Having a blog that has first page Google rankings for any number of keyword searches about Suzhou, I tend to get a lot of traffic from people looking for information about the place, generally because they’re living, visiting or moving here.
When questioned, I’m always quick to mention how cool a place Suzhou is for foreigners. There’s a massive expat community, and that has created a pretty substantial support structure for us folks from lands afar. Western supermarkets, restaurants, bars, and entertainment are all things that are rapidly growing in the city.
However, what the city gives in comforts it takes away with the damn weather. As long-time readers will attest, there is no shortage of posts on this blog full of me bitching about the climate here: Suzhou’s too hot, Suzhou’s too cold, Suzhou’s too gray, Suzhou’s too rainy.
Well, not until today did I ever think I could add “Suzhou’s too snowy” to the list – but here we are. It’s snowing in Suzhou.
I dig geography, but I’m the first to admit that when it comes to anything more than pointing out places on a map, I’ve not a clue. Plate tectonics, sedimentary budgets, atmospheric flow – all lost on me. It was only in the last decade or so that I finally figured out which was longitude and which was latitude.
So, can someone please pop open the map displayed here, take a look at where Suzhou is in the scheme of things and sort me out on how the hell a place that is on the same damn line as Mexico and North Africa can have snow?
Ok, ok. I understand that Tibet, Yunnan and Nepal get snow, and they’re all roughly on the same LAT as Suzhou, but they’re some of the highest fucking places in the world. Suzhou, well, we’re below the damn water table for Christ’s sake.
What the hell is with Suzhou’s weather?
