When I was growing up, the question of whether I preferred Summer or Winter was barely a discussion. Summer in Scotland: it basically just rains every day. Winter? It’s cold and at least there’s the chance of snow. And you can stay indoors and play video games! Australia? Things flip a little for me.
In Summer it’s actually hot in Australia. In Australia sometimes it can get so hot that you can’t go outside! That’s when you get to stay home and play the video games.
But just on a broader note: Australia is a country built for Summer. It feels like a country where outdoor pursuits are actually worthwhile and supported by broader culture. In short, I really like Summer here in Australia.
The only caveat is this: as someone who loves climbing, the winter creates better conditions for getting outdoors and climbing on rock. There’s more friction, you can climb harder stuff.
It’s a broad question, and somewhat outside the scope of video games: but which do you prefer?
Comments
53 responses to “The Big Question: Winter Or Summer”
Winter cause… well you can see why
Winter. You can keep putting on clothes, turn up the heater, hug someone, or just hide under a pile of coats.
In Summer, there’s only so much you can take off.
But I’d still prefer Summer over Spring. Fucking hayfever.
Also good making whoopy weather
This exact comment
Addition to my place having a fire place need to wear shorts when home in winter too hot lol
Winter! The cold never bothered me any way!
No DC. That’s a bad DC. Don’t make me go get the newspaper.
Also Let it go is now on the woolworths radio, and not the super-cool ballad from the movie either, it’s the convoluted single version -_-
Winter fo shizzle. Summer fun is a lie. It’s so hot, you can’t do anything because you’re all hot and sweaty. Even staying indoors is uncomfortable without awesome air conditioning.
Also Australian winters aren’t that cold either, so you can still do stuff outdoors just dress up a little more.
Although it’s easier to keep warm than it is to cool down, my other bad habit involves jumping on a kayak and paddling off onto the deep blue in the hope of catching big tasty swimming things. Here in QLD I can do this any time of year (water temps of 20+ year round), but it’s still far nicer in summer.
Both are equally awesome!
Summer = Mountain bike riding, hiking, swimming, ice cream, camping.
Winter = Snowboarding, hiking, camping and wet mountain bike rides!
But to sum it up, “There is no such thing as bad weather only inappropriate clothing”
Camping in Winter? with the rain and the mud, no thank you.
I’ll fix that.
There is no such thing as bad weather only inappropriate clothing & “EQUIPMENT”
Camping in the wet/snow is awesome. 🙂 Just got to be well prepared when doing so. 🙂
Winter. I’m more of an indoors person and the cold bothers me less than the hot.
You’re in Sydney, where winters are relatively moderate and summers aren’t ridiculously hot. Check out Melbourne if you want to really hate both.
Europe has the best summer/winters. You get the nice 30 odd degrees in summer (at least you used to before global warming started to really kick in recently) and fantastic snowy winters.
Plus seasons man, SEASONS! You get seasons over there (and of course in other places like the US). Summer is summer, autumn is autumn, winter is winter and spring is spring. Over here we have super wet and super hot. That’s our two seasons.
Tasmania called. We would like to point out that we also have European summers and winters.
On the same day.
Lived in Tassie for 8 years (Deloraine and Launceston) and then in Melbourne for 3 years, there is little to no difference in weather from day to day, the exception being having snow on the mountains occasionally affecting the temperature of nearby towns/cities (in my experience anyway).
Melbourne weather can go and eat a big bag of dicks.
Bring it!
Canberra is quite similar, but we don’t have the ocean nearby to regulate things. I do think we get a good seasonal variation – although the timing of it is a bit outside your traditional seasonal delineations.
My votes for summer though – because wind chill. And because once I get cold, I don’t warm up again until summer.
Same. I get the whole ‘you can always put clothes on in winter’ and boy oh boy do I hate 4 days of 40 degrees plus. But I feel happier in summer overall. Plus as others have pointed out *cough* short skirts *cough*.
