It Begins
Posted on November 19, 2016 Posted by John Scalzi 35 Comments
The first snow of the season.
Well, first-ish, because it’s only sticking on my deck, and barely even there; the ground is still too warm for it to stick there for any amount of time, not least because it was 70 degrees yesterday around here. And the next ten days don’t have snow weather in them. Even so! It’s the end of the year reminding us that, yes, in fact, cold is coming. Probably. I’d be fine if this was the worst it got, personally.
Winter is coming.
I envy you. It has been snowing here for almost three days straight. Mind you, I am in north-eastern British Columbia.
Heh. Here in Montreal, we’re expecting up to 20 cm (about 8 inches) between Sunday morning and Monday night. This used to be business as usual — indeed, I recall a day in the early 1970s when it snowed so much we couldn’t leave our duplex through the door; instead, I had to step down from the 2nd floor balcony to escape. But what with climate change and all, that much snow is increasingly unusual.
How lovely! I absolutely looove snow
It was an unseasonable 67 degrees yesterday, here in New Jersey. I had a lovely walk, in a T-shirt.
Climate change? I don’t remember this warm this late in the years since 1981, but the memory is iffy.
They say a measurable snow is one which will capture the imprint of a cat’s paw. This one certainly qualifies!
Here in coastal Portland, Maine, we’ll be lucky we see anything but a dusting be gore January as we stay too warm in the late Autumn and early Winter for it to snow much.
Here in South Carolina it is now a chilly 69 Fahrenheit. Mind you, I think we’ll get a bit more snow this winter, just ’cause we’re due. But then we are classified as sub-tropical for reasons. LOL
I hate cold weather because it makes my bones ache. Yet, I can stand at my patio door and watch snow fall all day. It’s peaceful, dulls the sounds my neighbors make, and is fun to watch.
As for this frosting, heh, the long gone peach crops here wouldn’t even have shrugged at it. Just for the heck of it, my county, and our neighbor used to grow way more peaches than the so called peach state of Georgia. Insurance just got too pricey for the farmers here because.. well.. climate stuff. So yes, climate change has already had a toll here for a couple of decades.
Sorry to wander off topic. A week and 1/2 of less than 5 hours sleep per day cycle has made it hard to concentrate. Love you all.
It’s cold this weekend. 50 this morning. I had the air on last night. Texas. Go figure. Really!
Yay snow! As an Aussie who’s about to hit the East Coast in a couple of weeks I am very enthusiastic about any signs that I might finally get me a white Christmas. So far I’m 0/3 on Northern Hemisphere Christmases involving snow and of course standard Christmas weather around here involves sticking your head longingly in the freezer and trying not to melt your shoes when crossing the road.
Still unseasonably warm here in Connecticut, too. I like to have a week or two of overnight freezing to force the flying bugs into submission, but otherwise 55f-60f is fine with me.
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/EmpathicEnvironment
Same thing happened to my friend in WI. 70 degrees on Thursday. Snow today. Weather is wacky.
It has been a warmer year than normal where I am. Still only the occasional light bit of frost. My nasturtiums only got flattened last week. That is pretty rare. They do say it is above freezing, still, at the north pole too. http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/climate-change-north-pole-above-freeze-global-warming-a7424446.html
It’s Snowing!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
RED ALERT!
SHIELDS UP!
Oh, what’s that chief science officer? It’s only a light dusting? . . . in Ohio?
Cancel Red Alert.
Lower Shields.
Sigh . . .
I may have spoken too soon. There’s more than a very light dusting now.
DUN DUN DUNNNNNNNNNN
It’s in the 40s in my part of eastern North Carolina. We had frost, effectively ending what growing season remained, and – according to those who like such things – improving the collard crop.
John, what do you consider a light dusting? Peach farmers here wouldn’t even have considered the above pic as a heavy frost. Upstate South Carolina checking in.
