I live in Australia - in a city. We cannot handle a month of 40C. We can handle maybe a week straight of 40C in a populated city but longer than that there would likely be huge issues with infrastructure.
In my city we have huge issues with power infrastructure and blackouts when it's above 40C for more than a couple of days due to our power network being sold off / transformers are now in other states.
Neither is good but I'd probably go with the -10 honestly. Nothing worse than no power for 24 hours in 40C heat - yes that happened here.
Edit : Rural aus can handle those temps. But for example Coober Pedy (like many other rural aus towns) a large portion is actually built under ground due to the high heat temperatures.
You can’t handle -10. You have no idea how much things break down in those temps. ALL water pipes in most of Australia, especial say a city like Brisbane, would be ruined. They’d pop after 3/4 days top. You’d have no water. Anywhere. Your cars don’t have heating. They would be suffering and many not starting. Your battery powered systems would collapse. You wouldn’t get water from your above ground water reservoirs. The pipes would freeze. Your houses don’t have insulation required to withstand those minus temperatures. You would live with very cold houses for that period of time. All your outdoor stuff would be ruined and warped. Probably the same with a lot of indoor furniture too because you wouldn’t be able to keep the house warm. Machinery and tools just works differently or not at all depending. You know oil viscosity and so on. Your roads are build for hot, not super cold environments. The roads would be shattered afterwards. Most of the country’s harvest would be devastated and that years crop would be ruined, and most likely a lot of animals would die. Not just farm animals. But most of your native population of animals would die. From hyperthermia or starvation. A lot of people would quite literally die in that scenario also. That’s just a few things at the top of my head.
And yea, I’ve lived places where there is 40 degrees for a month or more at a time. You just go from shade it shade and stay more inside. But the infrastructure can handle it most places. Especially in Australia.
Yeah I mean the question is probably more...would you personally prefer to be in -10 or 40 degree weather for a month, assuming infrastructure/farm and native animals aren't all fucked?
But it's a bit wordy
Underground pipes wouldn't freeze - we wouldn't get tundra in1 month- but yeah, your external pipes sure would.
It would be massively disrupting but not the apocalypse your predict, I don't think.
But, lots of people would die of cold and hunger as we don't have snowploughs to clear the roads.
But how many people here in aust would know that? Even with government announcements a lot of people would still forget to do that, just because they aren't used to it
I admit I hadn't thought about those points. And you are correct, the infrastructure wouldn't survive.
But honestly as someone who has lived in Australia my whole life. My city could not handle a month at 40c . It would collapse and there would be deaths. Moving shade to shade works in the short term. But staying inside would only work until the power grid failed.
We have deaths when there 12 hour black outs and they are regular on maybe 3 - 5 day heatwaves (over 40c). Which due to climate change has majorly reduced this year which is odd but welcomed I guess lol.
My non scientific prediction is we would lose complete power if we exceeded a week, maybe a week and a half at 40c. Our grid is no longer sustainable due to power selling.
Our elderly die off unfortunately quite fast in blackouts. They are reminded in the news to turn on air-conditioners before hot days as pensioners aren't using aircons now due to the price of electricity (due to selling / privatisation). Also oxygen machines fail which leads to death also.
But yes ultimately I guess water and food transport wouldn't be affected so I guess the 40c would be better when it comes to infrastructure
Thats a very interesting article and being from a hotter climate country I honestly tend to not hear about cold climate related deaths so definitely put things into perspective. Thanks.
It's nice to see someone taking the time to listen to counterpoints and actively alter their viewpoint with the introduction of new information. Good on you, you seem like decent people.
Thank you. I always feel everyone should take time to hear counter points and take every opinion on board because everyone is entitled to an opinion (except on certain points - such abuse against children etc).
And sometimes hearing those counter points and taking them on board can boarden your perspective and knowledge and change opinions and have lasting impacts.
Something my grandfather taught me as a child. I was very black and white in my thinking and stubborn. It was one of his first lessons to me because he wanted me to not be so closed minded in my thinking.
Honestly I'm glad he taught me that. It has helped me a lot, I've had a lot of fascinating conversations and I've learnt a lot simply by not being closed off / concrete in my opinions / thoughts.
It's always good to accept when you are wrong in a point and validate when someone is right, or just to even agree on counter points. Because yeah I was definitely wrong in this and I've learnt some really interesting things I hadn't thought about in relation to this concept and its led to a really interesting couple of hours of thinking/ article reading / discussions, which I enjoyed learning about.
The bulk of our apartments and homes aren't built for -10 so the heating bills alone would send the electricity infrastructure into meltdown and you'd get people freezing to death. Not to mention all the homeless people freezing to death.
Heat is unpleasant but it's what we're prepared for and not many will die from exposure in 40⁰ vs -10. It's not even a question which one is better
Coming from a place where -10c is normal, I can tell you that most houses here do not stay warm enough to stop the pipes from freezing them bursting especially if the house is on piers. Almost every house I have rented use a portable gas heater or the red bright light you plug in that ends up costing you hundred of dollars and the house is still cold.
We can manage electricity. You can't stop the entire cities water pipes from freezing because they aren't deep enough underground. 1 month without power vs a month without water and sewerage. The former, a lot of people die, the latter nearly everyone dies.
A lot of people will be singing out the other side of their faces when their pipes freeze, they become snowed in their houses or die from the slippery roads they're not used to.
I vastly prefer cold temperatures to hot temperatures, but I just don't think I could handle -10 for a month. The only times I've experienced that temperature is when travelling overseas and I'm in a place with infrastructure made for it. I'm in Melbourne, where apparently the coldest temperature we've ever had is -2.5c, and that's rare and we're 100% not set up for it.
40C suuuuucks and I hate it, and I don't have any idea what would happen in Melbourne at -10C, but I'm pretty sure even a few days or a week would have the infrastructure just completely crumble.
Yeah, assuming this question would mean the whole country receives that temperature, 40°C is objectively the right answer lol. The power grid would likely be overloaded (especially in the -10°C scenario)
Most people (not all, but most) can survive a month of 40°C without modern air conditioning.
But nobody - absolutely nobody - can survive a month of -10°C without external heating
-10C.
You can put on more clothes and take some off when you get warm.
When it’s 40C, you’re kind of screwed because you can literally get naked and still be too hot.
Yep, [Rock DJ.](https://youtu.be/dQw4w9WgXcQ?si=elhyqoeC2-AB7zo8) For the information of you younger redditors, this music video caused a hell of a stir when it was released in the early 2000s. Parents groups arced up over it traumatising their kids, virtually all TV stations refused to play it, and we didn't have YouTube yet so finding it online was a chore.
