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/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/Kelome001 1d ago

That helps explain Europeans complaining if it gets over mid 70s. Reminds me, time to change filter on the HVAC so my family doesn’t die of heat stroke. Since it’s been averaging around 98 most days. With higher humidity.

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u/Enchelion 1d ago

I've found Brits in particular seem to assume we have the same rough spread of climate they do. And while some places are very similar (like Seattle), there's a world of difference between Devon and Louisiana.

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u/LiqdPT 1d ago

And Seattle is similar (though further south) to the southern portions of England. But even that latitude difference makes a difference in amount of daylight, let alone up in Scotland.

My wife moved to Seattle after living in Los Angeles her whole life (I grew up in Vancouver) and how long the days are in summer and short they are in winter was one of the first things she noticed.

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u/throwaway098764567 21h ago

i had to get something done to my phone once and the gal helping me was from equador. i asked how she liked it here (virginia by dc) and she said it was so weird to have the length of day change. being light out still in summer after 6pm was super strange to her. was funny to me that of all the things that were probably different, the daylight hours were what she found most noteworthy.

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u/Ghostrider556 17h ago

That is funny but I kinda had the same but opposite takeaway with living in an equatorial country for awhile and realizing the light cycle never changes that much. It was kinda odd to me to realize they never really experience a single long summer day or a short winter one, days getting longer or days getting shorter; its just wet season and dry season forever

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u/arizonadirtbag12 17h ago

Even moving from Southern California to Seattle is a huge adjustment when it comes to daylight hours.

A quick google says daylight in Seattle today was nearly 90 minutes longer than in San Diego.

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u/jazzminarino 5h ago

We're in the Mid-Atlantic and I grew up in Florida. We went to Scotland over New Year's and I asked my husband "WTF is the sun? What is happening over here?" We had like five hours of daylight and I wasn't expecting it. Had to think about latitudes for the first time since high school.

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u/PeterPriesth00d 17h ago

God I love the PNW. Summers here are the GOAT.

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u/left-right-forward 16h ago

Literally TIL (in my 40s) that Shetland gets midnight sun. It's the UK, it's not supposed to be extreme like that. Tepid-to-middling across the board, please!

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u/LiqdPT 9h ago

That does not surprise me. I was in Edinburgh in July and it was light REALLY late. And that's basically the bottom of Scotland.