See, Winter in Queensland is, ‘mildly overcast, tolerable temperature’. We usually get about a week of this so-called ‘winter’ in Queensland. Maybe two weeks if we’re lucky.
The rest of the year is fuck-off drench-your-shirt-in-sweat-if-you-dare-to-raise-your-heartbeat-over-100bpm heat.
Fuck the heat. Fuck it in the ear. Heat means you can’t wear stylish suits and coats without scurrying between oases of air-conditioning via taxis and offices.
I dunno about the South, but when I visited Melbourne for 2013PAX-AU, that was pretty much my ideal weather. I just ran around everywhere with my camera-phone out, drinking up all that gorgeous winter weather. Grey skies, vigorous breezes, a hint of water on the air. Gorgeous.
I suspect it’s also a case of the grass being greener on the other side (or a few states away to be precise).
Because I’d be happy to trade this constant bipolar weather for the one Queensland has to offer. Until I decide I no longer like heat and miss the cold anyway. 😛
Most definitely summer, hate winter with a passion, no offense @wintersoldier.
Same. It sometimes makes me all moody and shit. It’s a real thing apparently: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seasonal_affective_disorder
Yeah, I notice that I’m a lot more chirpy and happier in spring and summer.
Although I do like listening to the rain, and watching the lightning, provided I’m nice and warm inside and I don’t have to go out anywhere.
Winter!
I hate the heat and daylight savings.
Being a night worker the cool and dark makes a world of difference
Winter all the way for me, either its cold and wet, or just cold and windy. Both good excuses to go to ground, play video games and watch my favorite cycling event late into the night!
Winter. Better to be indoors playing vidya games, and better for playing sport outside.
Winter! Good season to watch all my T.v shows. My computer stays nice and cool whilst playing games. There’s some hot days during winter so you can head to the beach/pool. I can rug and be warm. So winter all the way!
Daylight savings is a plus for Summer though, hate when it’s dark early.
I generally prefer winter. It’s easier to get warm in winter than it is to get cool in summer, exercising is much less disgustingly hot and sweaty, and there’s football to watch instead of cricket / tennis.
Summer does have a few redeeming features, though, such as cooking on the bbq and girls wandering around the place wearing not very much.
Tiny winter-jackets, stockings and tall boots, man. Spend some time in the CBD and check the Winter fashions. You gotta give credit to the girls, they know how to impress, no matter the season.
Autumn, as far away as possible from the histamine hell that is spring
Depends where you live. Move inland and you definitely get the seasons.
Everyone who voted winter should come down and do a few seasons in the Snowies. I’ve been here 20 years now and getting real sick of the cold. Diesel in the car freezes when the can’t get Alpine fuel, dogs can’t drink their water as it’s solid, and face pain when you go outside.
Winter. I love the cold and rain and darkness that goes along with it.
I ordered one of those lamps. I’ll report back once I try it out to see if it makes me more chirpy too. You can get a Philips one for under $100 delivered from Amazon:
http://www.amazon.com/Philips-HF3321-60-Hf3321-goLITE/dp/B003XN9ZQQ/
EDIT: Unsuccessful reply for @evilmonkey
I’d be very interested to hear your report on it.
Winter!!! its cheaper on my power bill, i love the cold, can’t stand the heat
WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU PPL? Winter seriously? Winter over Summer?
you can still surf during winter its just not as enticing on certain days, but summer damn its hot/warm daylight savings, AGAIN WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU PEOPLE?
Having grown up as a non-athletic person in an exploding seaside tourist town known for its beaches and surf culture… I much prefer winter. Everyone’s more subdued in cold weather… it’s so peaceful. (That, and the place isn’t trying to accommodate fifteen times its normal population.)
Winter. I don’t feel the cold, and I hate humidity.
All you people that say that you love Winter will soon change your tune when you all get old and suffer from arthritis.
When I was a kid I loved summer because of the beach.
Now that I’m an adult I love winter because of the beach. SEQLD means I can even surf when I forget my wetsuit plus less crowded.
