I am told that climate change and weather are not one and the same, but they at least share the same Uber ride.
We just had a weekend when the temps were in the 60s — in the aftermath of a few wicked cold days with high winds that cut like a scythe.
The other week in San Diego East, otherwise known as Berks County, it was in the 60s one day and the teens the next.
Broken elevators don’t drop that fast. Neither does a grand piano falling from a 47th floor window.
Back-to-back days with hot flashes and then cold flashes give all of us insight into what menopausal women go through.
Such wild temperature fluctuations are not ideal beyond the inconvenience of a quick wardrobe change and having your sunblock suddenly turn to ice.
They are not good for the body.
A sudden cold snap can affect the cardiovascular system.
“When the weather gets colder your body is trying to conserve the heat and in order to do that the blood vessels become somewhat more constricted,” said Dr. David Frid, a cardiologist at Cleveland Clinic.
Frid said when blood vessels constrict, it may cause blood pressure to rise and blood to thicken, which increases the risk for blood clots.
Throw in some snow shoveling on top of that and the cardiovascular system could, in layman terms, blow a gasket.
Assuming the snowman cometh again.
Sudden cold, damp weather can also wreak havoc on joints.
People often experience escalated arthritis pain or swelling when the temperature drops suddenly.
A quick change in the weather, whether the temps skyrocket or crash, is a migraine trigger.
When the temperature suddenly geysers north, it irritates eczema and makes it more difficult for people with lung disease to catch a breath.
The weather, unlike Vladimir Putin, is not our friend. If it isn’t killing us with tornadoes, hurricanes, floods and snowstorms, it turns our bodies into mincemeat when the thermometer turns yo-yo.
Granted, we could be proactive and choose to live where the temperatures are relatively constant.
For those who enjoy being frozen popsicles, your paradise just could be Vostok Station in Antarctic, reputed to be the coldest place on Earth because the temperature there once dipped to a rather frosty minus 128.6 degrees.
The coldest inhabited place is Oymyakon, Russia, a small delightfully quaint village in Siberia, which has an average temperature of minus 49 degrees and once hit a low of minus 96.16.
If you prefer having the sweat pouring out of you, you have your choice of three lovely hot spots.
The temperature allegedly once climbed to 136.4 degrees in El Azizia, Libya but that data is disputed.
For some reason when it comes to weather and/or climate change, the data at times has more integrity problems than a mobster.
Greenland Ranch, fondly known as Furnace Creek, in Death Valley, Calif., boasts of once hitting an air temperature of 134 degrees. There obviously is no need for a furnace in Furnace Creek.
Then there is that exotic getaway destination, the Lut Desert in Iran, which once had a surface temperature of 159.3.
Of course, if you are relatively sane, you should opt for the aforementioned San Diego, which is blessed with the perfect cocktail of 70s and sunshine.
Summer highs in San Diego rarely top 80 degrees while winter highs generally fall somewhere between 65 and 70. San Diego also has about 260 sunny days a year.
With such heavenly weather, one wonders why the whole world doesn’t pack up and move there.
Granted, the median home price in San Diego is $522,250. But you don’t have to spend money on heavy winter clothing or snow blowers, not to mention paying the price for all the bodily ills exacerbated by big temperature swings.
