Quote:
Originally Posted by Lateralus
I have a question for Europe and the United Kingdom.
If I visit in the middle of winter, will I die? I'm from Australia and I hadn't ever seen snow until I went to NZ as an adult. I like the cold but I've never experienced any temperatures below 0. But I'm planning on traveling there in my summer holidays (my summer = your winter).
Edit: Zero degrees celsius
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I have a lot of experience with cold climates and, while I think acclimation is part of it, clothes are really the important thing. Unless you're on an arctic or antarctic expedition, the most important clothes I think aside from a hat, scarf and perhaps gloves or mitten is just underwear. With a pair of woolen undies, long-johns, a jumper and socks, under your jeans and T-Shirt, I'm sure you'll be able to take quite cold temperatures (f.ex down to -5 celcius) quite comfortably.
If I'm just out for a walk and not driving snow scooters or anything, aside from woolen undies, I don't really change the way I dress much until it gets below -10 ~ -15. If you don't think you're gonna experience anything colder than that, you could just get a set of woolen undies and that should be fine.
Wool keeps you warm even if it gets wet which is something many fabrics won't. That's important because when it's cold, it's actually easier to overdress than underdress, causing you to sweat which makes some fabrics lose their insulating properties so you get cold not long after. Most students I've known in the arctic spent more time sweating than they did shivering. A tip for the really cold temperatures is you dress in layers that you can take off and put in your backpack if you get warm, but I doubt you'll see someplace that cold .. unless you'd like to travel to Svalbard which of course I can warmly recommend.
