Weather

[lizkat]

OK so it was 25ºF last night (Thurs) before midnight but the temperature was dropping like a stone. I think that groundhog didn't bother coming out to brag about shadows or early spring, he just knew to stay curled up for at least the weekend...

And so now it's 2pm Friday and air temp is still steadily dropping, we're down to -1ºF already and heading towards -12º by midnight. I will blame my nephew's huskies' wish-list for this weather.

Those huskies will be pleased, because even though I always think of zero as being the point below which "it's too cold to snow!", the truth is that's BS, and so we're also going to have a little more fluffy stuff added to the mix here. The pups will love it and their owner is certainly welcome to his half-hour chore of getting dressed well enough to accompany those dogs for their joyous celebration of weather worthy of their fondest dreams.

The wind chill is already -17ºF so the snowflakes will be tiny and sharp like needles if one has to go outside... which I wouldn't be doing on a day like today, not even if someone left a pound of bacon on the back porch for me. Even the coyotes hunker down in this weather, so that bacon would sit there until tomorrow night when this winter's strangely persistent "heat wave" from points south will have found us again, and sent the air temp back up to a toasty 15 above zero. We're supposed to see 40ºF by Tuesday.

 

[Nycturne]

I'll be honest, this makes me glad our "too freaking cold" days are usually above 20F.

Even the coyotes hunker down in this weather, so that bacon would sit there until tomorrow night

And still quite edible too. I can't quite comprehend outdoor temps low enough that you don't need a freezer.

 

[lizkat]

I'll be honest, this makes me glad our "too freaking cold" days are usually above 20F.

My only problem with the forecasts is that they're a little on the high side in winter due to altitude here and the particular terrain (hillcrest on an east-west view and halfway down a valley in the north-south view). The snowfall forecasts are off a little too. When they say an inch or two, it's two or three that we get. When they say 10 below zero, it's more like -18.

I'm not really perturbed by that difference so much now though. In the mid-1980s we often got winter temperatures that did run to -25ºF pretty often, and that almost never happens any more. I like winter but at 25 below zero my usual assertion that "once it's below ten below it's just cold" sorta falls away in pure awe at what happens when it gets to the 20-something below zero. Licking an ice cream cone once when exiting a store, the stuff turned to texture of granite and my tongue almost stuck to it. You could lay the thing on the dashboard while starting the car, no problem, the ice cream cone was as inert an object as a flashlight or a toy truck.

 

[Herdfan]

My only problem with the forecasts is that they're a little on the high side in winter due to altitude here and the particular terrain (hillcrest on an east-west view and halfway down a valley in the north-south view). The snowfall forecasts are off a little too. When they say an inch or two, it's two or three that we get. When they say 10 below zero, it's more like -18.

Do you know which model they use? I know the US model (GFS) has a tendency to "not see" snow covered ground and use that data in its forecast. So it will predict higher temps that what will actually happen.

 

[Yoused]

I'll be honest, this makes me glad our "too freaking cold" days are usually above 20F.

I was in Wisconsin one time in a January when it got down really close to zero. It felt pretty darn cold. And yet, here in the PNW, we get there days where the damp in a 35°F day just reaches into the core of your being and drains the life out of you. Deep, bitter sub-zero weather has nothing on the NW murder mist.

 

[Alli]

I couldn’t live in the cold these days. I’m so over it. We’re crying that it’s freezing here and it’s only 47 degrees. I remember 47 in high school (in upstate NY) and not even wearing a coat. Gadz.

 

[Herdfan]

I couldn’t live in the cold these days. I’m so over it. We’re crying that it’s freezing here and it’s only 47 degrees. I remember 47 in high school (in upstate NY) and not even wearing a coat. Gadz.

How about the humidity?

I think we are bailing to AZ to escape the humidity more than the cold.

 

[Nycturne]

I was in Wisconsin one time in a January when it got down really close to zero. It felt pretty darn cold. And yet, here in the PNW, we get there days where the damp in a 35°F day just reaches into the core of your being and drains the life out of you. Deep, bitter sub-zero weather has nothing on the NW murder mist.

That is the down side of having your wet season in the winter. Perhaps I’m just used to it after living here for 30 years.

 

[Yoused]

How about the humidity?

I think we are bailing to AZ to escape the humidity more than the cold.

We have been in Arizona in the summer. It does get brutally hot some days. I remember 108°F in Phoenix, most of which we spent in an air-conditioned hotel room, but when you have to go out into it, the heat is just about as oppressive as 95 in high humidity. Of course, it you can adapt to the heat without relying too heavily on A/C, it might not be too bad, but you would have to be able to stay hydrated. Summer tends to be monsoon season down there, but it is also haboob season. If you have not been in a haboob, well, you probably do not want to be in one.

Probably the most tolerable area is up around Show-Low, where there is lots of forest. But they also do get snow up there in the winter. Personally, if I had the means, my retirement home would be in New Mexico, but it might be too "liberal" for you there.

 

[Herdfan]

We have been in Arizona in the summer. It does get brutally hot some days. I remember 108°F in Phoenix, most of which we spent in an air-conditioned hotel room, but when you have to go out into it, the heat is just about as oppressive as 95 in high humidity. Of course, it you can adapt to the heat without relying too heavily on A/C, it might not be too bad, but you would have to be able to stay hydrated. Summer tends to be monsoon season down there, but it is also haboob season. If you have not been in a haboob, well, you probably do not want to be in one.

