| There is a popular assumption that if you move | | | | how close we are. |
| to higher latitudes (toward the poles) you can | | | | I turned the pages to find Ireland. Could I have |
| escape the heat, and that by moving to lower | | | | been mistaken? Is Dublin really quite south of us? |
| latitudes (toward the equator) you can escape | | | | No, it turns out that Dublin lies at the 53rd parallel. |
| the cold. | | | | Hey! They should be getting colder weather than |
| The equation is simple. But is it real? If it was, | | | | us. That's not fair. |
| then the most northerly capital, Reykjavík, | | | | The weather is not fair. Dublin is way to the |
| would also be the coldest...at least until they | | | | North of us, so why do we get all the cold? |
| establish a country on Antarctica. Yes, it appears | | | | I decided to take a peak at a few other pages of |
| that latitude is slacking off and failing to keep | | | | my atlas. Lo and behold, Venice is also on the |
| temperatures in line. | | | | 45th parallel. Let me tell you that the weather |
| This was brought home to me when preparing | | | | forecast for Venice, Italy never calls for getting |
| for a radio interview in Dublin, Ireland. February | | | | buried in snow for three or four months of the |
| had just roiled in and I was sitting back | | | | year...unless you happen to be viewing "The Day |
| comfortably in my good old glacial Ottawa, | | | | After Tomorrow". In fact, the average |
| Canada, weather, scraping icicles off my toes. I | | | | temperature in Venice in January is +1 (that's |
| was giddy with excitement over our warm spell, | | | | about 34-degrees American). |
| which it was reaching a high of minus-5 (that's | | | | Hmm. I wondered what else lay along the 45th |
| about 20-degrees American). I always ask | | | | parallel. The French Riviera. Not too much ice going |
| questions the day before an interview, to learn a | | | | on there. Portland, Oregon. I checked the Portland, |
| bit about my audience, so I asked the producer, | | | | USA, weather forecast. Yup, same as Venice in |
| "So what's the weather forecast for Dublin, | | | | January. And Sevastapol, Urkaine, also with |
| Ireland?" asked. | | | | January temperatures near Venice. |
| "Oh it's horrible," she told me. "People are bracing | | | | In fact, no other well-populated area of the world |
| for a deep winter freeze that's supposed to hit | | | | endures so much cold (except parts of Russia, |
| tonight. It might even get as cold as minus-5!" | | | | but many of those people can't afford the taxi |
| This blew me away, that the folks in Dublin would | | | | fare to go somewhere else). |
| be worried about the thermometer dips as low as | | | | So why do so many people with so much wealth |
| ours spikes high. After all, isn't Dublin about the | | | | live in such an inhospitable climate? I don't know. |
| same latitude as Ottawa? | | | | Maybe we are waiting for latitude to correct this |
| Weather forecast from an atlas | | | | little anomaly. |
| I whipped out my trusty atlas. We live almost | | | | Or maybe our brains are simply frozen. Or maybe |
| exactly on the 45th parallel. If we lived exactly on | | | | that's why so many people around here head |
| it, we would have to share our bed with a cow | | | | south to enjoy that warm Orlando, Florida, |
| and a dozen chickens across the road - that's | | | | weather forecast. |