Are you prepared for the Finnish winterweather?

According to the popular book- and television Series, the winter is coming. This is true also in Finland. Finns do know how to dress up for the winter – or do they? A finnish Newspaper-company did some research with thermographic imaging in Helsinki – that means they used a special camera to show if the clothing used by people isolated the body heat in a cold weather.

Results are quite clear, some of us should be thinking more about the clothing. Head, neck and hands are not protected as well as they should be – tight jeans without anything warm under them are also a common heat robber. On the other hand some more experienced people know, that fashion is less important than the fact that you don’t lose too much of the comfortable body temperature. Layers are important in order not to shiver in cold weather. They make even winter sports comfortable.

I find one Finnish saying very suitable: There is no bad weather but wrong clothing – that means you should be considering your clothing according to the weather. Nowadays winter weather can be unpredictable – sometimes you need to be prepared for temperatures -10 or sometimes +5 grades of Celcius. Another wisdom is, with layers, you can always take one layer of if you feel too hot.

If you feel uncertain about proper winter clothing, I recommend you to read the following English article and looking into the thermographic images. It made me aware how one should dress up for the cold weather. Proper winter clothing should not cost fortunes either – I recommend to check the second-hand shops, if they had something warm and suitable for you too.

Helsinginsanomat original article with the termographic images.
http://www.hs.fi/kotimaa/a1479005116290

Hannu Järvistö
Executive director of JAMKO