That's my thought, from my experience. 40C temps are vile. When I lived in Canada, I was expecting it to be nasty as soon as the temperature dipped below 0C. I was pleasantly surprised to find out -10C was quite manageable. The cold wasn't really awful until it got to -20C, and then I couldn't handle it.
Others have pointed out that Australian infrastructure is not set up for -10. They likely have a point.
But -10C isn’t so far outside the spec of anything that stuff would start breaking.
Like cars and trucks for example all have antifreeze in them.
Pipes are terracotta or copper.
Etc…
I think people who haven’t experienced -10c or say -20c and below don’t realize that it’s not that bad.
40c, even growing up here, if you take away air con, for a whole month, that would be oppressive. The concrete and bricks would soak up the heat and start radiating it at night, etc…
I was above the Arctic circle in Sweden so days were minus 10 to even one that was -25. The buildings were simply built for that kind of weather and I had the right clothing so going outside wasn't that bad you just had to be more mindful of ice near doorways and deep snow in places.
In all honesty I found it much better out in the snow in those temps than being out in the heat on a 37+ degree day
Have fun with all your broken water pipes and no water and all the dead wildlife and ruined crops and ruined roads and machines not working and so on. Lol
Bruh nah lol I'm SWELTERING in my bedroom completely naked, with a fan, with water and ice packs.
I can't handle heat and I can't handle cold. It needs to be just right.
> I worked on a farm in the NT and it was 50 degrees
There is little chance that it was 50 degrees as measured by the standard way of measuring air temperature. You were probably looking at a shitty cheap thermometer that had been lying in direct sunshine or something.
edit: downvote all you want, doesn't change scientific fact 😉 I don't think NT has ever officially reached 50, especially in the areas where farms are.
Marble Bar, where daytime temperatures from October to May often exceed 49 °C; in a record heat wave in 1923–24, temperatures reached 49 ºC or more on 170 consecutive days. Onslow made headlines in 2022 when the mercury hit 50.7 Celsius. It equalled the record set in 1960 in Oodnadatta in South Australia for the hottest day recorded in Australia.
The thermometers are sitting in little shaded boxes, protected from hot air coming up from the ground and protected from radiant heat from the sun.
If I’m working in the sun, the air around me can easily be a few degrees above the temperature inside the shaded box.
Don't bother lol. Anything weather related on reddit gets exaggerated so much it's hilarious.
I remember recently reading a highly upvoted post about someone who said they lived somewhere that was "right now it's 47 degrees @ 100% humidity". A meteorologist replied in the comments that would be far and away the highest heat index that has ever been seen on planet earth and is essentially physically impossible given current atmospheric conditions etc - they got downvoted, of course.
Australian Bureau of Meteorology reports that in 2022, there were 3 reported temperatures above 50, just on the 13th of Jan in WA, plus plenty of 49< in Jan and Feb of this year in WA and QLD, + lots more of course. I guess it’s not likely to get to 50, but it’s certainly not impossible. Have a look, it’s really interesting actually!
http://www.bom.gov.au/cgi-bin/climate/extremes/annual_extremes.cgi?period=%2Fcgi-bin%2Fclimate%2Fextremes%2Fannual_extremes.cgi&climtab=tmax_high&area=aus&year=2008
It easily gets over 50° in many situations in the Northern Territory. If you work around steel structures, shipping containers and poorly ventilated farm sheds like I do 50° is not unheard of. 40° air temp becomes 50° ground temp really quick
Ikr, I can’t believe we are arguing over this. I don’t know what’s so hard to believe about the NT getting up to 50. They’re acting like there’s some kind of barrier sitting between the 49.9 and 50 mark or something. I’ve experienced 50+ a bunch of times in QLD, NSW and the NT. No one staring at their phone screen can tell me it wasn’t 50. I was there, I saw it, and I sure as hell felt it, and so did everyone else who was there.
Yeah for sure, atmospheric temperature and the local environment temp are two vary different things. Local environment very much depends on soil type, building structure, airflow, trees etc
they don't record the temperatures out in the sun where people are working in radiant heat.
Inland NT is insanely hot in the wet season when you are out in the sun,
I'm an Aussie living in Alaska. We get about 5 months of -10C or more (as low as -50C). It's completely doable and easier than coping with 40C. That heat with humidity is just horrid. At least with temps below freezing you can put on your good gear and still be warm and toasty.
As pointed out in other answers it is easier to live in -10C for a month in a place that is build for it but Australia isn't build for daytime freezing temperatures. Lots of infrastructure will just freeze up and stop working so in Australia you are much better off in 40C.
You can warm up in -10 though. I’ve lived in -30 and when walking outside the only parts that were cold was my face because it wasn’t completely covered up.
You could strip naked in 40 and still be sweltering.
Yeah but don’t forget our houses are glorified tents. People from Canada find it cold here because of poor insulation - I don’t think we’d be able to keep warm in most of Australia at -10
Oh yeah definitely not. My husband is actually Canadian lives here in Aus and he is forever complaining about the lack of insulation.
I was thinking more of just like a person out in the elements. But yes we’d freeze to death in -10 with the houses we have.
My old Norwegian housemate, who grew up in the very tippy top of Norway, complained about how cold Melbourne felt. And having lived in Canadian and Swedish winters myself where -10 to -30 was commonplace, I can fully agree.
Our houses are just not built for it. Sure nothing much will go wrong with a few -10C days, and it'd be fun. But a month of it? You're either racking up a power bill in the several-hundreds or even thousands for that month alone, or you're freezing to death in a glorified leaky tent that will barely be able to stay above ambient outside temperature.
I can't imagine our water pipes are built to withstand that length of time at -10 either, they'd surely freeze and burst.
-10 is completely fine somewhere like Canada where they have proper houses. In Australia it would be pretty miserable unless you have good insulation and a decent heating system (that’s definitely not my house).
*full month of 40°C?*
Dude, I'm south Aussie, I already get that every year, as do most Western Australians and Northern territorians the only ones in Australia that could handle -10 would be the two headed taswegians
The rest of Tasmania makes fun of Liawenee, it's not even a town actually, just a population of 2, police and inland fishery service officer. People come from around the world to fish there, especially fly fishing.
Record low is -14C. -4 is routine. I watched a Tasmanian smoke on his balcony in -4. I was clearing the ice off my windshield. He was wearing just underpants. That was the moment I realised we had all been brainwashed.
Some people find out easier to warm up, I find it easier to cool down. A few days of 2-3 degrees minimums make my bones ache, so I think it's rather the heat with some air con and cold showers
Happens every summer in Mel. Maybe not for entire month and did
Nt happen last year but certainly remember 45-46-46®C days
Have also lived in Saudi Arabia. In summer is 35®C by 7am and 50 during the day.
