Rant; Winter 2013/14

[jim]

Just got back from the gym and I'm getting really good at driving my bobsled around town.

[AWvsCBsteeeerike3]

We got 3" or so of snow last night and I went to thr gym this a.m. In the 3/4 of a mile bw my house and the gym I saw two wrecks where the owners had just abandoned their cars, 6 abandoned cars that were apparently just left on the side of the road or had gotten stuck, and one accident occur. Then there was an intersection where two cars were stuck. Cray cray.

Oh yeah. And the [expletive] sewer line that the drier discharges to froze up....so all the detergent water backed up into mymud room .

[Joe Shlabotnik]

Hey - it could be worse! It could be 1816 -'The Year Without a Summer'.

In the spring and summer of 1816, a persistent "dry fog" was observed in the northeastern U.S. The fog reddened and dimmed the sunlight, such that sunspots were visible to the naked eye. Neither wind nor rainfall dispersed the "fog". It has been characterized as a stratospheric sulfate aerosol veil.

At higher elevations, where farming was problematic in good years, the cooler climate did not quite support agriculture. In May 1816, frost killed off most crops, on June 4 frosts were reported in Connecticut, and by the following day most of New England was gripped by the cold front. On June 6, snow fell in Albany, New York, and Dennysville, Maine.

Many commented on the phenomenon. Sarah Snell Bryant, of Cummington, Massachusetts, wrote in her diary, “Weather backward.” Samuel Griswold Goodrich said the summer of 1816 in Connecticut was the coldest of the century.

In New York City, the temperature dropped to −26 °F (−32 °C) during the bitter winter of 1816-17. This resulted in a freezing of New York's Upper Bay deep enough for horse-drawn sleighs to be driven across Buttermilk Channel from Brooklyn to Governors Island. At the New Lebanon, New York Church Family of Shakers, Nicholas Bennet wrote in May 1816 that “all was froze” and the hills were "barren like winter." Temperatures went below freezing almost every day in May. The ground froze solid on June 9. On June 12, the Shakers had to replant crops destroyed by the cold. On July 7 it was so cold that everything had stopped growing. The Berkshire Hills had frost again on August 23.

A Massachusetts historian summed up the disaster: "Severe frosts occurred every month; June 7th and 8th snow fell, and it was so cold that crops were cut down, even freezing the roots .... In the early Autumn when corn was in the milk it was so thoroughly frozen that it never ripened and was scarcely worth harvesting. Breadstuffs were scarce and prices high and the poorer class of people were often in straits for want of food. It must be remembered that the granaries of the great west had not then been opened to us by railroad communication, and people were obliged to rely upon their own resources or upon others in their immediate locality."

Farther north, nearly 12 inches (30 cm) of snow was observed in Quebec City in early June, with consequent additional loss of crops—most summer-growing plants have cell walls which rupture even in a mild frost. The result was regional malnutrition, starvation, epidemic,[clarification needed] and increased mortality. In July and August, lake and river ice were observed as far south as Pennsylvania. Rapid, dramatic temperature swings were common, with temperatures sometimes reverting from normal or above-normal summer temperatures as high as 95 °F (35 °C) to near-freezing within hours. The weather was not in itself a hardship for those accustomed to long winters. The real problem lay in the weather's effect on crops and thus on the supply of food and firewood.

[jim]

I don't know what is wrong with me but it has snowed all day today and I actually told my wife at dinner tonight that it was pretty. It really was. We probably got 3-4" and you could just blow it away if you wanted.

[Freed Roger]

From the Chicago Tribune the other day:

Chicago is seeing its fourth straight month dominated by below-normal cold, a pattern that seems locked into place at least through next week.


Temperatures dipped below zero in some western suburbs starting Wednesday night, with wind chills ranging from minus 12 to minus 24. And there’s little prospect that wind chills will creep above zero until sometime Saturday, when yet more snow may hit.



It's possible several inches of snow may fall ahead of still another slug of arctic air expected to ride into Chicago Sunday into early next week.


The extent of this latest cold blast across a wide area of the Lower 48 is stunning, with the arctic air mass carrying sub-freezing temperatures south to the Gulf of Mexico. Advisories for dangerous wind chills were issued overnight across 21 states.


Nothing encourages the spread and expansion of bitterly cold air than a fresh cover of snow -- like the one that covered a large swath of the country Thursday.


Chicago was walloped by its third heaviest snowstorm of the season late Tuesday into Wednesday morning. The storm dumped anywhere from 2.6 inches to as much as 9 inches. That accumulation was part of a storm system responsible for radically increasing the Lower 48’s snow cover.


The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration reported Wednesday that 63.6 percent of the country boasted a snow-pack, the season’s greatest snow cover in more than a month. Chicago has gotten 59.6 inches of snow so far this season, more than six times last year’s 9.2 inches and nearly three times normal. For snow seasons through Feb. 5, this winter is now in third place behind only 1978-79 and 1977-78. And even though there are several more weeks in which snow could be expected to fall, this season has made it to eighth for overall snowfall in Chicago history.


It’s little wonder cold air is on the move again.


But seasonal changes -- including longer days, a higher angle of the sun and an 82 percent increase in solar energy -- are slowly chipping away at the intensity of the daytime chill.

[Freed Roger]

From my brother Jim in lower WI

This winter I have learned that it is never too cold to snow. We have had (including today) 16 snowfalls between 1-3 inches.(Normal winter 8 total) The temprature for these snowfalls have mostly been in the single digits or non teen numbers. We have not had a day over freezing this year. TONIGHT WE WILL PASS THE RECORD NUMBER OF DAYS/NIGHTS WITH BELOW 0 TEMPRATURES. We have more forecast this week, which will shatter the record. We also have had 7 nights with double digit temperatures below zero. A record that is forecast to be passed further this week with a projected -16 below on Monday night. As hard as this is physically , the mental part is just as damaging. Your afraid to say that it can't stay like this, but it does. On a positive note, last night when I drove home from work at 6:00, the sun was still up.

Hanging tough,

Jim

Meanwhile, in STL I see prospects for upper 40s later next week. Days are getting noticeably longer, so something has to give. Right?

[jim]

I don't remember the last time we have had a 30 degree day. They are saying 32 (snow of course) on Thursday. I'll take the 32 even if it means more snow. We have a forecast low of -12 tomorrow, -4 tonight, once we get through that it looks like only 0 on Tuesday and oh [expletive] it who am I kidding the forecast still looks horrible. There is no end in sight, other than the sun being later as freed's brother mentioned. Whoopty freaking doo.

HS baseball is going to suck around here this year. It's going to take forever to melt this crap. There is a good foot plus of snow on the ground everywhere. I don't think I've seen the grass in at least a month.

[Freed Roger]

http://www.whitehouse.gov/photos-and-vi ... -2-minutes

^ says a good chance for more winters like this in years to come.

[jim]

Isn't that a pisser? If the earth is going to warm up, why couldn't we get the warmer weather in the winter and colder in the summer?

[lukethedrifter]

snowing here