A question: How does this winter compare?

[Edena_of_Neith]

To paraphrase Tolkien, from Unfinished Tales, the Narn of Turin:

The first snows fell in October, fell on the trees of the Forest of Nuath before the full shedding of their withered leaves.
One day in late October there was a heavy snowfall, and the following night there was a grinding frost.
Thereafter, the snow and cold relented not at all, and for 5 full months the Fell Winter, long remembered, kept the lands locked in gelid cold and roaring, glacial winds.

Now, I ask, which of the below best fits the description written down by Tolkien (and paraphrased by myself) ?

1: The Fell Winter of Beleriand
2: Winter in Winnipeg, Manitoba or Irkutsk, Siberia
3: THIS winter, in your very own backyard?

[Ancalagon]

Our winter was wussy - I know it was crazy on the east coast, but we hardly got any snow, and the temperatures were mild. It's going to be 8 Celsius today!

[Name Lips]

Kinda warm. Snowed twice. Only once was deep enough for us to make a snowman.

[Xavier Lang]

Fairly average winter here. Colder than I wanted it to be, but not outside the range of normal as far as I could tell.

[Dacke]

Colder than in a fairly long while. It has shown the weaknesses in our infrastructure - railroad maintenance in particular has been deteriorating, especially compared to how many trains are running on them. For example, it used to be that they kept big halls around for de-icing trains further north, but they decided that they could scrap those and instead have trains cycle through the south of Sweden to thaw out there. But now we've had freezing temperatures here too since Christmas or so, so that hasn't worked out, leading to many trains having to spend time in workshops.

Speaking of workshops, apparently the trains that have been purchased for use in Sweden can't handle snow. It gets into the mechanical parts and fucks them up by melting or something. You'd think that being able to handle a little snow would be part of the requirements, but apparently not.

My personal estimation of the winter would be on the cold/long side of normal, but not excessively so. Whomever's in charge of infrastructure apparently disagrees.

[Lady_Acoma]

Winter just sorta was. Didn't seem particularly remarkable in anyway to me, at least around here.

[GreyOne]

Here in Vancouver, I could have been in shorts since mid-January.

[Kyle Voltti]

not much of a winter here in Sudbury either.

[Edena_of_Neith]

Sudbury is in the northern part of Southern Ontario.
5 months of snow and cold temperatures are quite the norm there.

I don't know any area in Tolkien's Middle Earth that had Sudbury's climate, to be honest.

[Edena_of_Neith]

In the United States, we have a pretty solid stereotype of what a Temperate Climate is, and it goes roughly along these lines:

January: Highs in the 20s, lows in the single digits (-1s celsius, -10s celsius)
February: 20s, 1s (-1s, -10s)
March: 30s to 40s, 20s (1s, -1s)
April: 50s to 60s, 30s to 40s (10 - 20, 1 - 9)
May: 70s, 50s (21 - 27, 10 - 15)
June: 80s, 60s (upper 20s to lower 30s, 15 - 21)
July: 80s, 60s (upper 20s to lower 30s, 15 - 21)
August: 80s, 60s (upper 20s to lower 30s, 15 - 21)
September: 70s, 50s (21 - 27, 10 - 15)
October: 60s, 40s (15 - 21, 6 - 9)
November: 40s, 20s (1 - 10, -1s)
December: 30s to 20s, 10s to 1s (1s to -1s, -10s)

If there are not at least 3 months where highs are in the 80s, and lows in the 60s, the climate is considered too cold to be truly temperate.
This is the case in such places as Seattle, Portland, Minneapolis, Milwaukee, Detroit, Buffalo, Syracuse, and Boston.
It includes all Canadian cities, except for maybe Windsor, Ontario.

If temperatures are regularly dropping into the 40s (1s), it is considered to be autumn (or spring.)
If there is any frozen precipitation - snow, sleet, or freezing rain - it might be autumn or spring, but it is not summer.

In Kentucky, they consider their climate truly temperate, but temperatures are warmer than what I cited above:

January: 30s, 20s (winter)
February: 30s, 20s (winter)
March: 40s, 20s (winter)
April: 60s, 40s (spring)
May: 70s to 80s, 50s (spring)
June: 80s, 60s (summer)
July: 90s, 70s (summer)
August: 90s, 70s (summer)
September: 80s, 60s (summer)
October: 70s, 50s (autumn)
November: 60s, 40s (autumn)
December: 40s, 30s (winter)

As for Europe? In America, Europe is seen as the Land of Never Warm. (Never real cold, either, but never warm.)
Since Tolkien lived in Europe, and designed his world from a European perspective, I am guessing that his lands were cool lands.

In the Shire, corn was grown in the Southfarthing. But it is hard to see how that would be possible. Corn requires warmth and sun, and a 4 month growing season, whereas the Shire was bathed in chill moisture and clouds off the western ocean.
Corn is not grown in Great Britain, to my knowledge (except maybe in tiny amounts in the farthest south) and if the Shire is based on Great Britain then it is hard to see how corn would grow there.

Gondor? Yes. Rohan? Yes. Even Dunland? Yes. Eriador? Not really.

Finally, Sudbury's winters would have made Tolkien shudder.
Temperatures in Great Britain rarely fall below 0 (-18 celsius), but in Sudbury that is quite common from December through early March.
No moderating wind from the ocean ever comes to Sudbury's rescue. Only glacial air roaring down from the Arctic, with no mountain range or anything else to mitigate it's raw fury (when more moderate Atlantic air dares to intervene, the result is a roaring blizzard.)

