I know the feeling. People think Texas is all desert, when only about 12% of it is. It's mostly grassy farmland
Finland isn't always a frozen winterland.
- Thread starter JesterFace
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I know the feeling. People think Texas is all desert, when only about 12% of it is. It's mostly grassy farmland
Lovely images. My mother's parents were Finnish immigrants, and so I've always had a deep affinity for the country, its people and the language (which I learned when I was like seven or eight years old). It's one of my dreams to visit one day, but now that it's not safe for me to fly anymore, I doubt it will happen. 
After you get about two miles west of Lincoln, Nebraska is flat grassy farmland. When we road-tripped from Madison to Denver back in 2006, my ex-wife and I had to trade driving every hour or so along I-80, just because the state was so fucking boring.
Which is what people think all of Nebraska is.
After you get about two miles west of Lincoln, Nebraska is flat grassy farmland. When we road-tripped from Madison to Denver back in 2006, my ex-wife and I had to trade driving every hour or so along I-80, just because the state was so fucking boring.
Thank you. That's a nice compliment after I posted only a few what I could find from my archives. Few of the pics are just pictures of my old car that I cropped to suit this thread. =) Welcome to Finland if you can make the trip. =)
I'd love to, but unfortunately I have a blood clotting disorder called Factor V Leiden. Short version is that my body produces entirely too much of a particular clotting factor in my blood, and as a result I'm on lifelong anticoagulation; ergo, it's not safe for me to be on planes anymore, because the pressurized environment is ripe to make me throw a blood clot.
I'd love to, but unfortunately I have a blood clotting disorder called Factor V Leiden. Short version is that my body produces entirely too much of a particular clotting factor in my blood, and as a result I'm on lifelong anticoagulation; ergo, it's not safe for me to be on planes anymore, because the pressurized environment is ripe to make me throw a blood clot.
Sorry to hear that. All kind of illnesses suck, I know that with having multiple sclerosis (MS).
But, right now medicine is taking huge leaps forward, perhaps there will be a better day. =)
This thread is making me think of the episode of South Park where they drive from Colorado to Nebraska and on the state line the terrain instantly changes from snowy mountains to cornfields.
Lovely images. My mother's parents were Finnish immigrants, and so I've always had a deep affinity for the country, its people and the language (which I learned when I was like seven or eight years old). It's one of my dreams to visit one day, but now that it's not safe for me to fly anymore, I doubt it will happen.
After you get about two miles west of Lincoln, Nebraska is flat grassy farmland. When we road-tripped from Madison to Denver back in 2006, my ex-wife and I had to trade driving every hour or so along I-80, just because the state was so fucking boring.
Iowa too.
As for Finland, the question I have is, how long do the non-winter seasons last?
Every Insomnium video but one, it's cold and white.
It varies yearly especially now with global warming happening. I think it's winter when there's snow on the ground. Back in the day snow came down even in late October or early November, now late November. (if memory serves) Not much, more in December. Winter goes as far as late Febryary. March is a mixed bag, a lot of snow, maybe few signs of spring. In April and May it's spring and in late May it starts to feel summer may begin any day and few years back in was basically summer in mid May. Summer happens in June, July and August. During September it feels like sun doesn't shine that much and waiting for the winter begins. And then waiting for the next summer begins.
Basically, winter is November to February or March, non-winter is from April to (mid) October. Did that make any sense? All of that goes for central Finland, things are bit different up north or down south. Finland is about 1100km tall, there are differences in weather. (had to search for the measurement, fopefully I got it right) Winter is longer in the north, summer is longer in the south. My friend moved to south Finland and it rarely snows there these days. If the are any Finnish people reading this and don't agree with any of this, tell us, I don't want lie to people here.
It varies yearly especially now with global warming happening. I think it's winter when there's snow on the ground. Back in the day snow came down even in late October or early November, now late November. (if memory serves) Not much, more in December. Winter goes as far as late Febryary. March is a mixed bag, a lot of snow, maybe few signs of spring. In April and May it's spring and in late May it starts to feel summer may begin any day and few years back in was basically summer in mid May. Summer happens in June, July and August. During September it feels like sun doesn't shine that much and waiting for the winter begins. And then waiting for the next summer begins.
