Wishing everyone a safe and happy 2023 holiday weekend and season

[Michael]

I should have posted this sooner but I was delayed. Won't go into details.

We've been watching the storm coverage on various weather networks over the past few days. I've only once or twice seen storms this extensive in my lifetime. I remember being snowed in for a couple of days in Indiana when I was a kid. We couldn't go anywhere until the snow plow came down the highway.

And there was a massive winter storm in 1972-ish, give or take. And another in 1982-ish, give or take, that blankated the southeastern United States and shut everything down in several states.

I got stuck in traffic on my way home in that 82-ish storm. Spent a few hours helping other motorists until suddenly my hands locked up solid cold. I hypothermed because the cloth gloves I was wearing weren't waterproof. People had to pull me out of my car and carry me into a stranger's house, where they warmed me up with water from the kitchen sink in a dish pan.

Quite embarrassing incident, but I was glad it wasn't any worse than that.

A year or two later there was an ice storm. Our university opened its campus and people slipped and fell all over the place. I was one of them. Had no health insurance but my mother was a nurse. I drove down to her office. She took one look at my knee, which had a huge hole in it, and said I'll be right back.

A minute later this gorgeous young nurse walks in and says, "Hi, Michael. Your mom asked me to help you clean up."

She proceeded to scrub my knee and patch it up. I sat there in silence.

After the young nurse left my mom came back in and I said, "That was embarrassing. Why did you do that?"

She replied: "I knew you wouldn't scream if I sent her in to take care of you."

Thanks, mom. I will always cherish that memory.

[Irene]

In 1973 I was in college, they closed the state. We were all in the college dorms. Luckily we had heat and the cafeteria staff stayed over in the cafeteria(s).
I was here in CT for both of those latter storms. Luckily, I was home for both of them.
The 1978 St. Patrick's storm was my fault. I had just purchased all the fabric needed for an applique quilt. The sales woman said: "So now you just need a storm to give you time to make the quilt. The state of CT closed. I remember bringing my X-country skis to the apartment building door, and skiing out into the park. I just checked and I finished that quilt in August of 1978. [The date on the quilt.]
The ice storm was another state closure. We lost power when the tree fell across the street, taking out power lines and a transformer. Luckily I'm on city water, and the phone was/is a direct line which didn't need power. A couple of my neighbors went out to check on the damage. I had lost a huge limb of my maple tree. It fell thick side down, with a knife edge, about 6 inches into the ground.This might have been Dec. 4, 1991
For all of these I was home. Relatively safe. I might have lost power, but not for real long.

All of my friends and readers. Please be safe. Be home, or at least someplace safe before dark on 12/31. Be careful in bad weather. Even rain (I had my rear bumper smashed 3 weeks back), can be unsafe. Put an emergency bag in the auto.
Include some snacks, blanket, radio, cell phone charger (mine is crank operated).

In this world of COVID+Flu, please don't drink and drive. Be safe. Be careful. And hope that the weather doesn't rain or snow, or flood your home. I need all of you.

[Michael]

From what I've seen on TV the past couple of days, I've never gone through anything like a "snow hurricane", which is how they are describing the weather that hit Buffalo, NY.

I know there have been several dozen deaths. I hope that's the end of it.

[Irene]

Sadly, Buffalo is prone to heavy snowfalls. But this seems to have been worse than ever. Remember they got 2 feet 3 weeks back (same storm that was rain in CT). Another two feet, with blinding snow. Well, the cars that were out, just got abandoned, and not even the plows could get by.

I hope they can dig out soon.

[rkomar]

The lake effect snow falls occur when cold air blows over the parts of the great lakes that aren't covered by ice, picking up moisture and dumping it when it gets to land. Unfortunately, with global warming, it is taking longer for the lakes to freeze over, so the time window for these massive snowfalls also gets longer. It seems that these blizzards are just going to get bigger and more frequent.

[Michael]

That's one of the ironies of global warming that confuses people. They think "if the Earth is warming, why are we seeing such damaging winter weather?"

And the answer is actually quite simple. The warming air is moving around more than the older, cooler atmosphere did. So it's disrupting the weather patterns we grew up with and were accustomed to. Of course, it's not like the weather was always like a certain way. It changes constantly as the climate changes, and that process has gone on for billions of years.

Eventually the arctic regions won't be so cold - assuming the Earth gets as warm as it was millions of years ago. And then I guess white winters will become a thing of the past again (and probably of the future as well).

Someday the Earth will warm to a point where it never cools down again. And then there won't be any more snow.

[badlands]

Same here. Merry Christmas and happy new year.

[Boomstick]

Hope everyone had a happy holiday and stayed safe. We got about a foot of snow, maybe a little more, and quite cold temperatures for two or three days. All that snow is gone now, and it was raining and mid 50s today. Crazy.

[Michael]

I think it got up to 70 for us today. I don't usually wear short sleeve shirts in January. And now we're in a tornado watch as I write this. I still hope most people have a good, safe winter season despite all that's going on.

[august]

Yep, shorts on New Year's Day is just one of those " welcome to the south" things, along with miserable sleet on 2/28 and 3/1.

I always explain the global warming thing like this - we're still in a terrible Ice Age, one so bad that fertile Siberia and Canada are always frozen, brown foxes and bears have had to turn white, and the oceans at the foot of the Smokies and Appalachians have receded.

[Michael]

You have a few points there. I don't know if I want the sleet storms again or not.