system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
[ASoIaF]Does Essos experience long winters in the same way as Westeros does?
gpt
I would say no, mainly based on descriptions of Braavos. The city is the furthest north of any of the free cities, and roughly parallel to The Neck connecting the North and the South. Yet there is no mention of any extreme cold in Braavos, and the city's lifeblood is commerce, which would not be possible if their shallow lagoons froze. Accounts from a certain girl in the area mention only rain and fog and mist while at the same time the North is inundated by blizzards. 

It may be that the Others beyond the wall are responsible for the cold and darkness that comes with the long winter. It could also be that they are sheltered by warm waters coming up from near Dorne, similar to how Scotland is protected by the warm waters coming from the Gulf of Mexico on Earth.