Cold snap

Estimated reading time: 3 minutes

The good thing about a cold spell is that it only lasts a short time.
(Photo: Bernhard Falkinger/Pixabay | Text: David/ArtisanEnglish.jp)

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WotD: Cold snap/spell

What the heck is going on?

Recently the papers announced that 2020 tied with 2016 for being the hottest year on record, but this week Wakayama went through a cold snap.

C’mon! Enough with the frost and frigid temperatures.

Wakayama is supposed to be subtropical, isn’t it?

Give an almost-middle-aged Canadian a break, why don’t you?

Man, I hate cold weather.

It was -2℃ on Tuesday but is supposed to be 15 – 16℃ by the weekend.

Thank God there are some benefits to global warming. (I say this tongue in cheek)

OK, so I’m overreacting just a bit, but I do dislike cold weather.

Cold spells are nothing uncommon in Wakayama.

We get them every year. They last for a few days, and then everything warms up again.

Like most words in the English language, ‘spell’ has multiple meanings.

If you’re a Harry Potter fan, you know wizards and witches can use magic and cast spells over people.

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Spell also means to put letters in order to form a word.

It can, however, also represent a short time or a break.

This word takes me back to my youth.

I remember cutting firewood in the forest with my father during the winter.

After a few hours of work, the horse needed to be fed, so my father would say, ‘Let’s take a spell, feed Queen, and have a mug up (a cup of tea).’

And this relates to our word for today because a cold spell is unusually cold weather for a short period of time.

A snap is also a very short period of time.

Hopefully, this cold snap will be over very soon.

This post is understandable by someone with at least a 7th-grade education (age 12).

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