Basically, winter is November to February or March, non-winter is from April to (mid) October. Did that make any sense? All of that goes for central Finland, things are bit different up north or down south. Finland is about 1100km tall, there are differences in weather. (had to search for the measurement, fopefully I got it right) Winter is longer in the north, summer is longer in the south. My friend moved to south Finland and it rarely snows there these days. If the are any Finnish people reading this and don't agree with any of this, tell us, I don't want lie to people here.
Yeah, climate change has affected the seasons quite a bit here in Chicagoland. Later springs, later cooler summers, warmer winters.
In this video, there is a lot of green, yet the waters are still frozen.
Then much more snow. A different season or just further north?
Hey, now. I just moved back to Iowa last week.
(Yeah, the entire state west of Des Moines is a wasteland. But the eastern half is pretty nice.)
My grandfather was born in Norway and lived in Sweden for awhile before emigrating in the early 1920s. He told me that Sweden (the area where he lived) was actually fairly warm much of the time, due to the Gulf Stream.
These remind me of the aerial views from the old TV show Adventures in Rainbow Country. That was my first introduction to how Ontario looks.Yeah, I might do that next time I'm on that particular trail. Maybe next week. Do you have beavers or any particular equivalent? There are quite a lot of beaver dams around the trails I use.
For now, these will have to do. These were taken on a very popular trail they call The Crack. You hike and it it gradually gets steeper until you come to a large crack in a rock which you climb through and up onto the top to get a magnificent view.
And then actually on the same property I originally talked about, overlooking a different area:
A lot of stereotyping goes on when people are unfamiliar with a region's geography. A lot of Eastern Canadians think my province is flat because it's one of the three "Prairie Provinces."
Actually, we've got a smorgasbord of many types of terrain. I live in an area that's in the zone where the prairie meets the foothills, and 90 minutes south of me is Calgary, which is a foothills city. There's one particular spot in my city where, on a clear day, I can just barely see the Rockies. So it's mostly not flat here.
I learned something about Iowa recently. Apparently there's a small wide spot in the road (population less than 200) called Gravity.
It was a relief to learn this, because one of the sample assignments in my province's new draft curriculum for elementary students is to locate gravity on a globe (yes, this curriculum was written by people with absolutely not a shred of scientific literacy).
So now, when the teachers complain on Facebook, I let them know that you actually can find Gravity on the globe - if you had a globe that had a good enough resolution to see the tiny villages (I used Google and Wikipedia just out of curiosity to see if there actually was anywhere in the world with "gravity" in its name).
But of course this isn't what the question is supposed to be about. I think. More puzzling is how to find Regina on a map of Alberta. Regina is not in Alberta; it's the capital city of Saskatchewan.
"Non-winter" is a good way to phrase it. One of our seasons is known as Construction.
Climate change has resulted in some very bizarre changes here. My childhood memories tell me that winter used to be from November to about mid-April, but my grandmother always made us pack at least one heavier coat for the annual trip through the Rockies (Central Alberta to the north Okanagan region of British Columbia), in case it snowed in or around Rogers Pass.It varies yearly especially now with global warming happening. I think it's winter when there's snow on the ground. Back in the day snow came down even in late October or early November, now late November. (if memory serves) Not much, more in December. Winter goes as far as late Febryary. March is a mixed bag, a lot of snow, maybe few signs of spring. In April and May it's spring and in late May it starts to feel summer may begin any day and few years back in was basically summer in mid May. Summer happens in June, July and August. During September it feels like sun doesn't shine that much and waiting for the winter begins. And then waiting for the next summer begins.
Basically, winter is November to February or March, non-winter is from April to (mid) October. Did that make any sense? All of that goes for central Finland, things are bit different up north or down south. Finland is about 1100km tall, there are differences in weather. (had to search for the measurement, fopefully I got it right) Winter is longer in the north, summer is longer in the south. My friend moved to south Finland and it rarely snows there these days. If the are any Finnish people reading this and don't agree with any of this, tell us, I don't want lie to people here.
Sound weird? I've seen snow in every month of the year here (thankfully not all in the same year). I have seen snow on the highway in the middle of July in the mountains (naturally there's snow on the mountains, though not as much now as there was 50 years ago, and some of our glaciers have been shrinking very noticeably).
Just yesterday Environment Canada issued a snow warning for Banff-Jasper National Parks (30-40 cm). This is following the heat wave we just got through with.