Probably the most tolerable area is up around Show-Low, where there is lots of forest. But they also do get snow up there in the winter. Personally, if I had the means, my retirement home would be in New Mexico, but it might be too "liberal" for you there.

My very first trip to AZ was in August. Landed in Phoenix at 8pm and it was still 110 degrees. That was hot. The rest of the week was around 100 and not too bad. Stand in the sun and your hot, move to the shade and you are not as hot.

But that's in the valley. Our new house is at around 3,600' elevation, so summer temps top out in the 90's, same as here. Except the humidity might get up to 30-40% during monsoon season vs. 70-80% here all summer. Definitely have to stay hydrated with Smart Water or similar. We have been out there in every season, except haboob season. Have heard about them and fortunately have never experienced on.

I know a guy on a SXS forum who lives over by Show-Low. He promises to show me all the good riding trails over on that side of the state.

As for NM being too liberal, it really wouldn't bother me. Hell, for the first 40+ years here it was very liberal as well. It's just we have no ties to NM like we do AZ.

 

[lizkat]

Do you know which model they use? I know the US model (GFS) has a tendency to "not see" snow covered ground and use that data in its forecast. So it will predict higher temps that what will actually happen.

I think they blend it. Here I think the difference is just the particular terrain combo and prevailing wind.

But... I've noticed this year the NWS and whatever the iPhone Weather app now uses are closer to the mark than before, and the one big difference is that the wind is so much more often now from the south or southwest this winter than I can ever remember it having persisted before throughout a winter.

Right now for instance that North Pole gig has finished going through here, sticking us with -14º as a low in the overnight. But the wind shifted back to southerly then and so it got up to about zero at 11am despite cloud cover. It has stayed cloudy all day (another huge effect of the southerly winds this winter whereas we usually get lot of sun in Jan and Feb) and the temp has kept climbing and is still climbing even as nightfall comes on.

Right now it's 11ºF by my own observation AND the Weather app...and it's supposed to land at 16º by midnight and still keep going up, hitting 25º by midnight and 40º (!) by 2pm tomorrow. None of that is usual, but it's also become a weird new norm for this particular winter. It drives me nuts though, I am really not used to seeing temperatures climb through the night,especially not zoom up from subzero to 40 above zero in like 18 hours.

I can only hope this doesn't persist through summer. I can shed a few layers of clothes in winter when it turns out not to be an arctic sorta day, but when ya get down to a T-shirt in July and it's 70º and climbing, the natural open-window kind of air conditioning does not work!

 

[lizkat]

I was in Wisconsin one time in a January when it got down really close to zero. It felt pretty darn cold. And yet, here in the PNW, we get there days where the damp in a 35°F day just reaches into the core of your being and drains the life out of you. Deep, bitter sub-zero weather has nothing on the NW murder mist.

I"ll take 14 below zero in the western foothills of the Catskills any time over 30 in NYC where you're walking home from the train facing either the Hudson or East River. That wind off a river in winter is truly brutal.

Speaking of that... a pal in the city said her co-op decided to get window replacements done again and elected to do it now. Yeah, because cheaper I guess. Yeah but right now during this last weather system? Gee.. It was 8º in NYC last night. Talk about a room with a view and fresh air. I'd be locked in the bathroom with a space heater on full blast.

​

 

[Alli]

How about the humidity?

Humidity is the worst! It just allows everything (hot or cold) direct access to your bones.

 

[Herdfan]

Humidity is the worst! It just allows everything (hot or cold) direct access to your bones.

I just remember Savannah had humidity, but there was always a gentle breeze that kept it from being too bad.

 

[lizkat]

I just remember Savannah had humidity, but there was always a gentle breeze that kept it from being too bad.

Humidity can be ugly no matter when it's hot or cold, but it's true that its ill effects in hot weather are at least mitigated by a breeze. When it's cold, though... and the winds are gusty, ugh! That "breeze" up on Mt. Washington in New Hampshire this weekend put the wind chill at an historical record of -108ºF...

Up in Maine there were also reports of "frostquakes" which can be pretty disconcerting...

 

[Renzatic]

TORNADO WATCH! THE SEASON OF FEAR HAS BEGUN!

 

[lizkat]

TORNADO WATCH! THE SEASON OF FEAR HAS BEGUN!

We have some extra snow if you'd rather have that... whatever got dumped on California did not exhaust the weather gods' supply of the fluffy white stuff. We have seven inches of snowfall in the last five hours and there seems to be no off button in sight before tomorrow afternoon. Ugh, and it's not that cold out either, so it will all turn to slush and then freeze up at the ends of our driveways when the weather does turn cold again.

I still hope your tornado watch faded away without turning into a warning or a fast tracked trip to Kansas.

 

[Renzatic]

I still hope your tornado watch faded away without turning into a warning or a fast tracked trip to Kansas.

It had puffed itself out to a lull when it got over me, only to pick up steam again, and hammer South Carolina. Now everything's all green and Springy out.

 

[Alli]

TORNADO WATCH! THE SEASON OF FEAR HAS BEGUN!

You have a season for them??? They don’t just randomly show up during any month?

 

[Roller]

You have a season for them??? They don’t just randomly show up during any month?

It varies, but in the south, peak tornado season is usually March to June. But they can and do occur in other months, especially November to December.