Between Water And Ice

Apparently the people of the Arctic Circle, and some in Scandinavia, Siberia and northernmost parts of North America, typically have several words to describe what we simply refer to as “snow” in English. Sure, we have some different words for some snow-like precipitations, like “sleet” or even “hail”, but I’m only personally aware of those two. They are also totally distinct from regular snow.

On the way to the post office I experienced at least five different things between rain and snow, all distinct from one another while not being either hail nor snow. I had no idea what to call them apart from, well, snow.

These occurrences are probably pretty rare here, compare to the arctic, which is why English names don’t exist for all these gradations between water and ice falling from the sky. Those cultures in the the frozen lands that have to deal with these phenomena, and for whom the details are important (may mean the different between literal life and death), it makes sense for their languages to be more nuanced in this regard.

Bottom line is, it’s freezing cold (for me)! Some people don’t think 2 degrees is cold at all. I know this because I saw a couple of ladies in miniskirts walking around with no apparent bother about the temperature 😂🥶

Peace & Love,

Adé