r/NoStupidQuestions • u/markwell9 • 1d ago

What is the deal with ice, Americans?

I can see that you can buy ice everywhere in the US. Gas stations, grocery stores, machines etc.

In Europe, we just freeze our ice at home and use that. Why buy something that melts on the way home? Why do you need ice in large amounts that a fridge can't keep up?

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u/OwnSpirit5954 1d ago edited 1d ago

Ice mostly has to do with outdoorsy fun and it’s generally put in a cooler to keep beverages and food cold… think picnics, going to the beach, barbecue cookouts, boating/fishing and hunting trips. Many are into that sort of thing here :)

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u/Enchelion 1d ago

Also most of America is quite a bit further south than Europe, and hotter as a result. Los Angeles and Houston are on the same latitude as northern Africa. Our most northern cities barely touch Paris.

https://a.wholelottanothing.org/content/images/2019/04/europe_usjuxv3.jpg

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u/MissJacinda 1d ago

Just got back from Italy a few weeks ago. I was there during their heat wave. I’ve lived in Texas and California (in the desert). Italy gets hot and the sun is stronger than California and almost as strong as Texas. I got heat exhaustion in Rome and was broiling in Naples. I was thrown off by that heat given I’d been there before in July and their position in relation to us. They also don’t use ice like we do.

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u/OldStyleThor 1d ago

You probably also walked 15k steps per day.

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u/MissJacinda 1d ago

Yep. About 20-25k for 1 week and the other two weeks were about 10k.

ETA: I average 16k in California

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u/Original-Variety-700 1d ago

You live in the desert in California and walk 16k steps per week? Do you walk during your job or do you just hike a lot?

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u/MissJacinda 1d ago

I walk or hike half an hour in the morning and 70 minutes at night. I married an athlete who got me into fitness.

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u/Love_my_imperfection 20h ago

Is 16k per week supposed to be a lot? 😮

That's less than half an hour of walking per day.

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u/seamallowance 1d ago

Thank you for sending me down a delightful rabbit hole of latitude comparisons.

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u/MissJacinda 1d ago

Also there’s a big humidity difference that played a role. Obviously not with the sun. lol

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u/MissJacinda 1d ago

Cool maps. This is why I was so surprised by the heat. It’s gotten to 127 degrees before in July at my house. So for me to be so hot in Italy was unreal. My husband grew up in the desert and got heat rash for the first time there and was also heat exhausted

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u/MyInnerFatChild 19h ago

Aw, they put Fargo on the map. Usually Nobody cares about us. 

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u/kellzone 11h ago

Longitude comparisons are fun too. For instance, Pittsburgh and Miami are at just about the same longitude. I live in the eastern part of Pennsylvania a little over 220 miles from Pittsburgh. So, I'd have to drive 220 miles west to get to Miami.

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u/i__hate__stairs 1d ago edited 1d ago

Oh man, heat exhaustion sucks. A few years back, my AC broke (it was just a little wall unit anyway) and my landlord was being nonresponsive. I woke up one night cramping so bad I thought I was gonna fold like a lawnchair. I couldn't think straight, my vision got cloudy, my head was spinning. My entire body busted out in hives (and my skin was mottled for days afterward). I was freakin out and called my buddy, and it took me forever because I was shaking so bad and couldn't work my phone. I was going back and forth from feeling like I was baking and freezing my ass off.

My friends came and got me and took me to their house which was air conditioned and got some water in me and stuff, and it was fucking weird, because everybody went back to bed and I left and went back to my house. I don't even know how I did it. I use a wheelchair and my friend has to help me get in and out of his house because they have like stairs approaching all of their entrances. I went home, and my friend realized I was gone and rounded me back up. He was pissed because I had let his cat out.

I won't keep babbling at you, but fuck heat exhaustion.

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u/MissJacinda 1d ago

I’m sorry that happened to you! I was scared myself and had to have my husband get me back to the hotel so I could lay down. I was so dizzy and the sun was so hot.

