Tag Archives: Weather

Florida Next Winter

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Note: This post was first published Jan. 8, 2015 on one of my experimental blogs. Now it’s December 2015. The year has come and gone, and a new winter will begin Dec. 21. And I’m not in Florida yet. My excuse is that major life decisions take time. I’m working  on it. 

Baby, it’s cold outside!

Tuesday, we had snow and 26 degrees. Wednesday, it was 17 degrees in late afternoon, and down to 12 degrees by the time I got home from work, around 9:30 p.m. I live in the Mid-Atlantic states. The climate here is supposed to be relatively moderate.

Except when it’s not. Tonight, it’s cold as a witch’s tit.

The heater in my 216-square-foot apartment runs constantly all night. It can’t raise the temperature inside high enough to cut off.

Is it any wonder that every year about this time, my thoughts turn to Florida? I’ve only been there once. I flew into the Tampa airport to help rescue my brother (he was very ill) and drive him back to Maryland. I have very little direct experience of Florida, but I know a lot about it second-hand. (Update: Took a two-week road trip to Florida in June 2015 to research housing options. So I’ve made a little progress.) Continue reading →

Extreme Arctic Cold, Year Two

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Last year, the Big Chill hit us in January. This year it waited until February. And in New England, the snow is higher than a basketball player.

Dangerously freezing temperatures! You can blame it on the “arctic vortex.” We’ve got winter weather deja vu.

It’s past time for the thermal underwear and wool blankets. Bring the dogs and cats inside. Throw another log on the fire.

Electric heat pumps, which many people rely on in Maryland, don’t work so well in this kind of weather. On winter nights like this, what you need is a good supply of firewood, and an oil-fired furnace. Or natural gas. Anything but a heat pump!

Are we going for a record low tonight? Or is that tomorrow night? Wednesday night, Thursday night, Friday night. In the far north and Midwest, unreal temperatures, like 20 degrees below zero. Single-digit temperatures in the border states, like Kentucky, Tennessee, Maryland.

Here in the Washington, D.C. area, pick a positive number between zero and 10. The wind chill makes it feel like 5 or 10 degrees below. Frigid temperatures deep into the Southeast, with freeze warnings almost to Miami.

Last year, I wrote:

This kind of cold is worse than normal, even in New England. Here in Maryland, it’s almost a once-in-a-lifetime thing.”

Seriously. You could look it up.  Except it’s not once-in-a-lifetime. Is this going to be the new normal?

Hold on a little while longer. Wednesday was Ash Wednesday. It’s Lent, already! Whether you’re religious or not, the mathematics are the same. Less than 40 days until Easter. Spring is in sight.

— John Hayden

 

The Winter of ’14 And The Promise Of Spring

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I talked with my uncle in Rhode Island this afternoon. It was snowing there, of course. Maybe it’s the same snow we had in Maryland yesterday. It shows signs of letting up. Today’s snow in RI., that is. Not the winter of 2014.

My uncle assures me that this is the coldest winter in his 85 years. And it ain’t over yet. When the snow stops, he’s planning to go out and shovel his steps.

He can’t drive just now. There’s good news and bad news from the retina specialist. The fluid in one eye has gone away, after five shots over nearly a year’s time. The shots cost $1,500 a pop. Thank goodness for his health insurance plan, which pays all but a $40 copay.

Meanwhile, vision in the other eye is not so good. It’s three years since he’s had new glasses. So the specialist sends him back to the regular eye doc. Maybe new lenses will improve his vision enough  to make him legal to drive. Fortunately, a cousin lives just across the state line in Massachusetts and takes my uncle to the grocery store every week and the laundromat every two weeks.

The coming attraction is winter storm Titan. Look for it Sunday or Monday. Possible heavy snow,  not to mention ice.  How can we have reached the letter “T” in storms? What happens when we run out of letters? What if winter never ends? Let’s hope we never reach “T” during hurricane season.

Let’s wrap this report up neatly on a positive note. Only two days remaining in February. March arrives Saturday. I can hardly believe it, but my calendar claims that daylight saving time begins March 9. More amazing still, Spring is scheduled for March 20, a few days after St. Patrick’s Day.

Nothing can stop Spring. Not freezing temperatures, not snow. In case of a blizzard, school might be closed that week, but Spring can never be canceled.

I look forward to driving north to see my uncle, but not until the last snowflake falls.

— John Hayden

You Know This Winter Is Getting Old

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JUXTAPOSITION:   The East Coast is taking a snow day on Thursday. Also, baseball pitchers and catchers are reporting for Spring training in Florida and Arizona, unless their flight is cancelled.

Parts of the South were sheathed in ice on Wednesday. By the weekend, all the ice in Georgia will melt to water.

Schoolchildren enjoy a season of days off and sleeping in. Many schools will make up the lost time in June.

