Spring, Evidently Unsprung
Posted on March 24, 2013 Posted by John Scalzi 60 Comments
I thought that we were largely over the whole snow thing for the season, but apparently I was wrong. This is what it the outside world looks like at the moment and apparently we’re supposed to get up to nine inches of this stuff by this time tomorrow. I am not pleased about this. On the other hand, I wasn’t planning on going anywhere anyway, and we have sufficient stock of Coke Zero in the house to last for two days. So, fine. Bring it on. I will say this, however. Spring 2013? You’re really disappointing me, son.
I think the damn groundhog should be accountable for this
We’ve had a late return of winter, too. Seattle’s version of winter is milder, though. Mid 30’s and frost on the windshield in the morning.
The grill looks lonely and confused.
“Poor Phil: Groundhog’s false spring prediction brings indictment in Ohio”
http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/ohio-prosecutors-indict-punxsutawney-phil-over-early-spring-forecast-seek-death-penalty/2013/03/22/933f092e-92fc-11e2-8e33-9cc6c739d012_story.html
The UK has also had snow this weekend – basically only a few inches, though with
strong winds it’s drifted to 20 feet or so in places. Personally I blame global warming,
or possibly all these meteors that keep hitting us.
Will
Michael Walsh: Yeah, saw that on my FB feed a coupla days ago. Figured Scalzi’d probably seen it already :-)
Spring is laughing at you derisively.
Beats a drought… At least those a bit further west should be happy.
Springs is delayed because of budgetary deadlocks in Congress.
As a friend of mine so eloquently put it: Persephone saw her shadow this time.
There is traditionally a last gasp blizzard in late March or early April in the area, before spring gets tired of watching winter suckerpunch Ohio. There may be one more large storm before you can truly bid winter Adieu.
@ Michael Walsh
Figures, climate-change-dodging politicians are always looking for a sacrificial mascot to scapehog…or something like that.
Yep – freezing and a few snow flurries near Heathrow Airport this weekend in the UK as well. The strong wind isn’t helping either.
Spring snows are the best. They’re pretty, they’ll be gone fast, and you know that all too soon it’s going to be too damn hot. Nine inches, though–that’s a bit excessive for March.
We got about an inch two days ago. Yesterday it was 65 and sunny, so I spent all day running the power washer. The older I get, the better San Diego looks.
Incidentally…where’s scorpius? I can’t believe he’d pass up a talking point opportunity like this.
Hmm…I’ll just post a snarky pic for him:
http://papundits.files.wordpress.com/2012/02/stop-global-warming.jpg
…and one for myself:
http://apps.startribune.com/blogs/user_images/cartoon_5.jpg
Okay, now things are back to normal.
My ma always says, in reference to her Cleveland-area daffodils: “I’ve cried in April before.”
It’s not Spring’s fault. We’re the ones unweaving the tapestry, as it were. On the other hand, I just spoke with Winter this morning and she’s pissed about doing overtime, calling Spring a no good so and so. Which is damn surprising coming from Winter.
Spring says he never promised you a rose gard…well, maybe he DID, just not YET. It’s only been spring for four days, for crying out loud. It’s a little early to be disappointed…
It’s been snowing up here in NoDak for three days. God is a might angry with all those state legislators fussing about women and their fiendish vaginas.
So then, you’ll be cancelling the BBQ this weekend?
Yesterday saw blowing sand and dust driven by gusts to 45 mph and visibility was down to half a mile, maybe less. Temp was 42F. A truly dry & miserable spring day in Albuquerque. We need the water so badly; I’d jump for joy if that happened here.
San Diego Safari Park or the beach, hmmmm. Although I should really do some yard work. Sunny mid 70’s
Dear March: The “Comes in like a lion” phase has been allowed to go on far too long. The “Go out like a lamb phase needs to commence immediately!
Dear Ohio: I live in Maryland. It looks like you all got the snow we were forecast to get, so thank you, Ohio!
THANKS OBAMA.
Absolutely gorgeous here in the San Fran Bay Area. Yesterday the Bay was full of sailboats; this morning there’s fog out that way so the Bay has vanished.
At the house here outside of Seattle, we hit a big 0 for snow this winter, and 6″ so far in the spring.
Feline master is not amused. Neither are the chickens, who are now on their third day of being cooped up in the coop. Kids loved it for the first day and a half though.
All this on top of the usual spring wetness and there have been landslides blocking roads (trapping tourists!), floods, and new cracks in roads that look suspiciously like impending slope stability issues that I would be really worried about if I were living below them.
In it’s defense, all that other snow was during Winter. This is Spring snow, so technically you are finished with Winter snow.
“You are all still my bitches.”
-Mother Nature
Hey carmen webster buxton … looks like some sort White Death From Above is due late tonight and tomorrow here in Bawlmur …
It’s only March. We haven’t had any of the state basketball tournaments yet, which means there’s at least one blizzard, and at least a foot of snow. It’s delicious outside! (At least here in the Twin Cities, Minnesota.) I’m just back from a shopping expedition, wearing a tee-shirt, fuzzy vest, and gym pants. Yea spring!
Spring ain’t sprung / The grass ain’t riz / Where John Scalzi’s back yard is – Burma Shave
I’m in central Ohio; thanks for the preview! I think.
Right now it is snowing but not yet sticking.
htom: I hate to break this to you, but all the Minnesota basketball tournaments are over. If that tournament blizzard is coming, it’s now officially late.
And here in sunny Arizona, temps are in the low 80’s. I blush with shame at living in comfort, unlike the rest of you.
