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Comment by calinet6 | Hacker News Reader

"There is no bad weather, only bad clothing."

Love that. Growing up with Patagonia clothes (family works there) we had constant proof. Skiing in sub-zero temperatures was always fine for us, just put on more layers. Meanwhile everyone around us was freezing their hands off. The other secret is that gloves are always cold because the fingers are separated; wear mittens instead.

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The best trick I learned while skiing is to do large arm circles when your fingers start getting cold. This forces blood back to your fingertips and instantly warms them back up.

Or, as you suggested, mittens.

Exactly. I commute to work by bike, and though it doesn't get too cold here, it does rain a lot, so a large fraction of my rides are in the low 40s/high 30s and rain. Most people do everything they can to avoid going out it the rain, but if you wear the proper gear it's great.

I grew up in Oregon, and did a lot of riding in weather like that. With proper gear, you stay dry and warm about an hour, and then you start getting wet and cold anyway, because with enough rain, it seeps through pretty much anything. 5 degrees C and rain is way worse than snow and -5C for staying outdoors for long periods of time.

There's a saying among sailors: "Waterproof means that once the water gets in, it can't get out again."

This is the thought I have about chilly/damp weather.

If the extent of your time outside is going from one building to another then (at least until the temperature actually drops far enough to become dangerous), less clothing is better.

If it's in the mid-30s and slightly drizzling outside, but it's only a 20 minute walk to work, then a t-shirt and jeans are the way to go. The instant you step into a building you'll be warm and dry as a bone while everyone else will be damp and chilled for some time. My jacket only goes on if I perceive a hypothermia risk, and gloves only get used if I think frostbite might become a risk.

Well, at least it can warm up that way. Indeed, neoprene is pretty effective for bike riding in that kind of weather, even though it gets kind of heavy and sloppy.

Which is why you dress for being warm and wet. I'm commuting by bike every day in London and it's usually been between -2 and 2 deg C in the morning/evening the last few months (with occasional milder spells).

I use arm roubaix backed lycra arm and leg warmers. They're not waterproof and they get wet quickly in rain but you soon warm up the water that gets trapped and then you're fine. It's the same principle as a wetsuit.

Getting the number of layers right is tricky. Too few and you'll be cold. Too many and you'll soon start to overheat. The ideal is starting off feeling cold but warming up within 10 minutes of the ride. Warming up much sooner than that usually means you've got too many layers on.

A waterproof jacket is good but don't expect it to keep everything out, so a tight base layer (e.g. Skins) on the torso can be good.

I've done several 24+ hour rides in constant rain with temperatures below 5 deg C using this strategy with no problems.

Ah! Thank you for the gloves vs mittens tip. I have always found gloves futile, they never warm my hands. I will try mittens next winter.

You absolutely should! It really is true. Plus you actually have more dexterity—you can't really hold anything with gloved fingers anyway. Mittens > gloves!

The Swedes can say that because they don't worry about tornadoes. Is there clothing that could stand up to an F-5?

It's called not being in a tornado zone. :P

Or I'm sure some of the suits ordinance disposal techs wear are probably tornado proof.

A freight train car is not tornado proof. There is no clothing that is tornado proof.

If I wear a suit designed such that I had an air supply, sufficient protection from cold, a filter system for external air and enough padding (and or other measures) to ensure I could survive a fall at not-insignificant speeds and impacts from other debris, would this qualify as tornado proof?

Is it possible to do that and still call it "clothes"?

Are spacesuits clothes?

Sure. For one, even on Earth, astronauts are able to walk in them. Diving suits are also clothes. Even atmospheric diving suits, like the Exosuit from Nuytco Research, are clothes.

So are the various efforts of Hurtubise, like the bear-proof armor suit and the Trojan Ballistics Suit of Armor.

I acknowledge that a powered exoskeleton can be a grey area, but I don't think a hypothetical tornado-proof suit would come anywhere close to this grey area.

Here's vehicles which are meant to survive tornadoes http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tornado_Intercept_Vehicle . How do you make that into clothing?

I think you're right in that by the point you've made a tornado proof suit, it is actually a vehicle.

If it can survive being dropped from half a mile or having the end of a two-by-four strike it at 500 mph, and you can still call it clothing with a straight face, maybe. To say the least, I don't believe it exists today.

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