IMO it’s much more subtle. There are still really cold days in winter. There are still mild days in summer. You can even have a whole summer that’s cool or a whole winter that’s incredibly cold. I’ve heard that one of the effects of climate change is that the weather is more unpredictable.
Having said that, there’s a winter festival here that relies on naturally frozen outdoor water. A couple of years ago they had to cancel it because for the first time since it started it never got cold and stayed cold enough. If you look at the data, the length of that festival has been getting shorter and shorter every year. As for summer, having an air conditioner used to be uncommon, now it’s a necessity.
It’s tricky because some of that is lifestyle creep. An air conditioner used to be a much more expensive luxury, but now they’re cheaper. Technology changes, expectations change, so behaviour changes. We’re also notoriously bad at remembering what was normal in the past. We remember events and extremes, not averages. But, the number of days a festival can stay open in the winter is a much more concrete thing. It was just a given that it would be about 2 weeks when I was a kid, and they had a lot of freedom when it could be. Now it’s a matter of waiting for the weather to cooperate, and often it can’t run the full 2 weeks.
IMO it’s much more subtle. There are still really cold days in winter. There are still mild days in summer. You can even have a whole summer that’s cool or a whole winter that’s incredibly cold. I’ve heard that one of the effects of climate change is that the weather is more unpredictable.
Having said that, there’s a winter festival here that relies on naturally frozen outdoor water. A couple of years ago they had to cancel it because for the first time since it started it never got cold and stayed cold enough. If you look at the data, the length of that festival has been getting shorter and shorter every year. As for summer, having an air conditioner used to be uncommon, now it’s a necessity.
It’s tricky because some of that is lifestyle creep. An air conditioner used to be a much more expensive luxury, but now they’re cheaper. Technology changes, expectations change, so behaviour changes. We’re also notoriously bad at remembering what was normal in the past. We remember events and extremes, not averages. But, the number of days a festival can stay open in the winter is a much more concrete thing. It was just a given that it would be about 2 weeks when I was a kid, and they had a lot of freedom when it could be. Now it’s a matter of waiting for the weather to cooperate, and often it can’t run the full 2 weeks.