Let’s say that you announce the forecast to a group of people. Let’s say that it’s a family unit. Let’s say that it’s going to be 35°F and windy. You would expect a certain response from certain family members:

Dad grumbles, ‘It’s not that bad’ but he’s wondering where his wool socks and long underwear are; Mom moves her chair so that it’s situated over a heat vent; Grandma and Pa strategize their campaign to keep the thermostat on blast; and the kids would walk around naked if they were allowed.

Why do different people react differently to the same weather conditions and temperature? And what are some of the effects of weather on our strange, ever-varying human behavior? Let’s break it down family member by family member and see if we can make some sense of this.

Daddy-O

This is your average man’s man complete with hidden sensitivity and buried weaknesses. As an average man, his resting metabolic rate is higher than the average woman’s. He has higher concentrations of brown fat — a nasty term describing the type of fat that generates heat (opposed to white fat — a slightly less nasty term describing fat that stores excess calories). In other words, he runs hot. That’s the brick-and-mortar, physiological explanation.

Science aside, there are many other explanations as to why he might feel the heat. He might have to wear a full suit to work during a heat wave in July while his wife wears a light dress. Maybe he works a heavy manual labor job or maybe he really is cold and because of social stigma, he was raised to uphold a real “tuff-guy” attitude.

Mommy-O

When it comes to the ladies, the physical reasons for being chilly are basically the opposite of men’s reasons for being warm. The metabolic rate is lower because of a higher concentration of storage fat — to ensure survival rates of the mother and infant in times of scarcity — resulting in women being comfortable in slightly warmer temperatures.

Another interesting phenomenon is the Red Dress Effect and its relationship to the seasons. Studies show that woman are more likely to wear red at the peak of fertility, supposedly to boost the hot-factor. The strange thing is that the results of the Red Dress Effect study do not repeat during the warmer seasons. The theory is that woman have more efficient ways of showing off their stuff during the warm months such as booty shorts, spaghetti straps, and itsy-bitsy-teeny-weeny bikinis.

The Kids and The Old Folks

When it comes to age and how hot/cold makes you feel, it often comes down to heart rate and circulation (and hot flashes in aging women). The older a person gets, the less elasticity they have in the blood vessels. The circulation lowers and the heart rate slows and voila! Heat loss.

Interestingly, studies show that wintertime mortality rates are much higher in warmer environments despite the more mild winters. The mortality rates in the warm climate cities of Southern Europe and the U.S. were more affected by the cold than Siberia, where no cold-related mortality was recorded. It could be that you’re only as cold as you feel or maybe once you’ve been that goddamn cold and survived, it’s going to take something more creative to kill you than a bad winter.

In the end how cold, hot, sad, creative, or sexy you feel in certain weather conditions is subjective. It all depends on you as an individual and how you are faring at the time socially, psychologically, and physiologically.

So find that perfect temperature, dress accordingly, and let the thermostat wars begin.

By Davis, The Sunshine Team.