Hello again to everyone! This week as Christmas is soon here I will be talking about winter coats for different temperatures. There’s this idyllic picture of a white Christmas in the Western culture but for some, it can be a little bit too white. 🙂
We’ve had snow for weeks now. It’s been snowing almost every day, and we’ll probably be breaking snow records in the Helsinki region this winter. Believe me, it’s not even remotely funny in an urban area! Still nothing ever stops. Schools and businesses remain open, public transportation runs, and the airport stays open as seen on this one-minute CNN Future Cities video. We’ve got “snowhow”, and that includes how to dress for the weather.
Winter can mean several things depending on the climate zone you live in. Here in Helsinki we’re about 600km south of the Arctic Circle, and our climate is kept in decent temperatures by the Gulf Stream. On the other side we’ve got the big vast land mass of Siberia, which generates hot weather for us in the summer and freezing cold sunny days in the winter. The rule of thumb is, if it snows, it’s not freezing cold; if it’s a sunny day, it’s probably freezing cold.
Mostly I prefer knee length coats because they are not too long to wear with trousers and are usually long enough for dresses and boots combos. When I get up in the morning I take a look at the weather forecast and pick the coat according to the temperature and categorize my coats in the following way (without layering for warmth) :
When the weather is during the day a few degrees above zero and in the mornings zero (32ºF) or a little under.
When the weather is below zero but no more than -18ºC (-0.4ºF) in the morning and warmer during the day.
When the weather is below -18 in general, at its coldest I’m talking about -35 Celsius degrees (-31 °F) here in southern Finland.
There are some exceptions of course with layering but when I’m going to work I don’t do much layering so just need my coat to be warm enough.
Some key notes on staying warm that we learn as small kids here: keep your head, hands and feet warm, especially your head. If any of those are exposed, you will feel much colder in the winter. Many homes have cold floors in the winter so keeping your feet warm indoors with woolly socks helps you to stay warm and snuggly. I have many pairs of woolly socks, and I wear them inside shoes too because normal socks in normal shoes are not enough in the winter. But indoors at work I need to take those off or my feet will be boiling and then cold when I leave work.
Which then brings me to one other key thing: make sure your clothes “breathe†or that you don’t go overboard with your coat. This is because if you start feeling hot and sweaty at all, and the dampness doesn’t evaporate, you’ll feel so cold even if you are wearing a massive coat. I often see tourists in Helsinki from warmer parts of the world and they are wearing down coats in +15 (59 °F) weather!
Sure people are accustomed to their own climates and we can tolerate cold more than people from warmer areas, but that is a bit out there 🙂 For them we on the other hand look silly with shorts and t-shirts in barely +20 (68 °F) weather which already feels warm in our opinion.
one thing I forgot to mention about wool coats, they are not ideal with snow especially if you have to dig you car from under the snow. Snow sticks to wool coats and then when getting into the car, it melts. Unless you brush it off your coat.
Pepperberry coats look wonderful! And really good post!
I wear sheepskin coat starting -3C (I think that if I eat meat then it’s ok to use skin too, I like Felidae and foxes, so I won’t buy their fur, but I have no problem buying sheepskin coats), but mine is rather short: mid-thigh (otherwise it’s too heavy for my taste). So polar-tech leggins for me is a must (I use thin leggins from 0C to -8C and thick one after that, when it’s below -25C I have to add long warm skirt). Long skirts for some reason seems to be warmer than pants.
If it’s below -15C I add cashmere turtleneck (which I always take it off indoor, they are insanely warm).
I use face mask for skiers when it’s really cold, because after I had frostbite several years ago I’m hypersensitive.
Tina, BTW, what do you use driving? regular winter gloves are a little bit bulky and too warm for driving for my taste and bare hands become very dry and it’s a bit chilly, especially when steering wheel is cold at first.
thanks Malica x I must admit that I tolerate the cold very well and don’t even like very hot weather or too warm temperature indoors. So that’s why for example sheepskin is something for the colder weather for me, I do use it in below -10 as well to cover “summer” clothing beneath it.
The reason why I prefer knee lenght coats is that I find that my legs can take the cold, especially since I wear boots so much – but thighs not so well. So I feel warm and cosy with longer coats. I don’t love the lenght of my sheepskin coat but my goodness it’s warm and no need to wear anything special under it even in freezing cold temperatures.
For driving I use those leather gloves lined with thin wool or something similar lining – when freezing I put mittens over those for scraping the car and remove the mittens when indside the car. Mainly use Hofler gloves: http://www.hofler.fi/en/products/originals
and have a nice pair of Guess gloves too. Also when wearing mittens over the gloves when digging out the car and scraping the windows it’s good that the snow only sticks to the mittens and doesn’t effect the gloves.
Our record for winter cold is something about -40C and record for summer hot is about +40C. I don’t like either, but I tend to be more comfortable with our summer than winter. So I’m a little bit envy that you tolerate cold well ))).
And thank you a lot for idea about mittens over leather gloves! That’s exactly what I’m going to buy ASAP.
PS I found out recently that my brush for car is perfect for removing snow from coat too.
I use my car brush to clean my coat from snow as well! And we share the same + and – records, think a little bit higher and lower but around the same. Christmas will be cold so better stock up the car with woolly scarves and socks and blankets for the ride to my home town. Survival gear just in case there’s an accident or the car brakes down for some odd and unforeseen reason 🙂
Travel safe and enjoy Cristmas! And lets hope there won’t be heavy snow when you are on the road.
thanks! Lets hope so!
Very interesting post! For me -10 Celcius degrees is extremly cold (central european climate). Even more considering that I was born and lived in the tropes until I was 4 years old. I really hate cold weather, anything below 25 Celcius degrees 😀
I can absolutely agree that it is very important to keep head, hands and feet warm in cold weather. When it’s around 0 Celsius degrees and colder I wear a down jacket (about mid-calf lenght, although I usually prefer knee-lenght). When it’s a bit warmer and raining or snowing I wear a lightly synthetic padded jacket (hip length) and when it’s dry a knee-lenght wool coat.
I love wearing hats as accessories, especially in winter (wool and fleece). For my hands I love my leather gloves. And I always wear a warm scarf in autumn/winter.
I love beanies and hats and especially scarves as accessories too so actually don’t mind that about coat wearing seasons. I think it’s all what one is used to what one likes, like for me a down coat is way too hot for 0 celsius degrees 🙂
A lot of people here complain about winter as did I but after living in a country where there was no winter like ours with snow. Instead just rain, damp and just miserably wet and dark for months – that made me change my perspective and LOVE all of our 4 distinct seasons because none of them last forever and each have wonderful qualites and downsides. Spring – pollen, summer – thunderstorms and at times too hot, autumn – wet, winter – dangerous driving conditions and a lot more work due to the snow.