Winter 2016 in New England

[crfriend]

Well, we're on our way into the thick of it now. We got enough snow over the past few days to really screw the albedo, and now the temperature is falling faster than the Titanic on its way to the bottom.

The view from the French doors in my bedroom:

backyard-winter-s.JPG

showing the general arrangement and my "temporary" GPS antenna that tells me not where I am but, rather, when I am.

Also in the back yard is a "Flying Man" sculpture which, if I reach up and stretch hard enough I can give a proper "high-five" to:

flying-man-1s.JPG

... and the same poor bastard yesterday morning looking like he'd been plastered by a monster snowball:

flying-man-2s.JPG

I need to get a picture looking up from the foot of the driveway, mainly for the folks at work who do not currently believe the tales I tell of it. I'd have done it this morning, but forgot the camera (and the one in my cell' 'phone is dead).

[moonshadow]

Had some snow dumped on us yesterday too. Some pretty cold temps are in the forecast for the remainder of the week.

*brrrrr*

I'm not a big fan of winter. In fact, I'm not a fan of winter at all. I can still recall the sadness that came over me when I started to see those leaves turn last fall... "what summer's almost over already?!?!" So much of it already wasted as I wasn't skirting until late July as it was (well past the solstice)

But that's okay though.... Mays-a-comin. Just a couple more months now, and I'll be able to open the windows, and let that warm breeze blow through the house, only this year, there will be an ample supply of summer skirts just waiting to sway in the airflow.

[john62]

For those of us in Australia, it looks cute but we do not have to live with day after day. We are just hot and humid.

John

[crfriend]

For those of us in Australia, it looks cute but we do not have to live with day after day. We are just hot and humid.

It's a temporary condition; in six months' time I'll be cussing about how hot and humid it is -- save that that doesn't show up so dramatically in photographs. And six months after that I'll be griping about the cold again.

To be honest, I've never dealt with winter terribly well -- and this year, what with the mess from last, isn't easy.

[partlyscot]

Other way round here, we're in the midst of a Chinook week. The winds blow from the SW, and suddenly it's Spring! Winter is not over yet though, this we know.

[r.m.anderson]

For those of us in Australia, it looks cute but we do not have to live with day after day. We are just hot and humid.

It's a temporary condition; in six months' time I'll be cussing about how hot and humid it is -- save that that doesn't show up so dramatically in photographs. And six months after that I'll be griping about the cold again.

To be honest, I've never dealt with winter terribly well -- and this year, what with the mess from last, isn't easy.

CR -

Must be referring to Shakespeare's "Winter of Discontent" !
The medical term is SAD - Seasonal Affective Disorder - being deprived of sunlight and fresh air outdoor recreation potential !

Take two of these and don't call me in the morning !
Never understood what the two was or if it works at all - but I gladly have two strong drinks of anti-freeze* to warm the spirit !
* No not the automobile radiator stuff but the 100 proof Kentucky stuff !

[pelmut]

As always, the weather in Old England is variable. Yesterday was gales, torrential rain and sleet interspersed with sunshine; today was dry bright and sunny. Tomorrow is forecast to be showery, then dry but overcast ...and by the end of the week we can expect sleet again.

BUT - that is only the weather in my little patch. They have had floods a few miles South and snow is expected to cover the northern half of the country by the weekend.

[dillon]

It's beautiful, Carl. It only gets ugly when it is dirty slush and refreezing every night, right? Fear not; the Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away...

[skirtingtheissue]

Well, we're on our way into the thick of it now. We got enough snow over the past few days to really screw the albedo...

Wouldn't that improve, rather than screw, the albedo?

Back in the mid-1970s in college, studying environmental engineering, we talked about climate change and global warming (I don't remember using that term, though). Our consensus was that if the planet warmed, water would evaporate, causing more clouds, which would increase the albedo, cooling the Earth. Oh well, that isn't happening!

-----Henry

[crfriend]

Well, we're on our way into the thick of it now. We got enough snow over the past few days to really screw the albedo...

Wouldn't that improve, rather than screw, the albedo?

In this case I was referring to the fact that with snow on the ground more solar radiation gets reflected back into space than does anything to warm the ground. The net result is colder temperatures locally until a warm air mass from elsewhere can come in and melt the stuff or the sun can get high enough in the sky to do the job.

Back in the mid-1970s in college, studying environmental engineering, we talked about climate change and global warming (I don't remember using that term, though). Our consensus was that if the planet warmed, water would evaporate, causing more clouds, which would increase the albedo, cooling the Earth. Oh well, that isn't happening!

That's a double-edged sword. Recall that the really cold nights are the crystal clear ones that are great for stargazing; the heat still near the ground radiated out into space. With a cloud layer, that's not as prevalent as the clouds act as a blanket.

Also, on clouds and albedo, take a look at Venus... (Although Venus' atmospheric makeup is very different from that of Earth's.)

[dillon]

Snow actually insulates geothermal heat escaping from the soil, not to mention biological heat. We in ag are cognizant of its benefits to the soil microbial ecology.

[crfriend]

Snow actually insulates geothermal heat escaping from the soil, not to mention biological heat. We in ag are cognizant of its benefits to the soil microbial ecology.

Oh, yes, snow is a fairly good insulator; the side effect of it, though, is that while it keeps heat in the soil (a good thing) it also reflects infra-red radiation away which is a bad thing if you don't happen to like cold temperatures at ground level.

I just happen to hate being cold.

[Kirbstone]

Today we boated in an Eight at 08.00 hours for our regular Sunday training row. Wonder of wonders, there was no gale or storm blowing, but it was cold (3-4 deg.C.) Something like a half an hour into the outing a sleet/hail squall raced at us out of the North East (I still blame the Scots!) and we had almost a white-out for a good 20 minutes, during which we plodded bravely on. The squall blew away as quickly as it arrived, leaving us to finish our outing in calm and low slanting sunshine....still blxxdy cold.

Showering afterwards, my hands hurt like I'd been out snowballing. Like Carl, I HATE getting cold....and wet!

Tom

[crfriend]

Well the temperature finally bottomed out yesterday morning in my neck of the woods, setting a record at -16 (F) (at the local aerodrome) that beat the prior one by 5 degrees -- 35 degrees below the normal low of 19. The warmest it got was 7 and the average for the day was -4, 31 degrees below the normal of 27.

In at least one spot on my drive in to work this morning the thermometer in my car registered a -13.

Did I mention I hate being cold? (At least I wasn't wet as well; that'll happen tonight and tomorrow, although tomorrow it's supposed to get up to 55 degrees. Ruddy queer weather.)

[moonshadow]

Did I mention I hate being cold?

Isn't that like blaspheme is New England?

Or maybe that's just in Minnesnowta.