Oh wait, that’s not a blush. Just the start of a tan.
(You can all laugh at me in a few months, when the temps here reach the hundred-and-teens, and even non-vampires burst into flame when they go out into the mid-day sun.)
Really? Oh! None of the neighbors have kids in high school now, too young or too old. So it since wasn’t a topic of conversation yet, I thought they hadn’t happened yet. Yes, blizzard and snow are late. Now you know how much attention I pay to sports.
I don’t understand why, but Diet Coke tastes SO much better out of a black can. I try to maintain a strategic reserve of Coke Zero, Cherry Coke Zero and Vanilla Coke Zero…you know, because variety is the spice of life.
dude, you’re in the midwest. the midwest can have 70 degree temp swings in a 24 hour period, snow in May, a blizzard in december with 50 degree temps the next day. the greeks say that Hades takes Persophene into the underworld and Demeter’s mourning for the loss of her daughter causes winter. Midwest winter would have Demeter be bipolar mixed with ADHD.
This is par for the course in Indiana — 60F at Christmas, ice storms for Easter. We only have a dusting of snow at the second, but apparently the mothership is about to descend on us momentarily.
Up here in the great white north, we always have one good storm on or around my daughter’s birthday at the end of March. The year she was born, our road had to be snowblown out, it was only one lane wide and I was stuck in a hospital room with no windows and no TV, wondering why I also had no visitors. I was a cranky mommy, until I got to come home and saw the piles of snow that reached the roof of the barn. We don’t generally count ourselves safe from snow here until about the beginning of June, although that doesn’t happen that often. This winter we also had 25 degree celcius changes in temperature between one day and the next. I think Greg is right–we need to get Mother Nature some lithium.
Sure is pretty! I love to look at snow… from afar and/or temporarily.
Weather here in the San Francisco bay area is beautiful too although there is no snow, thank goodness.
In lovely metro Boston, here. I moved up here the date of the latest snow storm in its history, May 1977. Today was sunny, 50°F, with several inches of snow still on the ground. Parkas are no longer mandatory, but if you go to the beach, you’ll probably want one, there was a 40 mph wind blowing down the Merrimac river yesterday. And we’re on the same latitude as Portugal?
Same here in southern Germany, so far spring hasn’t been such a hit!
@carmen webster buxton How is “covered in white fluffy stuff” not going out like a lamb?
I’m envious of the precipitation. In a couple of months, we’ll all have the same voicemail greeting.
“Hi, you’ve reached California. We can’t answer your call right now because we’re in a fire evacuation zone. We’ll return your call as soon as the state is nicely blackened, say, around November.” Let the water allocation battles begin!
I was supposed to plant peas this weekend. Peas! The very first vegetables to go into the ground! But they go in “as soon as soil can be worked” and the soil, alas, is frozen solid.
I’m going to be in California for the next week and a half. By the time I get back, I better be able to plant the damn peas, and hopefully transplant the onions, too.
Seems like most years there’s a quick TV news shot of a Major League Baseball opening day game interrupted with snow/sleet. So until then I’ll call this storm within the limits of expected.
When I lived in the Colorado high country I was snowed on every month of the year.
vis Punx Phil.
A/(The?) Butler county newspaper used the words “tongue firmly in cheek” and?
“Gmoser” apparently /is/ this appointed prosecutor’s surname via a website who’s url
doesn’t work when pasted into a second browser.
Betcha his name is not “Mike Gmoser” but is “Mike G. Moser.”
BTW, when posting an URL always first verify via paste that it works in your primary browser.
Next, verify that it works in the others, especially the one that you’ve set to not save cookies
between sessions.
I don’t recall which browser it is that requires a normal shutdown for it to delete the cookies on
start up.
If, for some reason, that one does not have a normal shut down it will keep all the cookies
and you will not be able easily notice that you’ve, for example, posted an URL to an archived
article that is only available to logged in paying users.
–
Joke: Also, verify that “The Onion” isn’t your source for facts.
I see here everyone has already heard about the lawsuit against Punx Phil… in his defense the indictment charges the groundhog with “purposely, and with prior calculation and design” misrepresenting an early spring.
In Punx Phil’s defense he is but a groundhog, and therefore not purposely doing anything other than eating, sleeping, playing and other groundhog-appropriate activities connected thereunto. Any weather-related failure is solely the result of the misinterpretations of his human handlers and their enablers, the press.
In any case an Ohio prosecutor has no jurisdiction in Pennsylvania, so the case is going to fail on a technicality.
I’m dreaming of a White Easter….
I think we have all the warm weather here in the Antipodes – we’re apparently heading for the warmest March in ten years. Usually I’m loving our crisp early autumn mornings, but not this year. Maybe we can do a swap/heat exchange?
Same here in the Northern Europe. But that’s just the big campaign for The Song of Ice and Fire season 3. After the 1st episode has aired, it will pass (I hope).
…just like the ice age used to know ♫
mother nature forgot to first install the repository
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:spring
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install spring
This is definitely not safe for work, but it does seem related to the topic at hand:
http://www.oglaf.com/snowbound/1/
click on the “next page” link in the upper right to see the conclusion.
Then the dwarves inventd their solution:
http://www.oglaf.com/tool/
Reblogged this on Note To Self and commented:
I was also not expecting to wake up this morning and see snow falling everywhere. Who pissed off the weather gods last night?
As I read somewhere else recently, “We’re having a lovely winter this spring.”
Well, if I might possibly put things in perspective, here in Louisville, there have been times when it has snowed on Derby Day.
http://chillingkoala.com/post/15543