Also in summer I sweat ALOT so pretty much don’t get to touch my missus for 4 months.
I like to be naked all the time so I find it much more comfortable in summer.
All you winter people are crazy. CRAZY.
For a while I was joking that anything less than 23º is cold. The other day I noticed that my feet and hands were getting numb and figured it must be pretty cold, so I thought I’d go get the thermometer to see just how cold it actually was. TWENTY ONE DEGREES.
I hate the cold. So much. If the air is too cold then the aforementioned numbness sets in, and makes it a whole lot harder to do things with my hands like type on a keyboard or play piano. Plus it often starts to make my ears cold which then kind of gives me a headache. And no, putting on more clothes is not a solution because, well for one gloves do nothing to improve usability of cold fingers, and then warm socks only work for a few brief minute before they start to get wet from sweat which in turn then makes them even colder than they were to begin with because of evaporation.
Also the “you can always put more clothes on” thing is dumb anyway, piling on more clothes is massively inconvenient and uncomfortable PLUS it’s only an option if you have those clothes available. If you’re out and about, you either need to be hauling them along with you or you’re screwed. And, well for one thing you can always find (or make!) shade from the sunlight. You can’t exactly find heat shade from the cold. Plus taking less clothes off isn’t really the answer to heat, all that’s really needed is movement of air. The worst Summer is when there’s just completely dead air, and you’re just stagnating in the heat. I feel much better going for a long walk than just sitting still in those cases, even though it may work up more of a sweat the movement of air keeps me cooler.
The weird thing about all this is that I’m generally someone who produces *too much* body heat. My friends always comment that they can just feel it radiating off me when they’re standing nearby. And all throughout my trip to Japan last year, with days ranging from -1 to 10º, I was the only person whose arms anyone saw for the entire trip because I was the crazy guy walking around in a t-shirt everywhere. Had to get the jacket out for night time though, of course 😛
[rant mode disengage]
Haha, exactly what I was thinking. 😛
Bah! Again I meant to reply to @evilmonkey but the system said I’m posting too fast. Albeit being the only post in the last 2 hours. 😛
Summer. I like the heat. Also sweating your guts out in winter isn’t fun, when it’s cold cause it is too effective are cooling you down when doing manual labour. I much prefer it in summer. Not that it matters where I live though…
Here’s my simple philosophy to weather… It’s easier to stay warm than it is to stay cool… Ergo winter wins.
Cant believe im saying this but…….I’ve gotta go with the winter. The job I do involves getting in roof voids and let me tell you when its 40+ outside you can add another 40 (at least) to the inside of a roof void, so yeah she’s pretty hot up there and not much fun !!! so work wise I like winter, but I do enjoy summer time activities.
I’m in SA in the Barossa Valley (north of Adelaide about 60km) and we get pretty hot up here in summer due to heat from central aus being drawn down. This last summer we had nearly 2 weeks straight of 40 deg. That was not cool man…..not cool at all ! (excuse the pun)
For work I like winter for everything else I’m easy either way as I don’t usually feel the hot or cold much. I can be wearing shorts and T in 40+ or in 15 (anything colder than that I need some insulation though). I seem to always have more parties and stuff going on in summer, I like water activities and the like so summer wins out there. (man this is harder than I thought)
The Mrs is always cold so winter = more snu snu for me ! so I guess there is that.
Winter for sure. I live in WA so our winter is basically a summer still anyway but can be “cold” on the odd day or two which is nice.
I always liked winter better, It’s easier to cope with the cold with the heat, and winter also includes yummy stews and soups 🙂
Winter, perfect conditions for Mountian Biking in South East Qld. Not hot during the day, Snakes are sleeping. The only downside is the shorter days.
Anyone who voted Winter mustn’t live in Melbourne!
I prefer Spring actually…
What would a westerner known about winter? Ooh it’s less than 20ºC outside. Better put a third jacket on.