Well hello and welcome to this English lesson about cold and snowy weather.
If you are wondering why my lessons are all about snow and cleaning the driveway and cold weather.
It's because it's really really cold here.
It's very very snowy and it's very wintry.
You saw that probably in my last video.
Last night was the coldest night of the year.
It was minus 25 degrees Celsius.
Right now, it is 830 AM and outside, it is minus 21 degrees Celsius.
So, I'm not super excited about going outside today.
I'm sure it's going to be quite, quite cold, but that just um the source of the idea for a lesson on cold and snowy weather.
So once again in this lesson, I'll teach you some words and phrases that we use to talk about cold and snowy weather, and I hope they are things words and phrases that maybe you don't know and they're going to be new, or maybe you do know and it's good to do a review.
So once again welcome to this English lesson about cold and snowy weather. freezing.
This is a phrase that you will hear very often in a country like Canada, if you are in one of the colder provinces.
When we say it's freezing we mean it's really really cold.
So a phrase for extreme cold.
This obvious that when it's below zero water will freeze.
We know that.
But we've taken the word freezing and we've turned it into a description of really cold weather.
So Jen might go outside and come in and say oh it's freezing out there.
I didn't realize how cold it was going to be.
And Um, we regularly go out to start our cars so they warm up a bit, and then when you come in you say oh, it's freezing out there.
Hoo it is so cold.
So it's freezing.
A phrase that we use to describe extremely cold weather.
Like if it was minus 2 Celsius I wouldn't say it's freezing.
If it's minus 10 Celsius I would probably say it's freezing.
So, one of the reasons I'm doing this lesson is that we have been hearing about a polar vortex.
It's a pretty complex description.
I think it was even mentioned in last week's lesson by Mode Eggs.
A polar vortex is when the cold air from the Arctic is moves down and we are kind of in Arctic weather.
So it's a mass of very cold air from the Arctic.
So normally we are in area where the air is relatively cold, like normal temperature would be minus five, but now the bitter, cold Arctic air is now hitting us and so it is a lot colder.
So, they call this a polar vortex.
So it's when cold, a massive, very cold air from the Arctic moves over top of us, and that's when it gets super, super cold layers.
When it is this cold, it is important that you dress in layers.
If you see this gentleman here, it looks like he has a blue.
If you just look right here, you can see there's a little bit of blue.
He probably has a blue t-shirt.
Over top of that he probably has a black long sleeve t-shirt and then on top of that he has a red sweater and then on top of that he has a winter coat.
He's probably wearing four layers.
He might even be wearing five layers.
This is very common when you dress in layers.
Multiple pieces of clothing worn together for warmth.
The layers trap a little bit of air between each layer and that helps you stay warm.
It's kind of like your own personal insulation.
So So when I went outside the other day, I had three layers on my legs.
I had four or five layers on my upper body, and then I even had a winter hat, a hood and then another hood.
The other day,
If you saw my members only video, you would have seen me in many, many layers sledding tubing, tobogganing.
In the winter, hills get covered with snow and snow can be slippery.
That means it's easy to slide on it.
So as a kid, it's pretty common to go.
Sledding is sliding downhill on a sled over snow, and So gravity pulls you down and the snow is very slippery and allows you to slide.
Tub tubing is similar um sliding down a snow covered hill on a tube.
This is actually originally.
We would just use inner tubes from car tires or tractor tires.
Those actually slide on the snow very, very well.
This is a special made tube just for going downhill.
The benefit of tubing is that the inner tube or tube, is soft and bouncy, because when you're going down on a sled, it's very, it can be very rough and you're, you're bouncing around.
So when you're on a tube it's a little more of a comfortable ride but can also be pretty fast.
And then tobogganing sliding down a snow covered hill on a long flat sled called a toboggan.
This is less than now.
Uh less people have wooden toboggans.
It's kind of a traditional type of sled.
When I was a child we did have a toboggan and all of us could fit on it.
So all five of us, my two brothers and two sisters, would all go on the toboggan and then slide down the hill.
This is not a picture of us.
This is some random photo.
But if you want to enjoy winter you would wear lots of layers and go outside and maybe go sledding or tubing or tobogganing.
All very fun activities when it's very very cold.
I don't use these.
But tire chains are metal chains put on tires for traction on snow and ice my area of Canada.
It usually doesn't get this bad and chains are often used in areas where you might have to drive up or down a hill or mountain regularly.
But I don't know anyone in my area that uses tire chains.
But they will definitely give you good traction.
