When people think of the climate in the US, many may assume the U.S. is a cold country. This assumption is far from true. While there are parts of the U.S. that have cold weather, there are as many kinds of tundra as there are types of weather. I probably learned about this when I was in college. As it neared Christmas in New York state, and the snow was falling, my roommate from Texas exclaimed, “So this is the Christmas weather I see on Christmas cards!”
She went on to tell me she always felt cheated by American Christmas cards. Although she grew up and had lived her entire life in the U.S., the weather in southern Texas was always hot and dry or hot and rainy, but never snowy. In her 23 years of life, this was the first time she had ever experienced snow in America. Her story made me think of a road trip I took a few years before that. Some friends and I traveled by car down the east coast and along the southern states into California in mid June. At one of our stops in Arizona, we picked up milkshakes in McDonalds. Rather than the shake being thick, cold and creamy, it was almost like milk – runny and watery. I took it back to the counter demanding another only to find out they were all like that. Then, I realized that as Arizona summers are much hotter and extremely humid as compared to New York summers, the machine was working overtime just to provide cold milk! For them in that McDonalds, in Arizona, that was a milkshake!
We all have assumptions about what the weather would or should be like based on our own experiences or what the media ‘teach us.’ Let’s take a look at some average monthly temperature ranges within the continental United States throughout a typical year in the PDF below. The temperatures given are in Fahrenheit (F). To help provide a comparison, a comparison chart between Celcius and Fahrenheit is below as well.
Check out the normal/average temperature details from weather dot com.
Jennifer Kumar helps prepare your international assignees for onsite assignments in the U.S. Our program, the U.S. Culture Finishing School can be tailored as per your team’s needs. Contact us for more information on cross-cultural business training for offshore and onsite teams today.
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Image credits:
Cover image: gstudioimagen
Others: Screenshots from weather.com
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