The wind chill in Sault Ste. Marie hit -36 degrees on Friday, keeping a lot of people inside trying to beat the cold.
Some took to the local coffee shops to enjoy some warm beverages, including LSSU students Bella Kish and Emily O’Connor. “I’m listening to my friends complain about the weather downstate and I’m like ‘I don’t really care because it’s negative 30 up here’,” said Kish.
“It is an adjustment period for sure,” said O’Connor, who has lived in Sault Ste. Marie most of her life. “You need to know how to dress. You need to know how to just kind of convert your normal activities into being freezing cold.”
Kish on the other hand moved up north only three years ago. “I feel like I’m still not used to it,” she said. “I have invested in a lot of warmer clothes at this point but days like this are still really shocking to me.”
It’s a tough time for those delivering mail, including U.S.P.S Letter Carrier Ian McGill who has to walk about six to seven miles on his route. “Usually I just have the long johns and it’s just layers, thin layers, so that way you can take off when you need to, because you get moving you are going to sweat,” he said. “The worst part is just in the morning when you’re getting ready, dreading it.”
There’s a certain pride that comes with living in the cold. “I think being born up here you kind of get used to it real quick,” said McGill. “It’s just something you’re born with, and the cold is just another part of the U.P. life.”
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