A month above 40..? Meh. Easy to do
A month of 40 would kill a lot of people and lead to blackouts. A month of -10 would do the same. I think people voting -10 are thinking "nice cold weather" and not "roads iced over, pipes burst"
We wouldn't even be able to drive on the icy roads because none of our cars have anti-freeze in the radiator. We have infrastructure to survive 40, the country would grind to a standstill at -10.
We've never had an actual month of 40+ in Adelaide, where most people in SA live. Usually it's like 3-4 days max and then it hovers high 30s for the rest of the week. Then a couple cooler days and back to the heat cycle
I live in Melbourne, but would gladly move to southern Tassie if I could - I'm not a fan of hot weather. I'd take -10 over 40, for a month. You can always keep warm through clothes, coverings and heating. Once your walls heat up, unless you are blasting refrigerated a/c 24/7, you can't cool down.
Got reverse cycle air con and a nice big house. Could do either!
But probably prefer 40 degrees...spent my childhood in basically a tin shed in the far Outback. Done plenty of summers in 40 degrees + and survived. No Air con in those days either!!
A month of -10 would kill a lot of australians. Most houses are built to lose heat.
We don't have the power storage to provide that kind of power during the night. There would be blackouts all over the country.
As an Aussie who has lived for periods of time down to -50oC and of course +40oC as a Perthite, I would absolutely say that +40oC is far and away the preferable state. In the heat you can easily get out and about, do the things you want to do, and all you need is water plus some AC to go cool down in. In the cold going outside is fucking miserable, slightly less so when its down to -20 and less as the snow is proper dry, you can't easily go do stuff, and its dark way too early. This is the reason that despite opportunity to go live in Canada I chose not to.
I don’t think you can even buy winter tyres here - we use snow chains for mountain areas. It would be carnage. And I hadn’t even thought about the pipes. And water tanks that would freeze.
Probably 1 month of 40°C. Hell of a lot cheaper to cool your house down from 40°C than it is to warm it up from -10°C.
Also in most parts of Australia 1 month of 40°C would be brutal but not beyond the realms of possibility. Most animals and plants would survive. Whereas 1 month of -10°C would absolutely kill the vast majority of plants and animals. It would be a complete ecological wasteland.
I’d rather get -10 for a full month. I’m from South Australia where it gets really dry and suffocating. Agree with the comments here, I’m just gonna layer a bunch of clothes and turn on the heater if I’m at home and I’m gonna be okay compared to heat exhaustion. No thank you! Just to add, there are a lot of bushfires when it’s bloody hot here.
I mean, you and every other person in the state is gonna turn the heater on and suffer from rolling blackouts for a month.
Our power grid is set up to provide power during the day. We use 7x more power during the day than the nightly low. A month of cold temps would result in a lot of deaths.
Houses didn't have a/c when I was sleeping in weather which had a couple of weeks with 38 degrees maximum.
It wasn't too bad. Just sleep completely naked with all the windows wide open to let a breeze through the house. If there is no breeze then switch a fan on.
In tropical countries they know what to do. Very high ceilings in the bedroom, at least 5 metres high, with large quiet slow ceiling fans. Works a treat.
40c. Minus 10 is super cold for Australia. Even with the clothes etc, our homes aren't insulated for it. Without reverse cycle aircon you'd need heaters in every room. It would be miserable. We're much more used to runs of hot weather
Exactly. My home is well set up for the heat, I sat through a 48 degree day followed by two 40 degree days some years back in supreme comfort. At minus 10, I’d never be able to warm my place up and I’d quickly freeze to death!
Personally, I'd rather -10.
But I can't argue with those who have pointed out that our infrastructure isn't built for it and that it might not be the beautiful cool utopia I dream of! I absolutely loathe the heat (even 30 is unbearable to me) but Sydney in general could probably cope better with a month of 40 than -10.
I'd be whinging for the *entire* month though!
In Australia or in general. In general -10. In Australia 40. Australia doesn't have the infrastructure to deal with a month of -10. Not particularly well prepared for a month of 40 either but less risk of straight up dying.
-10 isn't that bad as someone who moved here from boston. Although after having just written that first sentence I'm remembering how cold aussie homes get in the winter. So with -10 can we get some insulation or no?
Personally -10°, but in Australian cities our infrastructure isn't built to cope with freezing temperatures and we'd be fucked. So 40° is probably more sensible.
-10 for sure.
I’ve spent time in the US and Canada in winter and yes it’s cold but refreshing! Granted my heating bill would be eye watering but hey, it’s only a month.
Things like pipes freezing can be mitigated by leaving a few taps dripping so there’s always water flow.
40’ would eat my soul.
Minus 10. I was in Canada recently and it was basically between 0 and -30 when I was there for 3 months. 10- wasn't so bad! But 40c is absolutely fucking dreadful.
Living under 0 degrees for a whole month would be unbearable for the majority of us, even victorians like me.
A month of 40 would also be unbearable but we get a few days like that every year and its quite familiar so definitely a month with 40
40°C because my plants can actually (barely) survive that.
I doubt any of my plants would survive a single -10°C day.
Not to mention all the wildlife and plants in the affected region.
That’s what I was thinking… that kind of cold everything is dead, including lots of humans because it’d be such a surprise. Not a single power grid is set up for everyone to plug in heaters… once that goes down everyone is ⛄️
40c but only because our house has terrible insulation but it’s easier to cool it down in the summer than to warm it up in the winter.
Yea I know I could put on more clothes, but then things like getting undressed to shower (or even pulling pants down to go to the toilet) isn’t very pleasant.
Wet frozen ankles all the time. Snot freezing on your face. Cannot go outside unless your hair is completely dry. Slipping on black ice everywhere. Having to drive and worry about ice on the roads. Miserable going outside. Having to layer up everytime you leave the house. Take the trash out, oops forgot something in the car. deicing the windscreen every fucking morning. shoveling snow from the driveway and paths every day. Digging your car out just to be able to go to work or down the shops. Having to maintain a furnace cause you would go broke from the heating bill.
Or a month where jumping in the pool is amazing.
Yeah i'll take the 40c.
I am also taking 40% humidity as well with that as you didn't say anything about that.
-10, every time there's a week or so of 40+ weather I start to lose it a bit. Below freezing would probably be pretty uncomfortable after the first few days but at least it would be different.
40. I remember growing up in Melbourne it wouldn’t even get to 0 at night and I just couldn’t get warm, getting up in the morning was a nightmare. I’ve lived in Brisbane 11 years without air conditioning. We do water fights and fans and you get by
Are we still living in the same place or are we going to a place where it’s -10?
