Hot and cold

Our son in Australia has just had a Skype chat with me.

George:

Gosh .... the temperature has hit 40C here! It's hot. "A Rail Corp spokeswoman, Marianne McCabe, said there were no delays despite some trains slowing as a standard precaution against distorted tracks and sagging overhead lines."

Me:

Minus 25C here! It's COLD. "Temperatures will continue to stay cold Wednesday dropping even further as another colder Arctic air mass moves in from the Prairies."

George:

Oh well ... only a 65C difference!

Me:

I've noticed this phenomenon many times now. When you have extremes of heat we have extremes of cold. That can't be mere coincidence. We'll all have to take care. Walking home through town today I wore a woolly scarf-hat round my face and head and a furry leather hat on top of that, with the collar of my down-filled jacket also zipped right up over my chin. I bet that makes you feel warm just thinking about it. Only my eyes were showing, but my eyelashes froze even so.

George (who is a Scientist):

We should correlate the temperatures in Sydney and Ottawa and see if there are inverse correlations at the extremes.