Tell me again how cold it is?

One of the many things that aggravated me as I was preparing to move to Winnipeg is the people who mindlessly repeated that "Winnipeg is really cold." Oh yeah? Well at least people here aren't as fucking whiny as y'all, so it's nice like that. Plus it's sunny. Now of course someone had to tell me that Hay River is sunnier than Winnipeg but let me just put it to you this way: 60.83 N versus 49.88 N. Obviously Winnipeg is sunnier because it's eleven degrees further south. The sun rises eleven degrees higher in the sky. Yes, Hay River has a weird micro-climate that can prevent rain for weeks at a time. But then, it's on a giant lake, unlike Winnipeg which is landlocked. So no, Hay River doesn't get more sun. Grow a brain, or something.

Anyway, today is a somewhat boring day so far, so I made a graph of temperatures in Hay River v. Winnipeg since I got here. Or since February 2, because some data is missing for February 1. Thusly.

The funny thing is, they're time-shifted. Which is fairly obvious if you stop to think about it, but of course who bothers to stop and think about these things? Job-seekers on a slow day, I guess. So on the graph, you can actually see a warm air mass moving north and then back south, but it doesn't move smoothly. Clearly, it has a smaller oscillation superimposed on the dominant direction of movement. Also if you're wondering why Hay River gets higher highs over this period, I would have to say it's because the western edge of the airmass, closer to the Pacific Ocean, is warmer than the middle.

Fascinating... But in the end Winnipeg still wins out: 510.2 heat degree days over this period versus 541.1 for Hay River. Which is to say, Hay River is using 6% more heat to keep up with us. Neener neener!