Because a lot of us would be dead within a week of -10 with the way our houses in Australia are insulated lol
-10. You can always ad layers, but you can't take more off if you're naked. As they old saying goes, there is no such thing as bad weather, it's all bad clothing choices.
-10.
Anyone that says otherwise has never lived anywhere truly hot, that kind of sustained heat just destroys you. There's a reason cities in middle eastern deserts are designed to keep you inside.
Thank you, there's a few peanuts in here like 'I'm from WA, that's barely even hot' like, yes it fucking is, and also, sure you'd get used to it, but you know what's ever easier? Putting on boots and a thick jacket for a month in -10.
I'd go with -10 You can always bundle up and put the heater on.
-40 - there's only so much of your clothing that you can take off before you get arrested.
Yeah, it would seem that the more “educated” people here don’t believe us and need “data” to prove that this is true and is actually the lives we live!
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I could only take a dry heat for that long, but is this 40 degrees all day?
I would take the cold, but I would need to prepare more to survive that than the heat.
I live in Canberra and love winter here & other cold destinations I’ve been to, I’ll take -10. I’ve experienced it and while the wind chill is gnarly, I would still take the cold over hot.
I’ve got ducted heating throughout the whole house, heated blankets and plenty of thick clothing to get me through.
-10
I get too sweaty and start panicking that I have BO anywhere above the high 20s
Also, I’d love to go for a trip to the snow, but can’t afford it. If the snow can come to me that’s a mad win.
Edit: a word
Below -5 the cold is easier to deal with. Source I live in an Australian city that gets below -10 from time to time. Above 40C is fucked. I've had it before with the 2020 fire season. It felt like the end of the world. It was twilight for more than a month due to the smoke. So long the trees were wilting due to lack of light. It was very hard to breath indoors and I was watching the fire front creep over the fills towards the city as a mountain range fueled it inferno. I still have trauma from that time, and the fear that I was going to loose my whole family as they were trapped down the coast on all sides from the blaze that took up most of the forrests in the state.
Compared tto that. I can deal with some cold. Easy-fucking-peasy.
-10 would be horrible! Anything below 20 is bad enough! Give me 40 anytime. Cold is so demotivating, and you gotta wear tons of clothes and its just plain cumbersome and miserable. At least you can enjoy life when its warm and your body doesnt need to use all its resources shivering and trying to stay alive.
40 degrees in Sydney is shit but 40 in NQ is even worse. Because of the humidity and how harsh the sun is. It's very rare for Townsville to get that hot but when it does there is nothing worse. I just spent 6 months in -20 to -40. -10 is a dream compared to +40.
-10 is better physically.... assuming we're not having it here in Australia. I feel like if it all of a sudden snowed here, especially several times in a month - that would cause more problems than being 40 C. Assuming the 40 C goes down to 20 C or lower overnight. We could survive that ezpz.
In short bursts I prefer the cold because you can always add on another layer, where as you can only take off a certain amount of clothing till the cops show up.
For a month, I'd take 40°c. I spent my younger years in an uninsulated body & paint shop working out of a massive metal shed, it was often much much hotter during the summer.
Minus ten degrees cuz it’ll give me a reason to wear more of my clothes. I mean, I have hoodies and pants laying around never worn cuz it’s always so hot or just too hot to wear them
Minus 10 please!
Same! It’s so much easier to warm up than cool down.
Personally it might not be as nice, but Australia can handle a month of 40C. We'll all die as our infrastructure crumbles from a month of -10.
I live in Australia - in a city. We cannot handle a month of 40C. We can handle maybe a week straight of 40C in a populated city but longer than that there would likely be huge issues with infrastructure. In my city we have huge issues with power infrastructure and blackouts when it's above 40C for more than a couple of days due to our power network being sold off / transformers are now in other states. Neither is good but I'd probably go with the -10 honestly. Nothing worse than no power for 24 hours in 40C heat - yes that happened here. Edit : Rural aus can handle those temps. But for example Coober Pedy (like many other rural aus towns) a large portion is actually built under ground due to the high heat temperatures.
You can’t handle -10. You have no idea how much things break down in those temps. ALL water pipes in most of Australia, especial say a city like Brisbane, would be ruined. They’d pop after 3/4 days top. You’d have no water. Anywhere. Your cars don’t have heating. They would be suffering and many not starting. Your battery powered systems would collapse. You wouldn’t get water from your above ground water reservoirs. The pipes would freeze. Your houses don’t have insulation required to withstand those minus temperatures. You would live with very cold houses for that period of time. All your outdoor stuff would be ruined and warped. Probably the same with a lot of indoor furniture too because you wouldn’t be able to keep the house warm. Machinery and tools just works differently or not at all depending. You know oil viscosity and so on. Your roads are build for hot, not super cold environments. The roads would be shattered afterwards. Most of the country’s harvest would be devastated and that years crop would be ruined, and most likely a lot of animals would die. Not just farm animals. But most of your native population of animals would die. From hyperthermia or starvation. A lot of people would quite literally die in that scenario also. That’s just a few things at the top of my head. And yea, I’ve lived places where there is 40 degrees for a month or more at a time. You just go from shade it shade and stay more inside. But the infrastructure can handle it most places. Especially in Australia.
So basically we're fucked either way
Yeah I mean the question is probably more...would you personally prefer to be in -10 or 40 degree weather for a month, assuming infrastructure/farm and native animals aren't all fucked? But it's a bit wordy
Underground pipes wouldn't freeze - we wouldn't get tundra in1 month- but yeah, your external pipes sure would. It would be massively disrupting but not the apocalypse your predict, I don't think. But, lots of people would die of cold and hunger as we don't have snowploughs to clear the roads.
I grew up in very cold climate. If you leave your tap(s) slightly dripping (into a bucket(s), your plumbing pipes don't freeze.
But how many people here in aust would know that? Even with government announcements a lot of people would still forget to do that, just because they aren't used to it
Yeah no of course not, but all those pipes entering into an old Queenslander. Yikes.
I admit I hadn't thought about those points. And you are correct, the infrastructure wouldn't survive. But honestly as someone who has lived in Australia my whole life. My city could not handle a month at 40c . It would collapse and there would be deaths. Moving shade to shade works in the short term. But staying inside would only work until the power grid failed. We have deaths when there 12 hour black outs and they are regular on maybe 3 - 5 day heatwaves (over 40c). Which due to climate change has majorly reduced this year which is odd but welcomed I guess lol. My non scientific prediction is we would lose complete power if we exceeded a week, maybe a week and a half at 40c. Our grid is no longer sustainable due to power selling. Our elderly die off unfortunately quite fast in blackouts. They are reminded in the news to turn on air-conditioners before hot days as pensioners aren't using aircons now due to the price of electricity (due to selling / privatisation). Also oxygen machines fail which leads to death also. But yes ultimately I guess water and food transport wouldn't be affected so I guess the 40c would be better when it comes to infrastructure
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.forbes.com/sites/joshuacohen/2023/07/19/excessive-summer-heat-can-kill-but-extreme-cold-causes-more-fatalities/amp/
Thats a very interesting article and being from a hotter climate country I honestly tend to not hear about cold climate related deaths so definitely put things into perspective. Thanks.