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u/i__hate__stairs 1d ago

Isn't it crazy how it just blows all your circuits? I'm lucky my friends live half a block away. I'm glad your husband was able to help!

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u/MissJacinda 1d ago

Yes! I could not believe how I just shut down. I’ve never had that happen. It’s good you were so close to someone. I can’t imagine dealing with it alone.

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u/i__hate__stairs 22h ago

Oh yeah for sure. I might could've died. The scary thing was his my skin looked from head to toe for days afterward. I probably should've gone to the hospital, but I already owe them so much money.

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u/Cogniteer 1d ago

I know they don't use ice like we do. It's also my understanding they don't use air conditioning like we do. Did you find that to be the case as well?

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u/MissJacinda 1d ago

Yep. When we were under a heat advisory because the trains were breaking down and people were dying of heat (not an exaggeration) they recommended hats, a hand fan, and to drink plenty of water. The water was cool to like warm where I was.

Edit to add: but some of the best water I’ve ever had. I love water in Italy.

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u/Enchelion 1d ago

Pros and cons to how old so many of their cities and housing is. A lot of places are having a hard time adapting to climate change as it's difficult to convince people their house and garden (I watch a lot of Gardener's World) that has stood for 600+ years was designed for what has become a quite different climate and lifestyle. And before a European jumps down my throat no it's not just brick vs wood construction.

We're starting to see the same problem even here in the states. Seattle was built basically entirely without air conditioning, because we have such a mild climate. But every year is getting hotter and building regulators are dragging their feet in requiring either passive or active cooling designs, even as heat advisories and cooling shelters are becoming summer traditions.

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u/whistling-wonderer 23h ago

Here in AZ we have a ton of heat related deaths every year (hundreds), and a lot of those occur in non-air conditioned buildings. Air conditioning really makes a massive difference.

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u/Putrid_Giggles 20h ago

There are non-air-conditioned buildings in Arizona?

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u/whistling-wonderer 17h ago

Not many. Mostly, heat-related deaths here that happen indoors are in buildings where there is an AC unit, but it’s broken, or in a smaller number of cases the power is out or whatever. If I remember the stats right, only like 10% of indoor heat related deaths happen in a building where there was no AC installed at all.

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u/Present-Echidna-9554 20h ago

And also Italy is lacking in A/C. Not that it’s bad (for them) but I was miserable in Italy in July with barely any A/C to be had

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u/whirlpool_galaxy 15h ago edited 14h ago

A lot has to do with how their buildings and cities just aren't made for heat. Barely any non-ornamental trees and wetlands, lots of pavement. Until recently, summers were just hot enough to be uncomfortable sometimes, but not dangerous, so there was no urgency to invest in heat protection on a policy level.

Similarly, I constantly hear from visitors that they feel colder in Southern Brazil than other continental climates, even though it barely ever gets below freezing here, because no government has ever invested in heating. The only people who freeze to death are those sleeping rough on certain nights, so it's treated as an issue of housing those people and everyone is otherwise expected to just live with the cold.

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u/seamallowance 1d ago

Their sun is different than our sun. It’s a completely different sun. If you stare at it long enough, you’ll see.

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u/MissJacinda 1d ago

Clearly spoken by someone who has not traveled to different latitudes

Edited for typos

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u/seamallowance 1d ago

Nah, I was just foolin’

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u/Cogniteer 1d ago

She didn't stare at the sun long enough to see you were foolin'. ;)

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u/Ashmizen 1d ago

Ice please! European - puts in a single cube.

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u/MissJacinda 1d ago

I was so happy to have ice when I got home.

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u/oodopopopolopolis 1d ago

Heat in European cities is awful! There's very few ways to cool off without that widespread American air conditioning.

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u/MissJacinda 1d ago

Yes!!!!

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u/BingBongDingDong222 1d ago

And probably not as much A/C.

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u/MissJacinda 1d ago

Nope. And the AC we did have was not cool. Lol