The Gun Counter

+15°C / 59°F
This is as warm as it gets in Finland, so we'll start here.
People in Spain wear winter-coats and gloves.
The Finns are out in the sun, getting a tan.

+10°C / 50°F
The French are trying in vain to start their central heating.
The Finns plant flowers in their gardens.

+5°C / 41°F
Italian cars won't start.
The Finns are cruising in cabriolets.

0°C / 32°F
Distilled water freezes.
The water in Vantaa river gets a little thicker.

-5°C / 23°F
People in California almost freeze to death.
The Finns have their final barbecue before winter.

-10°C / 14°F
The Brits start the heat in their houses.
The Finns start using long sleeves.

-20°C / -4°F
The Aussies flee from Mallorca.
The Finns end their Midsummer celebrations. Autumn is here.

-30°C / -22°F
People in Greece die from the cold and disappear from the face of the earth.
The Finns start drying their laundry indoors.

-40°C / -40°F
Paris start cracking in the cold.
The Finns stand in line at the hotdog stands.

-50°C / -58°F
Polar bears start evacuating the North Pole.
The Finnish army postpones their winter survival training awaiting real winter weather.

-60°C / -76°F
Korvatunturi (the home for Santa Claus) freezes.
The Finns rent a movie and stay indoors.

-70°C / -94°F
The false Santa moves south.
The Finns get frustrated since they can't store their Kossu (Koskenkorva vodka) outdoors.
The Finnish army goes out on winter survival training.

-183°C / -297.4°F
Microbes in food don't survive.
The Finnish cows complain that the farmers' hands are cold.

-273°C / -459.4°F
Absolue Zero
The Finns start saying "Perkele, it's cold outside today."

-300°C / -508°F
Hell freezes over.
Finland wins the Soccer World Cup

Yup only people from the north appreciate that whiskys Vodka etc starts to solidify around 50 to 60 below

Hah Erik. I'm so stealing that.

And at +20 C: Finns start collapsing due to heat exhaustion. Their usual comment on the heat is "Hmm."

My Finnish colleague got a laugh out of that...

I remember a story from Fairbanks days - sumdood had a bottle of vodka in his trunk for a party that night. It was about -30F. When he got to the party he decided to get started before he went in. And frost bit his throat. Oops.

We hosted a Finnish boy one year as an exchange student. From Turku. He left his home in mid-August and we picked him up at the airport the next day. About 4:00 pm, in Shreveport, LA. We walked out of the air conditioned terminal into the heat of a Louisiana summer afternoon, across a black asphalt parking lot.

I thought he was going to melt before we got him in the car and the A/C running.

Weetabix wrote:I remember a story from Fairbanks days - sumdood had a bottle of vodka in his trunk for a party that night. It was about -30F. When he got to the party he decided to get started before he went in. And frost bit his throat. Oops.

Yeah, at UAF it was a common warning to new students. People used to hang bags out their dorm windows to keep the contents cold, until the dorm management cracked down on the practice (I think mostly due to danger from falling objects).

[strike]Stealing[/strike] Um, sharing on Facebook with a Finnish friend of mine.

Weetabix wrote:I remember a story from Fairbanks days - sumdood had a bottle of vodka in his trunk for a party that night. It was about -30F. When he got to the party he decided to get started before he went in. And frost bit his throat. Oops.

I heard a similar story from one of our NCO trainers at the Infantry Officer Basic Course. He was stationed at Ft. Greely, light infantry, doing winter training. Soldier had a flask of whiskey in his ruck. This was in the 80s - apparently taking flasks to the field in winter was fairly common, but it was normally carried inside one's parka. Well, when they set up the bivuac for the night, dude gets out his flask and takes a big swig. Froze his esophagus. He died before they could get him Medevac'd.