Winter blues

[icepixie]

According to this, the 2009-1010 winter is going to look like the winter of 2002-2003.

That was the worst winter in sixty years up in Ohio, or so I heard. We got something like two feet of snow in December, and it hung around until March. (It was my freshman year, and the first time I'd seen snow that didn't fall, look pretty, and then go away. I thought I was going to go insane from the lack of resolution.) Kenyon declared its first snow day in, what was it, twenty years or something incredible like that? Even my parents back in Nashville got eight inches or something outrageous for Tennessee one time that year.

Knoxville is also right smack in the middle of the bubble labeled "well below average" on the temperature forecast. Craaaaaaap.

Horrified, I hunted around online for contradictory reports, but...there aren't any. In fact, several of them add in predictions for record-breaking ice storms. Ohhhh, this is gonna suck. Definitely time to move south.

I'm counting on the general wisdom that forecasting at that long of a range is a complete crapshoot and hoping for a warm, dry winter. Still, note to self: schedule office and journal hours for afternoons next semester. Give those few plows we have some time to work.

Comments

[thiswaltz.livejournal.com]

well, I've heard and seen the same predictions for this winter. I live in the pacific northewest where they say we're going to have a 'warmer & drier' winter. So far it has been colder that usual for the season, and about the normal ammount wet. So we'll just have to see how it pans out. I guess.

[mrv3000.livejournal.com]

EEP! I don't envy you. :(

Although I do like the looks of the rain level for So. Cal. this winter. We desperately need rain.

[bessemerprocess.livejournal.com]

whimpers... in 06-07 we got 100 inches of snow... This winter is going to be worse?

[amphetamine-47.livejournal.com]

Wow, I think that was the first year in 100 years that we had snow in South Texas...

[alto2.livejournal.com]

I'm not so sure that long-range forecasting is a complete crapshoot. Sure, they may not be able to tell you what the weather will be like on January 3, but they can certainly tell you what the overall trend is, which is what you're hearing.

I've been hearing that we're in for a very cold winter ever since the spring was so cold and wet. And considering that the weather we're having in New Jersey right now could very easily be confused with the weather here in December, I'm putting my money on them being right.

[rensong.livejournal.com]

As someone who is paid to study climate and stuff... Yeah, I gotta agree; we are in for a looooong, cold winter, and I kind of think that these last few years (in Wisconsin this has meant lots of snow and at least two or three weeks worth of temps where the temperature doesn't get above 0 degrees F) are just the beginning of the long-term trend.

Of course, we are also the weathermen (kinda), and I would not at all mind in the least if Ma Nature proved me wrong.

[rensong.livejournal.com]

Though, hey, now that I actually look at the link, Wisconsin is "Not as cold and snowy" for once. If that happens, I will not protest.

Of course, considering it's *Wisconsin*, "Not as cold and snowy" might still mean an awful lot of cold and snow, just not as much as the last year or two. Which was *a lot*.

[sleepingcbw.livejournal.com]

Ahhhh, I remember that winter. That was the year the MUN team got stuck in a blizzard in Boston and Kenyon wouldn't let us drive home!

My winter's supposed to be warm. I'd trade you.

[sleepingcbw.livejournal.com]

Also: even though I've lived here for more than a year now, every time I look at a map I'm still astonished by how far north I really am. Eeeeep.

[tarzanic.livejournal.com]

*hands you packets of hot cocoa* I hope you stay warm!

I just hope I have a shorter commute next semester. It's not a far walk to and from the subway, but the early morning chill is not so fun.

[pezprez.livejournal.com]

I heard Chicago's winter is supposed to be slightly warmer and wetter this year due to El Nino. But maybe that's just NOAA trying to keep us from slitting our wrists after getting gypped out of summer. So far it HAS been wetter (feels like we never see the sun), but not at all warmer (I heard we had something like 20 days of below-average temperatures in September, and although the weather forecasters keep getting our hopes up saying it'll be 70's the day after tomorrow (doesn't seem to matter which day), it never gets above 49 degress.) I gotta get out of this town, I hate the cold way to much to live here.

[icepixie]

*still crossing fingers for a warm/dry winter down here*

[icepixie]

You can have aaaaaall our precip!

[icepixie]

OMG. 100 inches? I might die if I ever see that much in a winter.

[icepixie]

Gaaaaah. I don't want a repeat of that year...

[icepixie]

I've heard mixed reviews of long-range forecasting--some people think it's worthless, some think it's useful on a general basis, like you say. It's a bit more of a crapshoot down here, though, because given the geography and temperatures, a front has to come through at exactly the right time of night and the right speed to produce snow rather than rain. It might be possible to say there will be more precipitation in general, but saying there's going to be more snow is on the level of telling you what the weather will be like on January 3rd.

[icepixie]

I'm just hoping all the fronts come through during the day, and just give us rain rather than snow or ice...

[icepixie]

Ahhhh, I remember that winter. That was the year the MUN team got stuck in a blizzard in Boston and Kenyon wouldn't let us drive home!

I remember that too! I also recall it starting to snow like crazy when we were driving back from a ballroom competition at Purdue. We managed to beat it home without too much trouble, though.

But mostly I remember the endless, endless plain of white that was campus. It messed with my head so badly that the snow didn't melt before more fell.

My winter's supposed to be warm. I'd trade you.

Oh, please do.

[icepixie]

You are indeed very far north.

[icepixie]

I remember being in NYC in January of 2006. It was so, so, so cold.

[icepixie]

But maybe that's just NOAA trying to keep us from slitting our wrists after getting gypped out of summer.

I wouldn't put it past them...

I gotta get out of this town, I hate the cold way to much to live here.

We should share an apartment in Florida or something.

[pezprez.livejournal.com]

Too bad we're not old... my Grandpa has a house down in Hobe Sound, but it's in a 55+ neighborhood. It's nothing fancy, but it's paid off and all and no one lives there at present.

[icepixie]

We could wear wigs and claim we had a lot of botox?