Yeeeaaaaah. So, as an American who has a Canadian partner, lemme tell you that the way you find this curious makes sense. People who typically get cold weather have city snow plows and salt trucks and infrastructure that can handle the cold, because y'all had to adapt and prep accordingly due to geographic climate. Down here, where it is hilly, and we have no plows or salt, where winter tires are unheard of because they're unneeded 99% of the time, a slight dusting of snow kills people. No one can drive on ice. Vehicles slide. People fall. Power lines snap. Trees succumb. The city can't help everyone as the car wrecks and injuries stack up. We don't have adequate warming shelters and I just read an article where a church bishop was arrested for letting the unhoused come in overnight because of some crappy zoning law. People trapped in rural poverty don't have backup water or heat or even warm clothes. Stuff gets real. And fast. Our schools cancel at the sign of snow flurries for this reason, because forcing people to drive the back roads to school literally means risking lives. I know you guys march to school with snow up to your nips, but down here the same scenario would be like dropping you in the middle of a sandstorm with no gear. We rarely get this kind of extreme weather and even our houses and water pipes aren't capable of taking it. Whole things is nuts. 10F is life threatening to me, but to you seems like a chilly day, my friend. Putting this out there for all the people who can't think outside their own experiences. To be fair, we all struggle with it. And now that the weather is a wildcard and extreme on both ends, we are all gonna have to adjust again. Together. I dunno, y'all. I'm tired. lol
What I find very surprising is the lack of house insulation requirements in many places in the US... Temperatures vary by about 70°c over here so our houses are well insulated for winter but it's also advantageous for hot summer days so you would believe in the warmer parts of the USA they would want to insulate their house so AC isn't wasted and it would also help for the few cold days they get every year... You just need a couple of space heaters just in case and you're good to keep a couple of rooms warm enough that it's not much of an issue when that happens...