated with fine ice crystals high in the air, and form two quite obvious bright patches either side of the sun. They always occur in pairs. Reasonably common in the winter, though they can happen anytime. The sky appears clear to mildly hazy up high. There may be lower clouds blocking the view.

If there isn't already a myth associated with them, I'm sure that Oliver or Bryan can oblige. I'm inclined to think of them as court toadies of Yelm, trying to stay as close to his warmth as possible during the winter. The Elmali may actually consider them the faithful hounds of a faithful master, helping to guard the stead. I'm sure they have names.

All I can think of to mention just now, plus I'm needed to help with dins. Looking forward to the comments.

Jeff, congrats on the reunion! Is Christmas in the US, Canada or both, this year?




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