Um so tire chains are metal chains put on tires for traction on snow and ice and you watch the YouTube channel Martin Dulard I don't know if you've ever watched it he lives up in the mountains in Italy and he regularly puts tire chains on his car in order to drive down the mountain or back up the mountain and So, maybe if you search for Martin Doulard, D-O-O-L-A-A-R-D, he's a Dutch guy that lives in Italy and he's kind of rebuilding this old house and he's building a shop.
It's pretty interesting.
Anyways, I'll put a link in the description or in the comment below when I'm done. frostbite.
So extreme cold is very very dangerous.
When you go out when it's minus 10 or minus 15 or minus 20.
It starts to become very important that you don't have your skin exposed to the cold air.
You must wear gloves.
You might even need to wear what's called a ski mask, where only your eyes, only your eyes and mouth show, because otherwise you might get frostbite, injury to skin caused by extreme cold.
They'll even tell you how long it's safe to be outside with your skin exposed.
They might say don't stay outside for longer than 5 minutes or you risk getting frostbite.
So frostbite is when your skin actually freezes.
Um so it's very important.
Um right now it's minus now it's minus 21.
I think it was earlier.
Um It's very important that I wear gloves when I go outside.
I will also wear a winter hat, but if I'm just running to my car I might not but frostbite, injury to skin caused by extreme cold.
To shiver.
So it's pretty common that to shiver when it's cold it means to shake because you are cold, and you might.
You might be aware of this if you go swimming somewhere where the water is cold.
When you come out you might be shivering, so it's where your body tries to warm itself up by making you shake.
So to shiver, to shake because you are cold.
Interestingly, I don't often shiver when I'm outside in the cold.
I often shiver when I come back in and take off my layers.
Sometimes it's not very warm in the house, or sometimes you get like when you get a lot of snow on your gloves and in your gloves it can melt and so your hands can get wet cold weather and then you will be very, very cold and you will shiver a lot.
Brave the cold.
So this is a pretty interesting phrase.
To be brave means to have courage.
It means to do something even though it's hard.
And we often use the phrase to brave the cold to talk about when you go outside despite very cold weather.
If you have a dog you have to brave the cold and take the dog for a walk.
But probably don't want to go outside but the dog has to go outside every day.
Two or three times to go for a walk to go to the bathroom.
So you need to brave the cold.
If I look outside and think it's really cold.
I still have to brave the cold and go to work.
Like I can't just stay home because it's cold.
I need to have courage.
I need to decide that I'm going to go out and I'm going to do what I need to do.
To be snowed in.
When you're snowed in it means you are unable to leave because of heavy snow.
Jen and I were a little bit snowed in three times in the past week and a half.
It wasn't anything major.
Within an hour I could clear the driveway and we were able to leave, but if it had kept snowing days?
Eventually it becomes very difficult to get out.
We might call that a blizzard, where the snow just keeps getting deeper and you can't keep the driveway clear.
But to be snowed in unable to leave because of heavy snow.
Windchill.
So, this is an interesting effect.
It means feeling colder than it is because of the wind and they'll actually give this a number.
In fact, if I look at the weather for today, let me pull it up.
So, it's minus 23 in the town close to me.
High of minus 12 today.
The windchill will make it feel like minus 22.
So, did you hear that?
It's going to be a high of minus 12 and because of the wind it will feel like minus 22.
So that's the wind chill or the wind chill effect.
Wind always makes it feel colder than it is.
So if I go outside on a day where it's this is going to sound kind of funny.
If it was minus 22 with no wind and the sun was shining.
That is actually a beautiful day to be outside.
So it was minus 10, so 12 degrees warmer, but the winds were blowing at 50 or 60 kilometers an hour.
That would be unbearable.
You would not want to be outside for very long.
If you are a member of the channel, you'll see.
I did a few members only videos.
I think one's called it's cold, the other one just says very, very cold.
Both of those it's mostly because of the wind.
You can stay pretty warm outside when there is no wind.
It can be very very cold and you can stay pretty warm. snap.
Sudden cold weather.
So this is something that can describe two things in my mind.
It can be when it goes from like one degree to minus 10 overnight.
It's a cold snap.
But you could also say oh, we're going to have a three day cold snap where it's going to be below minus 20 every day.
So it simply means a sudden change in weather.
Um we are not really in a cold snap right now.
It's just cold every day.
Day after day.
So, I would use uh instead I would just say it's freezing or it's very very cold. whiteout.
When snow and wind make it hard to see.
We usually use this term when we're talking about driving in bad weather.
So a whiteout is when either it's snowing or drifting.
Drifting snow is when the wind picks the snow up. usually both.
And there's so much snow that it's very difficult to see.
