Another Hard Winter
The first month of the winter was practically snowless. "Payback" finally came on January 27, when a foot and a half of white stuff fell here. Shoveling was quite arduous, especially in windy, cold weather. Now we're about to be hit again. Tomorrow, groundhog day, may see another foot of snow dumped on us.
It's strange that, despite all the talk of global warming, our winters seem as bad as ever if not worse. Recent years have witnessed some of the worst storms or snow totals recorded. March 1993 saw "the storm of the century." 1996 saw record seasonal accumulation. 2001 had four tough storms. 2003 was bad. January 2011 was horrendous. February 2013 seemed like January 2011 all over again except we got the monthly total in a single night...
Ironically it is claimed that global warming is increasing snowfall, since warmer air can absorb more moisture, which precipitates as snow as well as rain. At a certain point, though, as warming continues, only rain may fall in the wintertime. I can hardly wait for that day.
It's strange that, despite all the talk of global warming, our winters seem as bad as ever if not worse. Recent years have witnessed some of the worst storms or snow totals recorded. March 1993 saw "the storm of the century." 1996 saw record seasonal accumulation. 2001 had four tough storms. 2003 was bad. January 2011 was horrendous. February 2013 seemed like January 2011 all over again except we got the monthly total in a single night...
Ironically it is claimed that global warming is increasing snowfall, since warmer air can absorb more moisture, which precipitates as snow as well as rain. At a certain point, though, as warming continues, only rain may fall in the wintertime. I can hardly wait for that day.
posted by starman at 3:27 AM
17 Comments:
We had some snow in December here in Arkansas, but none in January. However, winter isn't over yet, so Arkansas might get some snow this month. I'm not hoping for it, though.
Neal Robbins
You're lucky to still be getting lots of precipitation of whatever sort; I'm sure you've heard how California is drying up, year after year of drought. I would love to see some snow here in LA (it did snow once in the suburbs at least, in 1949). But I thought snow was welcome wherever it is rare--is snow that common in Arkansas that you get tired of it?
I sure get tired of it here in Connecticut! Yesterday I had to go out and shovel the stuff several times. It's piled very high in the front and in the garden patch. Its depressing enough as it is but the forecast says we'll get more of it in coming days!!?? Temperatures are still cold. I hope we get a compensatory warming trend before long.....
(February 9th) We're now getting hit by another snowstorm! Just great....
86 here in LA Feb. 11, warm and clear weather forecast to last day after day SOOOO borrrring --I hope you do get some of that too--but also it occurred to me that what Neal might have meant when he said he "wasn't hoping for" snow in Arkansas wasn't that he wouldn't like it but just that he didn't think it was likely enough to be worth hoping for
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Maybe I should move to LA! The forecast calls for temps plunging to -6 degrees F, and more snow Sunday and Tuesday....But I'll live I suppose. By March I'll have something more interesting to talk about here. :)
But if you like you can comment on Obama seeking additional war powers.
Progev's assessment is right; my comment about not hoping for snow in Arkansas has to do with my view that it's not worth hoping for. Arkansas is expected to have temperatures in the 20s next week. I will be glad when spring gets here.
Great to see you here again Neal. Recently I got a little electronic weather station. It displays outdoor/indoor temperature, humidity etc, in colorful figures, but relies on an outdoor sensor susceptible to cold. The AA batteries will freeze if temps plunge to -4 degrees F, and they're forecast to go down to -6.
(February 15) I'm battling YET ANOTHER snowstorm....The forecast calls for bitter cold by dawn and...no break in the present weather pattern...
I read Boston had like 60 inches of snow this month and over 8 feet of snow for the season so far--reminds me of the kinds of statistics we used to get about snow storms in the high Sierras--but not since the Great Recession and the great drought seemed to set in about the same time. And I just read today that NYC on this date in 1985 hit 75 degrees--how much that kind of weather would be appreciated now! Except that I saw a picture of downtown Boston with those humongous icicles hanging down across the skyscrapers' facades--seems terrifying, how do you cope with that kind of danger? It seems like if you got a sudden warm spell they'd come crashing down killing people?
PS Tim could I suggest removing the "I am not a robot" feature since your blog didn't seem to be victimized by spam or robots? And sometimes some of those distorted words are so hard to guess at I'm afraid I could get rejected!
Hi Roger. It's not as bad here but bad enough. The depressing thing is, the below-normal cold just won't go away. I don't see any warming trend in the extended forecast, even though spring is only about 3 weeks away....Dunno if I can do anything about the "I'm not a robot" feature.
Yeah, I've been noticing the surprising persistence of your northeastern cold spell, reading the daily weather reports in the paper. So tiresome and after the Revolution my dream is that we'll be able to gain enough control over the weather to break up these monotonies with an occasional storm in Calif or midwinter heat wave in New England, etc.
But again what about those frightening icicles? Do you have any huge ones in your neighborhood?
I'm not surprised that you can't do anything about the anti-robot feature, just afraid that some day I'll spend an hour writing a long response to one of your provocative blogs and it'll all be lost, I'll let you know if that ever happens!
Until a few days ago, there were very big icicles on the south side of the house. They practically blocked the view out the living room windows. Luckily a brief warm spell eliminated most of them. Before then, I had to knock down several.
The latest forecast calls for more snow by Monday.... Maybe not very much but I'm really getting sick of this. Of course if I moved to FL I'd be complaining about oppressive heat and humidity lol.
It's official--this February has been the coldest on record, beating the previous record set in February 1934. But that's of less concern now than the next snowstorm. March is roaring in like a lion.
Yeah, but I'd like Northern FL, Tallahassee and Jacksonville, they have really variable weather in winter, except that it never snows; the Calif gold rush country is nice with occasional heavy snow but usually mild temps in 50s, also coast range peaks about 4-5,000 ft elev. And I just read today that Chicago had its coldest February since 1875, 14.6 deg. Did your latest storm materialize? They had forecast for us to get a storm over the weekend and today but it fizzled.
Actually it fizzled where I was, but many other places in SoCal got hail, water spouts, 3-4" of rain.
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