Autumn-Summer?-Winter

Winter is fast approaching in Siberia, and so my mind is starting to think about the weather. Abigail is expectantly waiting for the first snow to fall. I must admit that the first real snow is always very pretty and that I will enjoy it too. Abigail is also waiting for the ice slides to be built. Once the snow does fall, she will expect them to be up that day, and then Christmas the next day. She will have to go through more tests of patience yet!
It's been a couple years since we have had snow, so we will be ok with the arrival of Winter. Winter in itself is nothing to be scare about. It's more a matter of how cold it will get and how long Winter will be. Siberians are notorious for complaining about their weather. They like to boast about how cold it gets, and then complain about it in the same breath. At the same time they complain that Summer is never long enough or hot enough. Like all exaggerations, there is truth in them, but they are still exaggerations.
Let me remember some weather quotes:
"Last Winter was below -30 degrees for two months."  (Everyone has said to us that it was one of the coldest Winters they remember. Is this truth or exaggeration?)
"It never gets warm in June."
"Summer is over (in early August)."
"It rained all Summer, it didn't even get warm."
I have always known these to be exaggerations, but I don't like to argue with people to their face. I once was a pedant until I realised it doesn't win you any friends.
But, hey for my own sake, I have decided to do some investigation to see how big these exaggerations are, and to prepare myself mentally for what is ahead. I found a weather diary on the website gismeteo.ru that I use to check our weather forecast each day.

1)  Last Winter 2009/2010
There were a staggering 27 days or nights below -30. This is certainly more than normal. What people remember the most is that the first 11 days of January were below -30. With that stuck in their mind and a further 16 days of super cold weather, last Winter will go down in people's memories for a while. On top of that there were some -10/-15 days in April when the snow should normally be melting.

Exaggeration: medium
Truth?: 7/10

2) It never gets warm in June?
To be sure July is the middle of Summer and therefore does have warmer weather. June still had 17 days above 20 degrees, with four of them being above 30 degrees. Compared to an Australian Summer, this doesn't sound that hot. But there was still plenty of warm weather. Still there were 13 days with a maximum below 20.
Exaggeration: strong
Truth: 5/10

3) Summer is over, at the start of August.
This comment came in early August, as many days with highs in the teens and rainy weather came in. Yes, that sounds like a Melbourne Winter.  But to dispel the myth, there were a further 14 days above 20 in the second half of August and early September, two of these were above 30. It was 31 degrees in early September.
Exaggeration: strong
Truth: 4/10

4) It rained all Summer, it didn't even get warm.
There were 14 rainy days this Summer. There were some other days that were overcast true. I guess when you are waiting for Summer after a long Winter, every rainy day feels like you are being cheated. But they were still in the minority.
There were 62 days with temperatures above 20 degrees, 8 of these were above 30. So all in all, that's a fairly reasonable Summer for Siberia. But to be fair, there have been hotter ones as well.
Exaggeration: Medium
Truth: 6/10

Yes last Winter was colder than normal. Yes, there have been hotter Summers than this year, but it was not below average. The question is whether the hot weather in Summer balances out the cold weather in Winter. In years where there are 5 or 10 days of -30 weather followed by 5 or 10 days of +30 weather, then I think this is enough for the psyche to cope. But 27 days of -30 followed by 8 of +30 does leave an imbalance.

We're in Autumn now. That means lots of cold rainy weather. But the last couple days have been sunny, even if they were 6 to 8 degrees. Apparently, according to a neighbour, if there are 3 days in a row with a maximum lower than 8 degrees, then the heating will be turned on. (The heating system is built in hot water pipes for the whole building.)  It looked like that was going to happen. But today will be 14, so we now have to wait longer for the heating to be turned on.

We might get one last dose of warm weather joy. Wednesday and Thursday next week have forecast highs of 20 degrees. This would be a short Indian Summer, but appreciated none the less.

The first snow usually falls in early October.