A sign that all is relative
When walking the dog today I kept thinking how WARM it was. Seriously warm. Of late I'd been wearing a sweatshirt jacket, heavy winter jacket, serious gloves and, more often than not, long thick scarf and hat as well. Today? A light jacket and gloves. That's it. And I was hot. Out of curiosity I just looked online at the weather channel and found out that with wind it feels like 30°F (-1°C).
No wonder.
Now why, you ask, does that seem so warm? So far this winter we've had SIX days with lows at or below -40° with windchill. Now, I've always liked the idea of -40° because you don't need to specify F or C, but in practice? Not fun. The coldest was -55°F and there was a two week period where the highs did not get above 0°F. Officially speaking wise, the last winter that came close to this kind of cold was 20 years ago (that year the Governor canceled school statewide due to extreme cold for one day. This year there have been four or five similar cancellations.)
Snow-wise, the amount that's fallen has only been a little more than average, but because of the cold temps it hasn't melted. Usually there'll be a bunch of days in the teens or 20s and the occasional 30s and when you add in the sun the snow has a chance to melt a little and compact so the roads don't have a continual snow/ice covering and the sidewalks clear a little and the berms between the sidewalks and the streets come down a little. None of that has had a chance of happening this year so you have horrid roads and sidewalks and so much snow shoveled up from the sidewalks and plowed up from the road that people driving past can't even see that I'm walking a dog.
Blargh. But maybe with an end in sight? (For the cold anyway, I still have shoveling to do after yesterday's snow. *sigh*)
No wonder.
Now why, you ask, does that seem so warm? So far this winter we've had SIX days with lows at or below -40° with windchill. Now, I've always liked the idea of -40° because you don't need to specify F or C, but in practice? Not fun. The coldest was -55°F and there was a two week period where the highs did not get above 0°F. Officially speaking wise, the last winter that came close to this kind of cold was 20 years ago (that year the Governor canceled school statewide due to extreme cold for one day. This year there have been four or five similar cancellations.)
Snow-wise, the amount that's fallen has only been a little more than average, but because of the cold temps it hasn't melted. Usually there'll be a bunch of days in the teens or 20s and the occasional 30s and when you add in the sun the snow has a chance to melt a little and compact so the roads don't have a continual snow/ice covering and the sidewalks clear a little and the berms between the sidewalks and the streets come down a little. None of that has had a chance of happening this year so you have horrid roads and sidewalks and so much snow shoveled up from the sidewalks and plowed up from the road that people driving past can't even see that I'm walking a dog.
Blargh. But maybe with an end in sight? (For the cold anyway, I still have shoveling to do after yesterday's snow. *sigh*)