In recent years, the first snow in my province has been happening in August. Fall starts in August as well (I define fall as when the leaves start to turn). First frost is usually in September, and it's now not unusual to have a few days of snow in September (except for 2013 when we had temperatures of 30C - insane for that time of year). The snow has been sticking around until May.
It's not a bad thing to get a decent amount of snow each month. This year marks the 5th anniversary of the Fort McMurray fire - a forest fire that burned for months, and the smoke spread over most of North America. I'm several hundred miles south of there and breathing was difficult here, between that fire and the fires in BC. Winter in 2016 was mostly a dry one - not much snow, so the fire just kept going.
Hey, now. I just moved back to Iowa last week.
(Yeah, the entire state west of Des Moines is a wasteland. But the eastern half is pretty nice.)
I took my sister somewhere around Waterloo (?) a couple times in the early 90's. It got pretty boring west of Dubuque on 20. Galena area was a helluva a nice drive tho.
That's a Chicago ™ season. One of the "goof" versions of the Illinois quarter had a barricade on the reverse.
I actually moved back to Dubuque (lived here for eight years before my ex-wife dragged my ass up to Madison). Lovely river city.
The Gulf stream does keep us warm even up here. However, as far as I know, winter in Sweden is as rough as here in Finland. At least so it would seem when watching Rally Sweden, it looks like it could be straight from our forrests. =)
In Alaska every summer they basically have three months to completely tear up and replace all the highways.
That does sound a lot like the climate of my region in Canada, although with mine, it's not unusual for there still to be lots of snow in April. Had to dig out my camping trailer out of the snow in April several years ago so that I could go on a road-trip across the country and down into the States. By the time I was several states away, I was in my shorts and short-sleeves and bragging to my Mom about it.
I've noticed that our winters have gotten colder due to climate change, with more frequent -40s leading to bitter cold. On the other end of the spectrum, our summers have also become hotter, with temperatures that used to be rarer. And as a result of this, ticks have become more commonplace where once it was a thing we didn't have to think about 15 years ago.
Well, good catch! It is actually Rainbow Country, although that designation isn't really used much anymore. One of the only remnants of the name is used in one of the school boards, ie Rainbow District School Board.
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I still remember the promo ads for that show. My 6-year-old self thought Stephen Cottier (who played Billy) was cute, and I also liked Roger, the photographer friend of the Williams family. Quite a few episodes were uploaded to YT some time back, and YTV reran the series in the '90s. I think APT has also run it, but it would have been awhile ago.
Now, keep in mind that we only had a black and white TV at the time. I remember that we visited some people on the night it was on, they had a color TV, and I was amazed at how gorgeous the scenery really was.
The last of your photos reminds me of the episode about Dreamer's Rock (a mining company wanted to blow it up to see what minerals might be there, Billy and Pete had a brief falling out, but they made things up in time to climb the Rock and prevent the mining company from blowing it up (not quite like anti-loggers chaining themselves to a tree, but enough that the mining company realized that accidentally killing two kids would not be great PR). So they moved their operations somewhere else.
During the early years of these trips, we would travel through Calgary, inevitably get stuck in traffic due to construction, and my grandfather would be angry at the time it was costing. This was over 20 years before the Coquihalla highway was built, so the trip took about 9 hours (allowing for brief stops for food, gas, bathroom breaks, and dog-walking). There was one year when it was actually handy to be in Calgary, as my grandmother had forgotten to pack the coffee. My grandfather did not want to face another 7 hours without coffee, so she slipped into a nearby Safeway and bought some.
When the David Thompson Highway opened up and became a viable alternate route, that's the one we took. It completely bypassed Calgary, and after that the only construction we got stuck in was in BC.
Snow, beautiful thing when it's dark outside, brings a little bit of brightness into the dark.
But, snow, what an annoyance when there's a nice pile of it on your car. =)
In April snow is still on the ground, melting fortunately. In May there might be some snow left where it has been piled in winter. It snowed a little bit last May but not enough to cover the ground, it just melted away.
Right now I got happy after I remembered it's early June. Talking about snow made me forget for a moment it's summer. =)
It's 35 years ago now since the Blizzard of '86 when we had a humongous amount of snow dumped on us, on May 29. It took about 3 weeks to get it all cleared up, which means at this time, 35 years ago, the main routes had been bulldozed but the side streets were still knee-deep in snow.
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