It's very dangerous to drive when there are white out conditions.
The other day it was snowing and the wind was blowing and picking up snow and we couldn't see the barn from the house.
So those of you that are familiar with my property.
Because we were in white out conditions.
It is not a good idea to drive when snow and wind make it hard to see.
This is actually not too bad.
I've driven in weather like this, but there are times where I have pulled over or pulled into a parking lot, or even just gone to a restaurant, even though I wasn't hungry, because the white outs were so bad that it was dangerous to drive.
Sometimes you just take a break and you check the day. drifting.
These kind of look the same but in this picture drifting is snow from the ground lifted by the wind.
So you see these little streaks of snow going across the pavement.
That is what we would consider drifting snow.
That snow is not coming from the sky.
Snow is already on the ground and the wind has picked it up and started to move it around.
So in the winter when it is very windy there's a lot of drifting.
Snow from the ground lifted by the wind and then it often gets deposited somewhere else.
Usually in a snow drift.
So let me get this picture a little bit bigger for you.
You can see here that this fence caused the snow to pile up.
Let me explain this a little bit.
When wind picks up snow, when there is drifting.
If there is something like a fence, when the wind hits it, the snow falls.
So if you have a fence or a car or something outside where the the snow is drifting, so it's being carried by the wind, and then when the wind has to go around for some reason, the snow will fall, it usually falls on the other side.
So it gets lifted over and then it piles.
So in this picture the wind was coming.
The wind was coming this way and as it went over the fence it dropped its snow and caused a snow drift.
A pile of snow that by the wind.
So on a day when there is drifting you will start to see snow drifts form.
Piles of snow made by the wind.
And fun to play in if you're a kid.
Accumulation.
So this person has come outside and they are looking at their vehicle and noticing it is covered with snow.
There has been a lot of accumulation.
Which is the amount of snow that has built up.
And it's snowing and the snow lands it doesn't go away like rain.
It just starts to pile up.
It starts to accumulate.
And so they might say something like this on the weather.
10 to 15 centimeters of accumulation today.
That means we're going to get this much snow or this much snow.
It's going to land.
It's going to pile up on the ground.
It's going to result in a lot of accumulation. snow day.
This is my favorite kind of day in the winter.
A snow day is a day when school is cancelled because of snow.
So in places like Canada and in some of the northern US states where there is lots of snow sometimes they decide it's just too dangerous to drive, usually still go to work, but children are usually kept at home.
So they make a decision that it's going to be a snow day.
A teacher the night before you think it might be a snow day, because you don't know and you have to get up early and you have to check on the internet and at 630 AM it might say snow day today.
Um, and then everyone gets to stay home, including the teachers.
Which is one of the great perks of being a teacher, I think, is that you have snow days very, very fun very, very enjoyable.
You can have a nap you, You can do some schoolwork.
I do that sometimes from home but it's like a free day off in the middle of the winter.
Very very fun.
Snowplow. a snow plow is a vehicle that pushes snow off roads.
Should say off the roads but off roads.
Um this is a large truck with a blade on the front.
It actually is a dump truck usually in my area.
So the back of the truck is usually filled with sand or a mixture of salt and sand or salt.
So then the front has a blade.
So as they push the snow off the road, a little trickle of salt and sand or sand falls and there's a spinner and it spreads it out.
Um.
So you will often see the snow plow removing snow, but also salting or sanding the road to make it safer.
Um snow plows come in all different shapes and sizes.
But in my area the ones that they use on the roads look exactly like this.
Um really really big with a really big blade in the front.
So salt and sand.
So I just mentioned salt.
And sand is a common site in the winter, when they can get down to the pavement.
So if you put so salt and sand are material spread to improve traction on icy surfaces.
So salt will melt ice and sand will give you traction.
And so the two materials are often used in the winter to melt the ice on the roads and to give traction.
The problem is when salt doesn't really melt snow that well, like salt will melt ice, but it doesn't really melt snow that well.
So we usually get to a point where you can't see the pavement and they're just putting down a lot of sand.
Um, in order to yeah, the snow is less slippery when there's some sand mixed in it a snow shovel, so a tool used to move snow by hand, and this is a special kind of shovel, usually quite big and wide.
It's usually quite light because it's made out of plastic.
Um snow isn't very heavy.
It's not as heavy as dirt.
So when you use a shovel in dirt, the shovel needs to be made out of metal.
So when you're shoveling snow you can use a plastic shovel.
Um and you use that to move snow by hand.
Which is how many many people clear their driveways.
An ice scraper is a tool used to remove ice from car windows.
