In Maine, Is 15-30 Degrees Actually Cold Or Are We Officially Big Wimps?

It's probably an understatement, but social media makes us look soft.

When surfing the web for info about recent weather, a couple different headlines caught my eye. Basically, everyone's been hyping up that it's going to be downright arctic up here in Maine. And it's certainly been cold, but not anything I would necessarily feel compelled to write home about.

So naturally, I had to have a deeper look and see what all the hub-bub was about. What I was looking for, was something entirely different than I saw. I was looking for some actual sub-zero weather, the likes of which we hadn't seen since last winter. I was looking for daytime highs in the teens and overnight lows in the singles to zero. Nope.

Instead, I learned we're all turning into giant wimps.

Recent forecasts have been wildly overusing words like "frigid" and "bitter" to describe the cold... When the average daytime highs have been around 30, and an overnight lows in the teens. Like... what?! These temps are considered "frigid"?! Is this what we get for all the out-of-staters that have moved to Maine in the last couple years? Now 30 degrees is frigid? Teens at night is bitter?!

Don't get me wrong, the older I get, the less I like the cold. I used to be a card carrying member of the "Shorts Year Round Society", and if I'd seen a forecast like these recently, I wouldn't have batted an eyelash. To me it's a sad day for Mainers when this is the new benchmark for cold.

What happens when the real weather shows up? What adjectives will be used to describe the weather when it's below zero? What buzz words will come into play there? I shudder to think... Regardless, welcome to the new Maine standard for "cold", kids. The dystopia is finally here.

When the actual cold weather hits, scope these tips to keep safe.