Weird winter weather

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Our weather has been really strange this year - lots and lots of rain, both in season and out. We've had a couple of snows (one just the other night) but none that have stayed around for any length of time. The temps have really been fluctuating - near 60* one day, down in the single digits by the middle of the week. Today, I drove home from work in a thunderstorm - not your typical January weather! - and by Friday, the temp is supposed to be down to 2*. Strange!! Altho, I do remember being out in a rainstorm last January, catching water in a big tub under one of the downspouts to replenish my rain water supply, so maybe this isn't as strange as I think it is? How about y'all? Has your weather seemed strange to you? What are your predictions for what's to come in the rest of the winter? Old Farmer's Almanac says that we're in for it come February and March - sure glad I've got vacation days scheduled during that time!

-- Anonymous, January 11, 2005

Answers

Freaking cold out here and snow. NOT our regular pattern. This morning it was in the teens. More snow predicted for tonight. Predicting more of same for a week or so.

The stock troughs and pond are frozen...going through the hay and grains like gangbustas. Gee, if I thought I was going to live like in Green Bay, I woulda tried to pay more attention to football....

-- Anonymous, January 12, 2005


Weird here too; been weird for quite some time. Mostly warmer than normal by far, and the Cities has gotten very little snow, although they have it north and south of us. First time in recorded history there has been not one single snowfall over an inch by this date.

Freezing rain again today......super yuck; I'm so glad we dont have to make that commute anymore. Bren fell on the back stoop Monday and bruised her bum; coulda been a lot worse. It's very mild for January, but tonight the temps go down in the deep freeze where they belong and its supposed to stay below zero for HIGHS the rest of the week.

-- Anonymous, January 12, 2005


Hey, we keep cutting down the rainforests, polluting the air, letting off nucluer bombs underground, dumping chemicals, what else? You don't think the mother isn't going to start fighting back?

I saw pictures of the North Pole that showed ice in 1993 and 2003. Alot smaller now. Maybe if I move to the middle of Florida, in a few years it may be an oceanfront.

-- Anonymous, January 12, 2005


Blah, I just posted a long answer on the who's still here thread, if you want to read it go here: http://www.greenspun.com/bboard/q-and-a- fetch-msg.tcl?msg_id=00CfNh Basically similar to Polly's and EM's, except we've had more snow than EM and less rain than Polly.

Just recently, I rented The Day After Tomorrow (never did go while it was in the theaters). I actually enjoyed the schlocky thing, even though I was laughing in derision frequently at all the coincidences, and how so many of the "freezing" people sat around without adequate hats or other headcoverings. And didn't look miserable about it. But, I felt badly that they took so many liberties with science for dramatic effect. Trivializes the very real climate changes.

Especially the part about desalinization of the oceans. That's very real and likely to be lost in the "action adventure movie" dismissal. Quick recap if you aren't familiar with this: As the glaciers melt, the oceans become less salty, which alters the flow of currents which actually keep our climate as warm as it has been for so very long (i.e., non-Ice Age). These changes, after a certain point, WOULD trigger another ice age. Just not one that showed up in a week's time, as in the movie. Of course, it is much more complicated a process than that, but I think that tells you what you need to know.

I guess if you're sitting pretty now, getting rich for YOUR lifetime, maybe you don't care. But I DO care about whether there is a habitable world left for humans in the future. I wish more humans would be able to actually mature and have concern for something and someone beyond themselves. The world seems to be made up of spoiled selfish children.

-- Anonymous, January 13, 2005


This morning it was 60 degrees, now around 14 hours later it's 25 degrees and snowing. Is that weird enough for you?

-- Anonymous, January 13, 2005


Last week it was in the teens at night. Last night at 7 p.m. it was almost 60 degrees. It's raining again, and we are expecting all the snow from last week to melt and flood everywhere. We're on a high hill, but I am concerned about the folks in the valleys again.

-- Anonymous, January 18, 2005

The large recreational/flood control lake behind us is 24 feet over normal pool right now; the second highest it's ever been. It's currently covering 19,800 acres. The highest was back when I was 15 years old; at 26 feet over normal pool. Several pavilions are under water and several recreation areas have been closed. Boaters are being warned that there may not be enough passage areas under bridges.

Funny, it was more fun when I was 15, paddling a rubber raft out to sunbathe on top of the pavilions. Now I worry about fish habitat and beaver dams being drowned out. Sucks to get old, I guess! It's been too cold the past few days to walk back to the lake and look to see how high the water is back there. Maybe if it warms up later in the week...

We got snow Saturday night/Sunday morning; and of course, our roads out here in the country hadn't been plowed, so I plowed them with my Neon. Packed snow up around the engine good, but I didn't lose my alternator 'til I was on our road, so I made it in without difficulty, albeit without lights or heater! I'm not about to spend the money, or have the guilt r/t driving a 4WD that I need maybe a dozen times in a bad year; that seems to be what the current road commisioner thinks we should all do. Hrummpphhh!

-- Anonymous, January 18, 2005


The intrepid Polly and her Neon! I can just see you (although it's funny, because I don't really know what you look like!) gripping the wheel and setting your jaw to plow through all that snow!

It's going to be record breaker here today: over 60 degrees. Rivers are flooding in about 5 counties and many of the ski areas (which opened really late because of not enough snow) are closed again because of rain and poor and low snow totals.

The world is changing...I can feel it change....

-- Anonymous, January 19, 2005


It IS funny picturing Polly plowing snow in her little Neon! I did some snowplowing myself this morning; we finally got all that snow we've been missing at once! It's purty outside, but it took the three of us a couple of hours to shovel all the walks, since we are on a corner. I've got a guy doing Betsy......it's mostly parking lot and he hits most of the sidewalk with his plow so he doesnt have much handwork to do. He is a happy but tired camper today, been plowing since 3 yesterday afternoon when I talked to him at noon today. My little Honda SUV made it to the building just fine this morning, steering around lots of stuck vehicles who will be towed cuz they're in the way of the plows. It'll cost those poor folks 150 bucks to retrive their cars. The city fines businesses 2 bucks per linear foot if you dont shovel your walks within 4 hrs after snow stops; dont know what the fine is for residents. The city is out for fines bigtime this year cuz they are so strapped for cash thanks to the 'no new taxes' creepy governor who could care less if it doesnt affect him in his suburban hideaway. Anyhow, I reckon this storm is headed your way iffen you're east of me. Have fun!

We have to pay close attention the "snow emergency" rules: last night no parking on all "snow emergency" streets, today no parking on even sides of the streets, but you can park on snow emergency streets, and tomorrow no parking on odd sides,except you can ignore the rules after they have plowed your block! We put our cars in the garage anyway and parked Ali's in the driveway, to avoid possible tows from not being able to keep the rules straight. Got our exercise today; was actually kind of enjoyable and invigorating since the sun is shinin on all the new snow.

-- Anonymous, January 22, 2005


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