So it's quite common in the winter.
Um, when you drive your car, you have heat inside, and then when you stop driving, the snow lands on the windows, but eventually the melts and freezes because your car is still warm.
So the next morning often there will be ice and you have to use an ice scraper to remove ice from car windows.
And then we also have what is called a snow brush quite common if you look at this snow brush which is used to clear snow from a vehicle.
It actually has a little ice scraper on the end.
A little green ice scraper.
It's actually more common to have a ice scraper at one end and then the brush at the other.
Those are that's how our snow brushes look.
They have an ice scraper on the end of the handle and a brush on the other end.
But used to clear snow from a vehicle.
And I think you've seen me I think you've seen me do this in one or two videos at least.
Donuts this is something you should never do.
Spinning a car in circles on snow or ice.
So if you have a rear-wheel drive car this is very easy to do.
If you have an all-wheel drive car with traction control this is impossible.
If you have a front-wheel drive vehicle, you can do this, but you pretty much need to go in reverse.
Gonna have to look up a video to see what this actually looks like.
But if you turn really sharp in a parking lot.
Um, like if I took my van, which is front wheel drive, and went backwards with the steering wheel turn, it would whip around.
Yeah, you're gonna have to watch a video.
Uh don't do this.
It's dangerous. think every teenager in Canada has done donuts at one point in their life but don't.
I cannot condone this behavior.
I have done this though before.
Donuts.
Spitting a car in circles on snow or ice. tires.
So snow tires are tires designed for better grip in winter conditions.
So you'll see this snow tire has two symbols on it.
I believe these symbols mean that these tires are designed for driving in snow.
And that they're designed to have better grip on ice.
Can look them up if you want, but generally in a country like Canada, in November or early December you will put your snow tires on your car and then in March or April you will take your snow tires off and put normal tires back on.
So snow tires are, rubber is softer and the tread it's kind of hard to explain is different.
The tread is designed to stay clear of snow so you always have grip, and the tires are softer so that in the like, a normal tire in the winter gets quite hard, whereas a snow tire has, whereas a snow tire is softer ice.
This is probably the most dangerous driving condition is when there is black ice.
It's thin nearly invisible ice on roads.
It's actually invisible in my experience.
We just had black ice in our area a couple of days ago.
There was a major highway that had a stretch where there was black ice.
And I think seventeen cars went in the ditch.
So don't even know if people hit each other.
I think they just spun out and went in the ditch.
Um but black ice looks like pavement.
That's what makes it dangerous.
You're driving and it looks like a normal road.
But there's a very thin layer of ice on it.
So we call it black ice, because pavement is black, the ice is very, very thin, and so you have a situation where it looks very safe to drive, but it's not safe to drive.
Not good at all.
A snow squall and flurries.
Let me explain the difference between these two.
A snow squall is a sudden intense burst of snow and wind.
Not sure if I've ever ever taught the word squall before, but snow squalls are when it looks nice and then all of a sudden it's snowing.
And then it looks nice and all of a sudden it's snowing like a lot of snow and wind.
Um, so if they say school is cancelled because there are going to be a lot of snow squalls today, that's what it means, doesn't mean it's going to snow all day.
It means that it's going to suddenly snow and then stop and snow and stop.
Um and so the snow squall is the sudden start of snow.
And then flurries is just light snow falling for a short time.
So snow squalls are very intense.
It's a lot of.
Usually there's a lot of snow drifting and falling, a lot of whiteouts, whereas flurries is lighter snow.
Following falling for a short period of time, you have snow flurries.
It's just like an.
The way I describe it is it's like a Christmas day snowfall.
When you have snow flurries slick.
When you say it is slick, it means it is very, very slippery.
So you can see this person has definitely been sliding a little bit, so would say it's slippery.
We would say it's slick.
We would say the roads are really slick today.
Um, the other day I had to drive to town on a day when the weather wasn't great, and when I came home I said oh, the roads are a bit slick.
So it means they've probably put salt and sand down, but it's still there's too much snow and packed snow and it's still somewhat slippery.
So slick.
Very slippery roads. to spin.
Tires slipping without traction.
I had a better picture of this but I couldn't use it because it was a copyrighted picture.
But this picture, if you can see, the tire is spinning.
It's turning but the car is not moving.
So when your tires spin it means you're slipping and you have no traction.
This happens to people a lot in the winter if they don't have snow tires.
You will spin your tires.
Then you might have to get someone to push you out.
When the snow is really deep, sometimes people try to drive through it and then they get stuck and their tires will spin and they can't go anywhere.
So to spin tires slipping without traction.
