Hot or Cold: A Debate

The weather outside is frightful…or is it?

Nothing divides people quite like the weather, and it’s not hard to see why: you can’t go outside without the weather hitting you in the face, nor can you engage in small-talk without someone bringing up that dreaded topic, “the weather.” Especially in the case of extreme weather changes, the weather is a constant source of debate. New York City, unfortunately, seems to operate on an axis of constant, extreme seasonal weather changes. Here at NYU, many students love this, particularly when those weather changes are responsible for catapulting the city into a wintery cold, providing them with an excuse to pull out their overpriced Canada Goose parkas. Others, like myself, have wanted to die every time they’ve looked at the city weather forecast since … I don’t know, probably since mid-October.

It’s no surprise, then, that this dilemma — that of whether cold or hot weather is better — has come up among the NYU Local community and wreaked its dividing havoc upon us, leading to usually civil (but sometimes heated) debate on the subject. For the sake of science, the pros and cons of each type of weather was measured according to different criteria: fashion, comfort/pain, and convenience. Without further ado, here are the transcripts and results of the (ongoing) argument.

Fashion

• GRAHAM: cold weather bc coats are more fun than shorts.
• LEO: cold weather because you can only take off so many clothes but u can always add clothes.
• BLAIR: HOT WEATHER because people wear less clothes and that makes them look hotter.
• LEO: okay but consider this: sweat is gross and shorts make me feel bad.
• ALI: […] I love shorts, I spend most of my time in comfy pj shorts, pants suck.
• BLAIR: […] Also, summer clothes provide more mobilities and allow more movements.

Conclusion: An inconclusive two-to-two tie on the fashion debate.

Comfort/Pain

• ALI: HOT WEATHER. […] I wanna feel the warmth on my bare skin. Cold weather is horrible and what people forget is that uh I have seasonal depression! And cold weather means that it gets dark at night too. It’s all bad.
• CAT: if you get a lil too hot, you can recover pretty easily in front of an AC unit or in a cool shower. and it feels so refreshing! […] but if u get too cold it’s really fucking hard to get warm. even if u like physically attach yourself to a heater, it will be too late.
• SARA: If fall was crisp and clear out i could get past it. But like 4/5 days it’s cloudy and rainy and WINDY and frankly it’s offensive. Warm weather means I’m comfy and getting my vitamin D and consistently fully conscious and those are my NEEDS.
• DEVIN: i hate cold more than i hate hot but only because I like the feeling of coming into an Air Conditioned Building on a Hot Day way more than coming into a Heated Building on a Cold Day. […] also wind + hot day = nice vs wind + cold day = hell on earth.
• IZZIE: COLD WEATHER. It’s deadly, sure, but at least you can bundle up or be under fuzzy blankets or cuddle. In the heat there is no such thing, especially if you don’t have AC!!! have y’all ever fainted in the heat before??? NOT FUN. that’s cause y’all asses are from California and the moment it’s above 85 y’all be like “yeesh” hmmmmmm talk to me when it’s 120 for like two months nahhh y’all I stay COLD
• ALI: I am from the San Fernando Valley where it doesn’t go under 95 for two straight months and doesn’t go below 70 the rest of the year, I know heat!!!! And I would still take that over freezing cold. The area of California I am from is a literal desert, stay in your lane!
• IZZIE: […] Texas is a Hellscape. Also Humidity and Heat???? nahhh just launch me directly into the sun. it will be faster than suffocating from sticky hot air.

Conclusion: Four-to-one, albeit a pretty convincing “one”. Hot weather is the winner of this category.

Convenience

• CAT: all i am saying is that no one gets pneumonia/bronchitis during the summer time also winter makes ur skin gross/dry/flaky so…Hot Weather>.
• ALI: Oh yeah the skin dryness here is the WORST. Also having to plan an outfit around your coat is hard.
• CAT: i feel like beyond even the coat/outfit coordination cold weather requires too much planning!! like I hate having to worry abt if I’m gonna b able to stay warm enough and not like die when I’m trying to decide how many fckin sweaters i need to put on in the morning. if it’s hot u can just go outside in whatever (or nothing even!)
• BLAIR: hot weather bc you spend way less money on buying summer clothes.

Conclusion: An overwhelming win for hot weather because, let’s be real, it’s kind of impossible to contest its (relative, at least) convenience.

…and a one-on-one bonus round

• MAGGIE: Cold weather is better because hot weather makes people too happy and complacent and arrogant, you need a good chill to knock you down a few notches in those categories. Also, most dogs can burn their paws and fail to regulate body heat in the summer, but thrive in the cold! Also hot weather is proven to increase violence and suppress appetite, meaning you won’t get to enjoy as much delicious food as you could in the winter. And while you do not need to buy more clothes when it is hot out, you will need to buy more water, which is a human right increasingly being privatized and commodified (looking at you, Nestle). Also on a climate note, rather than weather, appreciate the cold while you’ve still got it folks.
• ALI: “hot weather makes people too happy” I think this pretty much settles everything.
• MAGGIE: TL/DR: I think it’s beautiful that cold weather makes us grow closer to each other through an innate need for warmth, making us earn that happiness.
• ALI: Also … global warming and climate change does not mean the Earth will forever be hot!!!! It just means that the weather will be more extreme i.e. how we had a blizzard every week for weeks on end last spring. And if we’re bringing science not emotion into this, cold weather and all that comes with it can cause pretty heavy seasonal depression in people (like me!) […] And dogs are better in the cold because they literally are always wearing fur coats. Humans were not designed that way hence why we need outer layers in the winter to keep warm.
• MAGGIE: whoops, did not mean to sound like a climate denier-ish person, just that we are less prepared for the extreme heats, imo. For extreme colds, we have coats (expensive but one time purchase) and being with other people will help us stay warm. during extreme heats, being and sharing with others will probably be detrimental to our health. also, while i acknowledge it affects less people, summer seasonal depression is also a thing…or “reverse SAD” which means people (like me) thrive in colder/winter times. but overall, i’m grateful for all seasons because variety is important! […]
• ALI: […] in fairytales and medieval stories, the permanent winter is always when the great evil is in power and when they’re defeated it becomes warm and sunny again!!! Society is trying to tell all y’all cold people something hmmm … check and mate.

Conclusion: Hard to say, but I think I’m calling this one a tie; although, it should be noted that the superiority of hot weather seems to have some science behind it…

And the winner is…

At least so far, hot weather is the winner of the debate overall. Cold weather is expensive, painful, inconvenient, and it like, kills people (so does hot weather, but that’s beside the point). Basically, for every good thing about cold weather, there are at least two better things about hot weather. Of course, you should trust me because my opinion on this subject as someone who comes from a hotter climate is obviously 100 percent unbiased.