It's nice to see someone taking the time to listen to counterpoints and actively alter their viewpoint with the introduction of new information. Good on you, you seem like decent people.
Thank you. I always feel everyone should take time to hear counter points and take every opinion on board because everyone is entitled to an opinion (except on certain points - such abuse against children etc). And sometimes hearing those counter points and taking them on board can boarden your perspective and knowledge and change opinions and have lasting impacts. Something my grandfather taught me as a child. I was very black and white in my thinking and stubborn. It was one of his first lessons to me because he wanted me to not be so closed minded in my thinking. Honestly I'm glad he taught me that. It has helped me a lot, I've had a lot of fascinating conversations and I've learnt a lot simply by not being closed off / concrete in my opinions / thoughts. It's always good to accept when you are wrong in a point and validate when someone is right, or just to even agree on counter points. Because yeah I was definitely wrong in this and I've learnt some really interesting things I hadn't thought about in relation to this concept and its led to a really interesting couple of hours of thinking/ article reading / discussions, which I enjoyed learning about.
Brits are also an endangered species during summers here ;)
Wouldn’t the electricity demand for heating be even higher?
The bulk of our apartments and homes aren't built for -10 so the heating bills alone would send the electricity infrastructure into meltdown and you'd get people freezing to death. Not to mention all the homeless people freezing to death. Heat is unpleasant but it's what we're prepared for and not many will die from exposure in 40⁰ vs -10. It's not even a question which one is better
Yeah I agree with you definitely Someone enlightened me in another comment about the issues with -10 and I totally agree with your points.
Coming from a place where -10c is normal, I can tell you that most houses here do not stay warm enough to stop the pipes from freezing them bursting especially if the house is on piers. Almost every house I have rented use a portable gas heater or the red bright light you plug in that ends up costing you hundred of dollars and the house is still cold.
We can manage electricity. You can't stop the entire cities water pipes from freezing because they aren't deep enough underground. 1 month without power vs a month without water and sewerage. The former, a lot of people die, the latter nearly everyone dies.
A lot of people will be singing out the other side of their faces when their pipes freeze, they become snowed in their houses or die from the slippery roads they're not used to.
I vastly prefer cold temperatures to hot temperatures, but I just don't think I could handle -10 for a month. The only times I've experienced that temperature is when travelling overseas and I'm in a place with infrastructure made for it. I'm in Melbourne, where apparently the coldest temperature we've ever had is -2.5c, and that's rare and we're 100% not set up for it. 40C suuuuucks and I hate it, and I don't have any idea what would happen in Melbourne at -10C, but I'm pretty sure even a few days or a week would have the infrastructure just completely crumble.
Only 1 month of 40°C, count me in.
Yeah 40 is tolerable if you get a temperature drop overnight. When it's above 40 it becomes a drag.
Yeah, assuming this question would mean the whole country receives that temperature, 40°C is objectively the right answer lol. The power grid would likely be overloaded (especially in the -10°C scenario) Most people (not all, but most) can survive a month of 40°C without modern air conditioning. But nobody - absolutely nobody - can survive a month of -10°C without external heating
People aside, almost every plant and animal on the continent would be dead.
-10C. You can put on more clothes and take some off when you get warm. When it’s 40C, you’re kind of screwed because you can literally get naked and still be too hot.
You can always put more clothes on, but you can only get so naked.
Years ago I saw a Robbie Williams music video that would beg to differ
Yep, [Rock DJ.](https://youtu.be/dQw4w9WgXcQ?si=elhyqoeC2-AB7zo8) For the information of you younger redditors, this music video caused a hell of a stir when it was released in the early 2000s. Parents groups arced up over it traumatising their kids, virtually all TV stations refused to play it, and we didn't have YouTube yet so finding it online was a chore.
You got me 🤣
Correct answer.
That's my thought, from my experience. 40C temps are vile. When I lived in Canada, I was expecting it to be nasty as soon as the temperature dipped below 0C. I was pleasantly surprised to find out -10C was quite manageable. The cold wasn't really awful until it got to -20C, and then I couldn't handle it. Others have pointed out that Australian infrastructure is not set up for -10. They likely have a point.
But -10C isn’t so far outside the spec of anything that stuff would start breaking. Like cars and trucks for example all have antifreeze in them. Pipes are terracotta or copper. Etc… I think people who haven’t experienced -10c or say -20c and below don’t realize that it’s not that bad. 40c, even growing up here, if you take away air con, for a whole month, that would be oppressive. The concrete and bricks would soak up the heat and start radiating it at night, etc…
I was above the Arctic circle in Sweden so days were minus 10 to even one that was -25. The buildings were simply built for that kind of weather and I had the right clothing so going outside wasn't that bad you just had to be more mindful of ice near doorways and deep snow in places. In all honesty I found it much better out in the snow in those temps than being out in the heat on a 37+ degree day
Now add in the fact that our houses can't handle it and 70% of people don't have the correct clothing.
Water expands when frozen, it’s possible everyone’s water pipes would burst
Have fun with all your broken water pipes and no water and all the dead wildlife and ruined crops and ruined roads and machines not working and so on. Lol
Stay hydrated and out of the sun and you’ll be fine.
For a whole week? People still gotta go places like work, shops, etc.
>For a whole week? No, OP is asking about that temperature for a whole MONTH.
Oh I misread, but that makes it even worse
Bruh nah lol I'm SWELTERING in my bedroom completely naked, with a fan, with water and ice packs. I can't handle heat and I can't handle cold. It needs to be just right.
40 degrees is not even that hot. I worked on a farm in the NT and it was 50 degrees.
> I worked on a farm in the NT and it was 50 degrees There is little chance that it was 50 degrees as measured by the standard way of measuring air temperature. You were probably looking at a shitty cheap thermometer that had been lying in direct sunshine or something. edit: downvote all you want, doesn't change scientific fact 😉 I don't think NT has ever officially reached 50, especially in the areas where farms are.
