Categories: all aviation Building a Biplane bicycle gadgets misc motorcycle theater
Sun, 14 Jan 2007
DEEP FREEZE 2007!
I'm sure that's the title the local news is using to describe the weather we've been having for the last few days. Since Tuesday evening last week, it's been at or below freezing. I saw maybe 3 inches of snow at my house, but the temperature is what's important.
I've been seeing between 19° and 28° F here. That's unseasonably cold for Seattle, the lowest we normally see is just a bit below freezing. Then, this morning, I awoke to find the scene you see above, where every tree has been coated in a layer of beautiful frosting. The thermometer tells me it's 24° F as I write this.
Of course, all this has more or less shut down the city. We're not used to the cold. Our pathetic fleet of sanding and road clearing trucks is just barely enough to cover the arterials, which tend to be cleared by traffic anyway.
Of course again, this has left me more or less locked in my house. Half of my transportation options are two-wheeled, which is pretty much a non-starting idea when the road is randomly as slick as an oil patch. Oh, I could certainly ride the sidecar rig around, but something about climbing aboard a device which is going to increase my perceived wind into the road-speed range sounds improbably and numbingly cold. That leaves riding around in Kristin's car, which, while not exactly a 4WD traction monster, at least sports a healthy heater and a set of crumple zones to protect against other idiot drivers. The biggest problem with that is that Kristin has her own life, so she and her car are only here part-time.
The forecast is for the temperature to rise above freezing on Monday. Well, it was a few days ago, when word was that Monday would see 40°. Now, the forecast is just for "highs in the 30s," which could mean anything. I may be locked in for a while longer.
Perhaps the oddest thing about this weather is how suddenly it came on. On Monday and Tuesday last week, it was in the mid 40s, and clear. Then, all of a sudden, the weather story was all about this horrible cold front that would be coming through. They weren't kidding.
That seems to be the theme of the weather lately: suddenness. I'm so accustomed to weather which tips its hand hours in advance of actually doing anything. Is it raining? Then you could probably see huge, lurking clouds for hours beforehand. Snow? Yeah, you could smell it half a day ago, and see the clouds scudding in from the north.
Lately, the weather has all been happening very quickly. The best example is that on Tuesday, I went into a meeting at 2 pm, for which I had to cross the street at work. At 2, it was slightly overcast, calm and dry. The meeting wrapped up quickly, and I was out by 2:20. When I got out, the rain was pouring, and strong, gusty winds were blowing the raindrops up the street. I don't think I've ever seen weather develop that fast in Seattle.
All of which ties in neatly with increasing evidence for global warming (cue ominous music). I have no concrete proof or anything, it's just a feeling I get. Certainly one of the side-effects of increasing heat in the environment should be more exciting weather (not just generally being warmer). More heat in the atmosphere means more energy to evaporate water, and between heat and evaporating water, you've got the prime motivators for the world's weather. More weather is probably not the kind of excitement we really want.
Posted at 11:13 permanent link category: /misc
Categories: all aviation Building a Biplane bicycle gadgets misc motorcycle theater