Bad Weather Vibes

Today on the radio I listened to a freelance traveler writer living in Hawaii who sought out cold weather, but hadn't been any further north than Maine. I never thought of cold weather as a travel destination, I guess because I never had to go further than my own backyard to experience it. I listened to the commentator tell her that Maine's winter thermometer did not plummet anywhere near what the prairies do and she needed to come to the prairies to experience real cold. Wait - was that a note of pride I heard in his voice? Was he bragging about cold weather?

With the cold settled in for the next few days, I remember other news programs and weather reports where again that sense of pride rang through as commentators discussed sub zero temperatures and minus 50 plus wind chills.

It appears that the colder it is the better the bragging rights. Why is that? I remembered when I was in Malaysia in 2000. The main question about Saskatchewan was how cold it got and how much snow there was. So I considered, if I met someone from the Artic what would be the first question I would ask? So honestly here's my answer:

I'm fascinated by lifestyles and that would be one of the top, next wildlife of course - seals, herds of caribou, polar bears - how could you not ask?
but, I said that I was being honest, so I must admit - the first question would be the weather. How cold is it really? And how do you tolerate it? And... And... And...

What's with that? Why is it that we're not interested in being in the midst of a cold snap but we seem to be fascinated by extreme freezing temperatures at a distance? I mean there's storm chasers, they chase tornadoes all the time but you never see a blizzard chaser or a cold snap chaser or....

Is the attraction a combination of both the ugly and the beautiful side of nature and of us?

Ryshia