Drizzly and chilly here in the hills overlooking the SFBay. It is indeed winter, on all fronts.
That’s a decent amount of blow you’ve got there, sure, but where are the hookers?
Winter 2014-2015 saw record snowfalls in the Northeast; Boston had a snow pile that didn’t finish melting until July. Winter 2015-2016 saw record warmth. I was doing all-day outdoor work in my tee-shirt throughout January and February. Yay!
On the other hand, I was getting bit by mosquitos in early February; my spring allergies, which for decades have started in late April/early May, started up in the first week of March, and lasted just as late into summer as they usually do. Boo.
Ultimately, as much as I prefer traditional fall/spring temperate conditions, I’d rather a real winter than a global warming winter.
“Snowfall will become “a very rare and exciting event.”
“Children just aren’t going to know what snow is.”
Dr David Viner – Senior scientist, climatic research unit (CRU)”
We’re about to get our first snow and just had our first freezing evening in eastern Minnesota. The weather fits the mood. A couple of weeks ago, my wife received a cancer diagnosis, followed by Trump’s election, and now comes winter.
T.W. Day, so sorry to hear about your wife’s diagnosis. Blessings of strength and healing to her, to you, and to the rest of your family. Cancer sucks.
Central Minnesota here – we got about 4 inches yesterday/overnight. Winter is coming, indeed.
Snow? Isn’t that the stuff you only get on mountains?
Meanwhile, Down Under in Perth, we’re starting to get summer weather arriving. There’s been a couple of days this month so far in the high thirties, and we have a couple more coming next weekend according to the forecast. I wind up spending a lot of time watching my poor unfortunate garden on hot days, because all the plants just get flattened (literally in some cases) by the heat, and I have to make sure they’re going to be able to “bounce back” when they get some shade and a bit of water back again. Time to grab some mulch from the garden shops, I think.
We awoke to find a dusting of snow in sheltered corners and a bitter north wind hurling the final brown leaves across the yard. Spouse and I spent the afternoon teaching a young couple how to bake pumpkin pies from scratch, feeling smug that I put up the outside decorations last weekend when it was in the 50s outside. The mulled cider in the crock pot and the pumpkin custard (made from Farmers’ Market pumpkins) kept the kitchen warm, steamy and fragrant as we rolled pie crust dough and laughed together.
Winter is approaching!! Can’t wait to see snow here in NYC 😬
I knew there was a reason I live in FLA. Went kayaking this morning and the water temp felt like 73. We have one of our three hour cold fronts coming so tomorrow morning will be low 50s. Supposedly 80 by Thanksgiving.
I hope all of you in Thanksgiving country have a good one planned, or at least a situation to build a story around.
We can’t beat Megpie’s 30+. Spring has been sort of meh. Nothing hot and a bit more rain than usual, but the high temperatures (for us) start this week with a few days forecast in the high 20’s.
Instead for the past week our weather has been ground based – earthquakes.
The way our winter is shaping up (mid 50’s Thanksgiving week), we should be hammered sometime in January/February here in CT.
I think we got your “snow” last night. Less than an inch on the ground. Nothing on the driveway.
Also, over the last week and a half, commenters and you have mention stress-related failure to eat. How do you do that? I think I’ve put on three pounds since the election.
We got a fair amount of snow in southwestern Ontario (100 or so km north of the Scalzi compound). Environment Canada has issued a snowsquall watch.
My reaction can best be described by XKCD.
Right now any article with the headline “It Begins” gives me a little anxious shock.
We’ve had our first couple of “summery” days/nights recently in Victoria, Australia, but the weather is still yo-yoing around. Today’s top is 33*C in my hometown and 38*C in Melbourne (capital city), then tomorrow’s top is 17*C (hometown) and 19*C (Melbourne). Personally, I wish the yo-yoing would settle down. A few days of +20*C would be nice. (I just have to remember not to grumble when it *really* heats up in a month or so and we get weeks of 30*C+ days…