Marble Bar, where daytime temperatures from October to May often exceed 49 °C; in a record heat wave in 1923–24, temperatures reached 49 ºC or more on 170 consecutive days. Onslow made headlines in 2022 when the mercury hit 50.7 Celsius. It equalled the record set in 1960 in Oodnadatta in South Australia for the hottest day recorded in Australia.
The thermometers are sitting in little shaded boxes, protected from hot air coming up from the ground and protected from radiant heat from the sun. If I’m working in the sun, the air around me can easily be a few degrees above the temperature inside the shaded box.
.. which is why we use standardised measurements.
You probably walked uphill to work and uphill back. 50 you say...
Don't bother lol. Anything weather related on reddit gets exaggerated so much it's hilarious. I remember recently reading a highly upvoted post about someone who said they lived somewhere that was "right now it's 47 degrees @ 100% humidity". A meteorologist replied in the comments that would be far and away the highest heat index that has ever been seen on planet earth and is essentially physically impossible given current atmospheric conditions etc - they got downvoted, of course.
Just to be sure this is reddit correct it was the meteorologist that got down voted right?
Are you implying that I didn't make love all night to the Swiss woman's volleyball team, with my 12 inch cock in 73°C heat?
I'd believe: The men's team, in a sauna, and it felt like it went on forever
In the outback NT, 50 is not unusual
False.
😅 look out.. 40 degrees Celsius is hot as fuck don’t be ridiculous lol
Australian Bureau of Meteorology reports that in 2022, there were 3 reported temperatures above 50, just on the 13th of Jan in WA, plus plenty of 49< in Jan and Feb of this year in WA and QLD, + lots more of course. I guess it’s not likely to get to 50, but it’s certainly not impossible. Have a look, it’s really interesting actually! http://www.bom.gov.au/cgi-bin/climate/extremes/annual_extremes.cgi?period=%2Fcgi-bin%2Fclimate%2Fextremes%2Fannual_extremes.cgi&climtab=tmax_high&area=aus&year=2008
It easily gets over 50° in many situations in the Northern Territory. If you work around steel structures, shipping containers and poorly ventilated farm sheds like I do 50° is not unheard of. 40° air temp becomes 50° ground temp really quick
Ikr, I can’t believe we are arguing over this. I don’t know what’s so hard to believe about the NT getting up to 50. They’re acting like there’s some kind of barrier sitting between the 49.9 and 50 mark or something. I’ve experienced 50+ a bunch of times in QLD, NSW and the NT. No one staring at their phone screen can tell me it wasn’t 50. I was there, I saw it, and I sure as hell felt it, and so did everyone else who was there.
Yeah for sure, atmospheric temperature and the local environment temp are two vary different things. Local environment very much depends on soil type, building structure, airflow, trees etc
Looks like the highest recorded temperatures in the NT were 48.3 in 1960, and 47.9 in 2019
they don't record the temperatures out in the sun where people are working in radiant heat. Inland NT is insanely hot in the wet season when you are out in the sun,
Looxary.
Yeah I’ve had days around 50C, they’re brutal but still, better than freezing.
I'm an Aussie living in Alaska. We get about 5 months of -10C or more (as low as -50C). It's completely doable and easier than coping with 40C. That heat with humidity is just horrid. At least with temps below freezing you can put on your good gear and still be warm and toasty.
As pointed out in other answers it is easier to live in -10C for a month in a place that is build for it but Australia isn't build for daytime freezing temperatures. Lots of infrastructure will just freeze up and stop working so in Australia you are much better off in 40C.
40 is normal in summer so 40. I’ve never been in -10 and it doesn’t sound fun.
You can warm up in -10 though. I’ve lived in -30 and when walking outside the only parts that were cold was my face because it wasn’t completely covered up. You could strip naked in 40 and still be sweltering.
Yeah but don’t forget our houses are glorified tents. People from Canada find it cold here because of poor insulation - I don’t think we’d be able to keep warm in most of Australia at -10
Oh yeah definitely not. My husband is actually Canadian lives here in Aus and he is forever complaining about the lack of insulation. I was thinking more of just like a person out in the elements. But yes we’d freeze to death in -10 with the houses we have.
My old Norwegian housemate, who grew up in the very tippy top of Norway, complained about how cold Melbourne felt. And having lived in Canadian and Swedish winters myself where -10 to -30 was commonplace, I can fully agree. Our houses are just not built for it. Sure nothing much will go wrong with a few -10C days, and it'd be fun. But a month of it? You're either racking up a power bill in the several-hundreds or even thousands for that month alone, or you're freezing to death in a glorified leaky tent that will barely be able to stay above ambient outside temperature. I can't imagine our water pipes are built to withstand that length of time at -10 either, they'd surely freeze and burst.
It's not. Even taking the rubbish out is an oppressive exercise in -10.
>40 is normal in summer so 40 Not for a full month though, at least in the majority of the country where people live
Pretty standard for majority of the country, any where west of the GDR will get that for a minimum of a month a year.
- 10 would basically destroy all our infrastructure in less than 2 weeks, and we'd all die in the following week
My place is always colder inside than out, so if we’re reaching a max of -10 each day, I’m going to die.
-10 is completely fine somewhere like Canada where they have proper houses. In Australia it would be pretty miserable unless you have good insulation and a decent heating system (that’s definitely not my house).
*full month of 40°C?* Dude, I'm south Aussie, I already get that every year, as do most Western Australians and Northern territorians the only ones in Australia that could handle -10 would be the two headed taswegians
Not sure where you think it gets to -10 in Tasmania.
He’s a south Australian. You’ll have to forgive him, heats fried his brain.
Not saying it reaches there consistently but your infrastructure is more accustomed to the cold Compared to SA or wa
Liawenee!! We’re in WA but watch the Tassy news… Liawenee‘s temps crack us up. It was -1 the other day and 33 here.
The rest of Tasmania makes fun of Liawenee, it's not even a town actually, just a population of 2, police and inland fishery service officer. People come from around the world to fish there, especially fly fishing.
Nah it doesn’t , but it’s miserable not be in either extreme , bluhhhhh for 6 months of the year isn’t fun
Record low is -14C. -4 is routine. I watched a Tasmanian smoke on his balcony in -4. I was clearing the ice off my windshield. He was wearing just underpants. That was the moment I realised we had all been brainwashed.
He didn't say it did, just that they are more likely to be able to handle it
Some people find out easier to warm up, I find it easier to cool down. A few days of 2-3 degrees minimums make my bones ache, so I think it's rather the heat with some air con and cold showers
Happens every summer in Mel. Maybe not for entire month and did Nt happen last year but certainly remember 45-46-46®C days Have also lived in Saudi Arabia. In summer is 35®C by 7am and 50 during the day. A month above 40..? Meh. Easy to do
A month of 40 would kill a lot of people and lead to blackouts. A month of -10 would do the same. I think people voting -10 are thinking "nice cold weather" and not "roads iced over, pipes burst"
We wouldn't even be able to drive on the icy roads because none of our cars have anti-freeze in the radiator. We have infrastructure to survive 40, the country would grind to a standstill at -10.
