Great pics! You have managed to capture the essence of pozimok as it manifests in a city.
We've had a similar cold snap. It's called takatalvi (taka- = a suffix denoting something that is situated in the back of something, talvi = winter). I once researched whether there exists an expression in the English language for that. I found several. One is "blackberry winter" they use in the southern regions of the USA when they refer to winter-like conditions occurring when blackberry bushes have started to bloom. I don't remember the others. I once visited southern England (Cambridge) at the end of March/beginning of April. It was right after a really cold spell had ended and when the weather had turned into balmy +18 C. The house I visited had a hole in the roof and it had snowed into one of the rooms in the attic. I'm guessing they have a word for this phenomenon in England, too.
Here in Lahti (60 km off the southern coast roughly in the middle) it was -9 C in the morning and it has been a little bit above freezing during the warmest hours of the day. According to the forecast, it will snow next week. Oh man, I'm tired of shoveling that white s**t...
By the way, your observations regarding the smell of different seasons is spot on. During the winter months, a faint smell of smoke and car exhaust is indeed in the air. I'd say that we should be well into the dust season by now.
I liked the picture where you had two people protected by the niches in the wall from the wind and a third one walking with her hood up. It pretty much nails what is going on.
Cheers!
Yes, indeed, each language has its own name for this natural phenomenon. Moreover, the name depends not only on the characteristics of the language, but also on the climate, latitude. Somewhere this does not happen at all.
A couple of years ago we had very little snow and I complained that winter without white s**t. Last year there were extra strong frosts, and this year there is a lot of snow. But what is stable is the pozimok in spring!
Thanks for the feedback!
Someone asked on the internet which was the most dangerous thing in the northern countries and I answered it was the icy roads and walkways in the winter and spring. There is no question about it.
I fell about a month ago when I was skiing. I strained a muscle. Couldn't walk the following day. Sleeping was painful for a week or two. Almost fell a week ago a few steps outside our door.
Because of the icy road, I once got into a severe traffic accident. And I have been in minor winter accidents several times.
A car accident? Was your car declared a total loss?
I once got into a crash that was my own fault. There was damage to the front on the driver's side. I was told it cost €7,000 to repair, which meant that car came close to being totaled. Nothing wrong with the car now but it turned out six months later that the tie rod connecting the wheels had been bent by the impact, which had to be fixed separately. They had somehow missed it during post crash inspection. The man at the shop that I dealt with said the insurance company was unlikely to compensate for that as part of the repairs due to the crash as it could not be stated with certainty that the crash was the cause. However, it did, which I was very happy about because that meant I saved €1000.
After that serious accident, I was in the hospital with a broken head. The car was sold for parts. My father and I crashed into an unsigned timber trailer. And the ice prevented us from reacting quickly: to urgently slow down and turn to the side.
Ouch! I'm glad you made it.