Tuor and his elven companion, would have had a hard time indeed (Ulmo's cloak or not) trying to travel across this area, during the winter.
If it were a BAD winter - as the people of Sudbury think of a bad winter - Tuor would have been killed. Unless he could withstand windchills to 40 below zero (-40 celsius) and snow drifts 10 feet high piled up against anything so foolish as to stand in the way of the storm force winds.

[Edena_of_Neith]

You've got my curiosity up.

What crops, if any, are grown in the Sudbury area?

Sudbury normals (according to the government)

January: 17, -2 (approximately -9, -19 celsius)
February: 20, 1 (approximately -7, -17 celsius)
March: 31, 13 (approximately -1, -10 celsius)
April: 47, 28 (approximately 8, -3 celsius)
May: 62, 41 (approximately 17, 5 celsius)
June: 71, 50 (approximately 22, 10 celsius)
July: 77, 56 (approximately 25, 13 celsius)
August: 73, 54 (approximately 23, 12 celsius)
September: 63, 45 (approximately 17, 7 celsius)
October: 51, 35 (approximately 11, 2 celsius)
November: 36, 23 (approximately 3, -5 celsius)
December: 22, 6 (approximately -5, -15 celsius)

[Kyle Voltti]

You've got my curiosity up.

What crops, if any, are grown in the Sudbury area?

Sudbury normals (according to the government)

January: 17, -2 (approximately -9, -19 celsius)
February: 20, 1 (approximately -7, -17 celsius)
March: 31, 13 (approximately -1, -10 celsius)
April: 47, 28 (approximately 8, -3 celsius)
May: 62, 41 (approximately 17, 5 celsius)
June: 71, 50 (approximately 22, 10 celsius)
July: 77, 56 (approximately 25, 13 celsius)
August: 73, 54 (approximately 23, 12 celsius)
September: 63, 45 (approximately 17, 7 celsius)
October: 51, 35 (approximately 11, 2 celsius)
November: 36, 23 (approximately 3, -5 celsius)
December: 22, 6 (approximately -5, -15 celsius)

guh off the top of my head. I know we have berry farms and cucumbers letuce various root vegies corn tomatoes. we've got the soil for grapes but not the weather for lage scale cultivation

[nerfherder]

Coldest winter here in 31 years.

Mean temp Dec-Feb was 1.5C. Normal mean figure is 3.7C.

I picked the wrong year to buy a sports car with wide, low profile, summer tyres!

[The Theocrat of Poon-Tang]

We got dumped on early and often, and then the temperatures remained cold so there was very little melting. We've had a few feet of snow in our yard for a while now, and only this week will it start melting.

If I had to summarize I'd say the snowfall was average to slightly above average, but it has been really cold. It must be, seeing as Lake Erie froze over for the first time in 15 years.

[Dacke]

In the Shire, corn was grown in the Southfarthing. But it is hard to see how that would be possible. Corn requires warmth and sun, and a 4 month growing season, whereas the Shire was bathed in chill moisture and clouds off the western ocean.
Tolkien probably didn't mean maize when he wrote corn. The word originally referred to cereal grains in general, like wheat or barley. The American usage, which has spread to most of the English-speaking word, is an abbreviated version of "indian corn".

[bunny]

It snowed today. The first snow I've seen all winter. It didn't stick to the ground, though. It looked very pretty falling amongst the blooming cherry trees.

[King Vyper]

I live in Jawja, the deep south were it never really gets that cold.

In Jan we had 21 days of below freezing weather. Ponds, swimming pools, and creeks were freezing up. That shit never happens down here. We also had five consecutive weeks were it snowed at least once.

I am so glad spring is coming. The good news is that the mosquito pop should have taken a huge hit!

[bunny]

I live in Jawja, the deep south were it never really gets that cold.

In Jan we had 21 days of below freezing weather. Ponds, swimming pools, and creeks were freezing up. That shit never happens down here. We also had five consecutive weeks were it snowed at least once.

I am so glad spring is coming. The good news is that the mosquito pop should have taken a huge hit!

:what:

Places with really cold winters (like Manitoba) tend to have really bad mosquito problems in the spring and summer. I think the only way they could have taken a hit is if the end of the gestation period for the eggs coincides with a sudden deep freeze.

[Ancalagon]

half the snow is melted, and today was beautiful and sunny. Flowers are starting to come out.

It's freaking *unnatural*

[King Vyper]

:what:

Places with really cold winters (like Manitoba) tend to have really bad mosquito problems in the spring and summer. I think the only way they could have taken a hit is if the end of the gestation period for the eggs coincides with a sudden deep freeze.

:(

[Edena_of_Neith]

guh off the top of my head. I know we have berry farms and cucumbers letuce various root vegies corn tomatoes. we've got the soil for grapes but not the weather for lage scale cultivation

Corn? They are attempting to grow corn in the Sudbury area?
Tomatoes?

I expected they'd try berries, cucumbers, lettuce, roots, as well as attempts at barley, oats, rye, hay, and strawberries.
But corn and tomatoes? Are you sure of this?
How about spring wheat? Any attempts at spring wheat, up there? (I know spring wheat is a huge crop, in Saskatchewan.)

[Pigs in Space]

It actually rained here last winter, for the first time in 3 years.