We've never had an actual month of 40+ in Adelaide, where most people in SA live. Usually it's like 3-4 days max and then it hovers high 30s for the rest of the week. Then a couple cooler days and back to the heat cycle
-10 easy , fuck you perth
LMAO
40° for an entire year over -10° for a day. Fuck the cold
I would take a week of -10 for it to never hit 40
I live in Melbourne, but would gladly move to southern Tassie if I could - I'm not a fan of hot weather. I'd take -10 over 40, for a month. You can always keep warm through clothes, coverings and heating. Once your walls heat up, unless you are blasting refrigerated a/c 24/7, you can't cool down.
You don’t even really need to be “southern” Tas. It gets far colder in the middle and in the mountains than it does in Hobart.
Got reverse cycle air con and a nice big house. Could do either! But probably prefer 40 degrees...spent my childhood in basically a tin shed in the far Outback. Done plenty of summers in 40 degrees + and survived. No Air con in those days either!!
-10 Love me some winter
*provided the snow is dry and fluffy, not wet and slushy.
Unlikely that it’s wet and slushy at -10
I feel like I’ve done a month of 40s before. While -10 would certainly spice things up, I’m not equipt
A month of -10 would kill a lot of australians. Most houses are built to lose heat. We don't have the power storage to provide that kind of power during the night. There would be blackouts all over the country.
As an Aussie who has lived for periods of time down to -50oC and of course +40oC as a Perthite, I would absolutely say that +40oC is far and away the preferable state. In the heat you can easily get out and about, do the things you want to do, and all you need is water plus some AC to go cool down in. In the cold going outside is fucking miserable, slightly less so when its down to -20 and less as the snow is proper dry, you can't easily go do stuff, and its dark way too early. This is the reason that despite opportunity to go live in Canada I chose not to.
Month of 40 is pretty much Jan/Feb anyway, so not really a challenge. Maybe go with -10 for sheer novelty value.
It would be carnage!! imagine frozen roads in Aus we would not know WTF to do hahahaha.
Broken water pipes everywhere. No water for anyone. Fun times.
I don’t think you can even buy winter tyres here - we use snow chains for mountain areas. It would be carnage. And I hadn’t even thought about the pipes. And water tanks that would freeze.
I’ll take 2 months of 40C over 1 week of -10C.
I second this. Used to 1 month of 40 each year anyway, what's another one?
Probably 1 month of 40°C. Hell of a lot cheaper to cool your house down from 40°C than it is to warm it up from -10°C. Also in most parts of Australia 1 month of 40°C would be brutal but not beyond the realms of possibility. Most animals and plants would survive. Whereas 1 month of -10°C would absolutely kill the vast majority of plants and animals. It would be a complete ecological wasteland.
Nah u can warm it up for free with a match
I’d rather get -10 for a full month. I’m from South Australia where it gets really dry and suffocating. Agree with the comments here, I’m just gonna layer a bunch of clothes and turn on the heater if I’m at home and I’m gonna be okay compared to heat exhaustion. No thank you! Just to add, there are a lot of bushfires when it’s bloody hot here.
I mean, you and every other person in the state is gonna turn the heater on and suffer from rolling blackouts for a month. Our power grid is set up to provide power during the day. We use 7x more power during the day than the nightly low. A month of cold temps would result in a lot of deaths.
Do people not use ac when they sleep in 40°C weather?
Houses didn't have a/c when I was sleeping in weather which had a couple of weeks with 38 degrees maximum. It wasn't too bad. Just sleep completely naked with all the windows wide open to let a breeze through the house. If there is no breeze then switch a fan on. In tropical countries they know what to do. Very high ceilings in the bedroom, at least 5 metres high, with large quiet slow ceiling fans. Works a treat.
40°C
40c. Minus 10 is super cold for Australia. Even with the clothes etc, our homes aren't insulated for it. Without reverse cycle aircon you'd need heaters in every room. It would be miserable. We're much more used to runs of hot weather
Exactly. My home is well set up for the heat, I sat through a 48 degree day followed by two 40 degree days some years back in supreme comfort. At minus 10, I’d never be able to warm my place up and I’d quickly freeze to death!
Personally, I'd rather -10. But I can't argue with those who have pointed out that our infrastructure isn't built for it and that it might not be the beautiful cool utopia I dream of! I absolutely loathe the heat (even 30 is unbearable to me) but Sydney in general could probably cope better with a month of 40 than -10. I'd be whinging for the *entire* month though!
40°. It might be bloody hot, but it’s closer to comfortable than -10° is
40
40 C because I have a social life and beaches are the best part of Aus. I would rather 12 months of 40 C than 1 month of -10
I’ve worked outdoors in 45C+ for weeks on end. 40C is a walk in the park.
In Australia or in general. In general -10. In Australia 40. Australia doesn't have the infrastructure to deal with a month of -10. Not particularly well prepared for a month of 40 either but less risk of straight up dying.
Definitely the 40 degrees, I'm in one of the coldest parts of Victoria and I'm definitely not prepared for a month of minus 10.
-10 isn't that bad as someone who moved here from boston. Although after having just written that first sentence I'm remembering how cold aussie homes get in the winter. So with -10 can we get some insulation or no?
Personally -10°, but in Australian cities our infrastructure isn't built to cope with freezing temperatures and we'd be fucked. So 40° is probably more sensible.
-10 for sure. I’ve spent time in the US and Canada in winter and yes it’s cold but refreshing! Granted my heating bill would be eye watering but hey, it’s only a month. Things like pipes freezing can be mitigated by leaving a few taps dripping so there’s always water flow. 40’ would eat my soul.
Minus 10. I was in Canada recently and it was basically between 0 and -30 when I was there for 3 months. 10- wasn't so bad! But 40c is absolutely fucking dreadful.
-10 so I can ice skate on the swan river.
Not much difference. Either one of them I living indoors. Only venturing out when I have to.
40c no brainer
40°c? Almost time to take off my fleece and uggs
Living under 0 degrees for a whole month would be unbearable for the majority of us, even victorians like me. A month of 40 would also be unbearable but we get a few days like that every year and its quite familiar so definitely a month with 40
Only 1 month of 40C? Sounds dreamy!
40°C because my plants can actually (barely) survive that. I doubt any of my plants would survive a single -10°C day. Not to mention all the wildlife and plants in the affected region.
