From Snowflakes to Sun: A Tour of Winter Stories Around the World

As you may know, meteorologists define winter as the months with the lowest temperatures of the year. This usually corresponds to December, January, and February in the Northern Hemisphere and June, July, and August in the Southern Hemisphere. This may be the theory, but people live and feel the winter season (and the winter weather) in many different ways worldwide. So, to satisfy our curiosity about what winter looks like depending on where you live, we asked staff members: when is winter, and what does it look like where you currently live or where you grew up? Is there snow? Is it freezing or quite tolerable? Is there winter at all? Let’s see what stories they have to share!  

  

Cassius – South Africa   

If you ask any South African, they’ll say, “This coming winter will be even colder than the last one.” We tend to respond fearfully to the cold, considering we have mostly warm weather. All plants lose their vibrant colours and sport only grey-brown tones during the cold months. Snow is very scarce in South Africa, with only about two places having snow yearly. In my home city of Johannesburg, I only remember one day of snow in 2012 – we were all surprised! Winter days can be chilly, but you only need a good jersey. Winter nights, on the other hand, can be freezing. During the nighttime, you need lots of blankets and heating.  

  

John – Scotland  

I grew up in the North East of Scotland, and it can get pretty chilly – I remember winters growing up when it hit -15 for days on end. The days get short, too, and on the shortest day of the year, it gets dark at about half three in the afternoon. As it’s so cold and dark, snow in the winter is fairly normal, especially in the mountains. The house I grew up in was a big, old sandstone farmhouse, and it was absolutely freezing in winter. Luckily, we had a fireplace — some of my earliest winter memories are of getting warm in front of a roaring fire after playing in the snow.  

 

Bea – Venezuela   

I’m originally from Venezuela, and we don’t really get a winter season there. In most parts of the country, it’s summer all year long! This means you only need one type of clothing (very convenient) and depending on where you live you can go to the beach anytime. The country is very diverse, so in the mountains it’s colder and sometimes you get snow; then you also get the rainy season between May and November, and the “colder” season around December and the beginning of the year. However, in most of the country, you can enjoy warm summer weather all year round. Since I moved to Europe, every time my mom says, “Today is really cold here”, it makes me laugh because cold weather is not the same anymore for me.  

  

Sohail – England   

I grew up in the North of England, where the winter can be very moist and cold. We have gale-force winds (40 mph), ice-cold rain, and very short days. The days are not bright as we have thick blankets of clouds covering the sunlight. As soon as possible (at 21 years old), I left the grey clouds of England for the blazing heat in the South of China. One of the seminal moments of my life was sitting in the mid-summer midday sun in Foshan and feeling as though I was melting! I had never experienced heat like it, and I loved it! 

  

Eduardo – Spain   

Recently I moved to Switzerland, so the whole real winter atmosphere is new to me. I grew up in Valencia, Spain, near the beach, where the temperatures are usually not that low. Seeing snow in the Alps, being able to go to the mountains and ski during the weekends, having a glass of gluhwein (or two, why not?), and experiencing temperatures close to zero degrees is very different from what I’m used to. You can tell by my Christmas presents, which included a pair of boots and a heavy winter jacket. Usually, I’m not a big fan of the cold weather, but there’s no denying that the Swiss winter experience has something special about it. 

 

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