I hope the school buildings have heat to get through the rest of February and March — and air conditioning to get through June. — John

Winter Weather Fatigue

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Talked to my 85-year-old uncle in Rhode Island on Sunday:

“This is the worst winter I’ve ever seen, and I’ve seen a lot of winters.”

He didn’t even mention the word “snow.” The snow in New England hasn’t been unusual. He talked about the cold. Continue reading →

Winter Storms Put A Curse On Tuesdays

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Someone has put a curse on Tuesdays.

This week, we had Winter Storm Leon attacking the South on Tuesday. Last week, it was Winter Storm Janus on Tuesday, attacking the MidAtlantic and Northeast. Both storms included extreme cold temps, snow and wind, a concoction of conditions that combine to create weather ranging from miserable to dangerous. Continue reading →

A Dose Of Dystopia In Atlanta

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The scene in Atlanta last night and today is worth talking about.

Thousands of children stranded overnight in schools. Or worse, stranded for hours on schoolbuses!

Thousands of adults (and children too) stranded for hours, or all night, in traffic that’s frozen in place on icy highways. No food, no restrooms. When the car runs out of gas, no heat. Thousands sleeping in any big-box store or impromptu shelter that will open the doors.

It’s chaos. Now, imagine such conditions continue for a few days. A few weeks? I suppose that’s what the early days of Dystopia will look like.

The temperature will rise in Atlanta in a day or two, and the ice will melt. The chaos will be short-lived, not much harm done, hopefully. A  week from now, Atlantans will look back on it as a great adventure. A generation from now, it will be legendary. Grandparents will tell grandchildren about it. The grandchildren will think the old folks are exaggerating.

Atlanta last night and today is a wakeup call, a teachable moment.

Millions of people are always skating on the edge of chaos in our complex, interconnected metropolitan areas. We depend on responsible governments and private organizations to maintain function and order. All it takes is one or two wrong decisions (no need to salt the streets. no need to close the schools), one technical breakdown, one storm, one neglectful agency or public official, and  . . . chaos.

How many weeks of chaos would it take before . . . Dystopia?

— John Hayden

Winter Storm Leon, Way Down South In Dixie

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UPDATE — 2:15p.m. Tuesday — UPDATE

An INCH or less of snow already covering the highways around Atlanta. That part of Georgia is spinning its wheels in bumper-to-bumper traffic, verging on total gridlock in below freezing temps. Waiting for the freezing rain along the South Carolina coast. So it goes. Here in Maryland, in the suburbs north of Washington, we had such a modest goal for today. 20 degrees. Is that too much to ask? Nope, not going to see 20 today. But Maryland might see snow flurries tonite.

END UPDATE

What did we do to make Canada mad at US?

Picking up where we left off last week, we have another Alberta Clipper attacking from the north. Last Tuesday and Wednesday, Winter Storm Janus thrashed the MidAtlantic and New England.

This week it’s Winter Storm Leon, and he’s planning to march through the South. It might be the worst disaster to hit Georgia since Gen. Sherman’s March to the Sea in 1864.

Continue reading →

Snow Photos From Winter Storm Janus

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biking in snow

Light traffic, late afternoon of Winter Storm Janus. One car and one bicycle.

snowplows

And snowplows, lots of snowplows.

DIFFICULT TO IDENTIFY MY OWN CAR, UNDERNEATH THE SNOW
HA! I’M NO FOOL. I’M HAPPY INSIDE. WAKE ME UP IN THE SPRING
SNOW — DO YOU REALLY WANT TO DRIVE IN WEATHER LIKE THIS?
ICY, UNDER THAT NICE, WHITE SNOW
WIPERS UP SO THEY WON’T FREEZE TO WINDSHIELD
HOW DEEP? ANKLE DEEP, OR MORE. (John Hayden photo)
LIGHTS ON, NOBODY’S HOME. McDONALD’S CLOSED, LATE AFTERNOON OF WINTER STORM JANUS
SNOWSCAPE, WINTER STORM JANUS
ABSTRACT ART, TIRE TRACKS IN SNOW
SLUSH VARIES, LANE TO LANE, CLOPPER ROAD, GAITHERSBURG
PARKING LOT, LATE AFTERNOON, WINTER STORM JANUS
DREAMING ABOUT FOUR-WHEEL DRIVE IN WINTER. (John Hayden photo)

All photos between 4 and 5 p.m. in Gaithersburg, MD, Tuesday, Jan. 21, Winter Storm Janus. Photos by John Hayden

Extreme Arctic Cold, Going Into The Third Night

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Thursday, Jan. 23, 2014, third day and night in a row of frigid Canadian temperatures, from the MidAtlantic to New England. And of course worse in the Midwest. Minnesota seems to be the coldest place on Earth, or at least in the U.S. Why do people live there? Don’t they know America is a free country? No passport required to cross state lines.

Continue reading →