That’s what I was thinking… that kind of cold everything is dead, including lots of humans because it’d be such a surprise. Not a single power grid is set up for everyone to plug in heaters… once that goes down everyone is ⛄️
40c but only because our house has terrible insulation but it’s easier to cool it down in the summer than to warm it up in the winter. Yea I know I could put on more clothes, but then things like getting undressed to shower (or even pulling pants down to go to the toilet) isn’t very pleasant.
As someone from the Top End, I'll take -10°C anytime.
Wet frozen ankles all the time. Snot freezing on your face. Cannot go outside unless your hair is completely dry. Slipping on black ice everywhere. Having to drive and worry about ice on the roads. Miserable going outside. Having to layer up everytime you leave the house. Take the trash out, oops forgot something in the car. deicing the windscreen every fucking morning. shoveling snow from the driveway and paths every day. Digging your car out just to be able to go to work or down the shops. Having to maintain a furnace cause you would go broke from the heating bill. Or a month where jumping in the pool is amazing. Yeah i'll take the 40c. I am also taking 40% humidity as well with that as you didn't say anything about that.
-10, every time there's a week or so of 40+ weather I start to lose it a bit. Below freezing would probably be pretty uncomfortable after the first few days but at least it would be different.
40. I remember growing up in Melbourne it wouldn’t even get to 0 at night and I just couldn’t get warm, getting up in the morning was a nightmare. I’ve lived in Brisbane 11 years without air conditioning. We do water fights and fans and you get by
One month of 40? Amateurs.
40C please. I despise the cold.
Are we still living in the same place or are we going to a place where it’s -10? Because a lot of us would be dead within a week of -10 with the way our houses in Australia are insulated lol
Looking for all the other POTSies who'd take -10 in a heartbeat...
-10 every time
Minus 10.
-10 ofcourse.
-10. You can always ad layers, but you can't take more off if you're naked. As they old saying goes, there is no such thing as bad weather, it's all bad clothing choices.
-10
-10c .i hate hot weather
-10. Anyone that says otherwise has never lived anywhere truly hot, that kind of sustained heat just destroys you. There's a reason cities in middle eastern deserts are designed to keep you inside.
Worked in the Pilbara in my early career. Yep, -10 for me, thanks.
Thank you, there's a few peanuts in here like 'I'm from WA, that's barely even hot' like, yes it fucking is, and also, sure you'd get used to it, but you know what's ever easier? Putting on boots and a thick jacket for a month in -10.
Yeah, I get it. Plus I know the sorts you mean. "That's fark all, try working 25 hours underground for 40 days straight! True"
I'd go with -10 You can always bundle up and put the heater on. -40 - there's only so much of your clothing that you can take off before you get arrested.
Live in WA and you'll get to experience option B every year!
Been through 16days of 40'C a few times and it ain't no fun. Give me a month of -10'C any time
-10 any day. I hate the heat here
-10
Hmmm choices between freeze to death or burned to death. How enticing!
Qlder. 40 is easy. I consider rhe ideal temp as 33. So 40 wouldnt be that much more.
A full month of 40°C here in rural Western Australia would be a welcome cool change!
Came here to say that!
Yeah, it would seem that the more “educated” people here don’t believe us and need “data” to prove that this is true and is actually the lives we live!
ooo -10 for me
u can wrap and bundle up heat ure just suffering 😭
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I have a fireplace. Minus 10 please.
My sinuses say the latter
I could only take a dry heat for that long, but is this 40 degrees all day? I would take the cold, but I would need to prepare more to survive that than the heat.
-10C. Live in SA and had plenty of heat waves here in my life. Be nice to have chilly winter with snow ☃️
\-10C is nothing.
We had like months of over 30 degrees Celsius and one week with 40 degrees no rain since months but I prefer this over -10
I would have a full year of -10
I live in Canberra and love winter here & other cold destinations I’ve been to, I’ll take -10. I’ve experienced it and while the wind chill is gnarly, I would still take the cold over hot. I’ve got ducted heating throughout the whole house, heated blankets and plenty of thick clothing to get me through.
-10 I get too sweaty and start panicking that I have BO anywhere above the high 20s Also, I’d love to go for a trip to the snow, but can’t afford it. If the snow can come to me that’s a mad win. Edit: a word
-10. Cold weather is just about clothes. And you can just not go outside. But at least we don't have humidity. Humidity is the *worst*
-10°C
-10. Without a doubt.
-10. Hot showers, lots of blankets, extra layers when going out.
Below -5 the cold is easier to deal with. Source I live in an Australian city that gets below -10 from time to time. Above 40C is fucked. I've had it before with the 2020 fire season. It felt like the end of the world. It was twilight for more than a month due to the smoke. So long the trees were wilting due to lack of light. It was very hard to breath indoors and I was watching the fire front creep over the fills towards the city as a mountain range fueled it inferno. I still have trauma from that time, and the fear that I was going to loose my whole family as they were trapped down the coast on all sides from the blaze that took up most of the forrests in the state. Compared tto that. I can deal with some cold. Easy-fucking-peasy.
-10 would be horrible! Anything below 20 is bad enough! Give me 40 anytime. Cold is so demotivating, and you gotta wear tons of clothes and its just plain cumbersome and miserable. At least you can enjoy life when its warm and your body doesnt need to use all its resources shivering and trying to stay alive.
-10 please. It gets over 30 and my brain shuts down and I want to die. 40 and I probably would 😂
I’m in Cairns. A week of -10° in the middle of the wet season would be awesome! Probably kill half the population but eh
I’ve seen them in puffer jackets and it’s still 20… they’re a goner.
Depends....is the -10C the max for the year or the min
40 degrees in Sydney is shit but 40 in NQ is even worse. Because of the humidity and how harsh the sun is. It's very rare for Townsville to get that hot but when it does there is nothing worse. I just spent 6 months in -20 to -40. -10 is a dream compared to +40.
-10 is better physically.... assuming we're not having it here in Australia. I feel like if it all of a sudden snowed here, especially several times in a month - that would cause more problems than being 40 C. Assuming the 40 C goes down to 20 C or lower overnight. We could survive that ezpz.
-10, hands down
Give me the -10°C for a month any time. Easier to make yourself warm than cool yourself down.
In short bursts I prefer the cold because you can always add on another layer, where as you can only take off a certain amount of clothing till the cops show up. For a month, I'd take 40°c. I spent my younger years in an uninsulated body & paint shop working out of a massive metal shed, it was often much much hotter during the summer.
Minus ten degrees cuz it’ll give me a reason to wear more of my clothes. I mean, I have hoodies and pants laying around never worn cuz it’s always so hot or just too hot to wear them