[davidw]

> I was in Oregon not long ago and I had forgotten how miserable the wet cold feels even when the thermometer says it's not that cold.

Precisely. It's the same here in Padova, where it gets humid and foggy in the winter. It usually doesn't dip too far below freezing, but the humidity chills you to the bone. Where we lived in Innsbruck, Austria was much colder, but it was less humid so it didn't sink in the way the wet cold does.

And as a native of Oregon... yeah, rain and 5 C is about the worst thing out there. You simply can't do stuff outdoors in that kind of weather and stay warm for very long, no matter how much fancy technical gear you pile on: the rain eventually soaks in and you start getting cold. Bleagh....

[arethuza]

I've always wondered about that - to me -10C at ~1000m on a ski slope in Scotland often feels much colder than -35C at ~4000m in the Alps.

I've always assumed it was something to do with the humidity.