Snow!

[shapinglight]

Dear Americans and Canadians on my flist

It seems you are having some terrible snow at the moment. In fact, it says on the news over here that every US state is affected, even Hawaii and Florida.

Stay safe, all of you.

ETA: should qualify this somewhat, as I think I've caused some confusion. I don't mean our news said that there'd been snow in every state, but that every state - including Hawaii and Florida - had been affected by very low temperatures.

Comments

[infinitewhale.livejournal.com]

A very early winter blast. No snow here in western Pennsylvania. Just cold. It's supposed to be back in the 50s and 60s (F, of course) here this weekend, though. More big trouble for those up north if that happens there.

[shapinglight]

Yes, I suppose there'll be awful flooding.

However, it does look as if, due to the position of the jet stream, this winter is shaping up to be much like last on both sides of the Pond. Your side Arctic air is coming much further south than usual so you're getting awful snow. This side, the jet stream is further north than at this time of year, dragging warm air up from the tropics, and we're getting unseasonably warm weather and rain.

[petzipellepingo.livejournal.com]

We just have a light coating but the people in Buffalo are going to be in BIG TROUBLE when the forecasted 8 feet of snow starts to melt as the weather warms up this weekend.

[shapinglight]

Yes, it'll be terrible. I've seen pictures of the snow. There were big trucks on some freeway somewhere almost completely buried. That's a hell of a lot of snow to melt.

[rebcake.livejournal.com]

No snow here, but it's raining! *does celebratory dance*

I am worried for those in the massively affected areas, but glad my mom got to her winter digs before this. Last week a post came across my dash: "My favorite thing about winter is watching it on TV from California". Seems a bit heartless today. But not untrue. I'll take an earthquake over being stuck in the snow on a freeway overnight.

[shapinglight]

No snow here, but it's raining! *does celebratory dance*

That's good news. How long since you had any?

I suppose you just wouldn't have snow in California, would you, except in the mountains?

Or would you?

[rebcake.livejournal.com]

It sprinkled a week or so ago, but before that? I don't remember. Even this batch has already passed. Sigh.

We had sleet a couple of years ago! Very exciting. It almost looked like snow.

There is snow in California the farther north and east you go. It's a big state, after all. It's very unusual on the coast, though. I guess the Pacific just keeps things too warm for it.

[shapinglight]

I guess the Pacific just keeps things too warm for it.

Which is strange, because the Pacific is actually very cold, isn't it?

:Wishes you more rain:

[rebcake.livejournal.com]

The Pacific is even bigger than California! Around these parts, it's cold enough to be uncomfortable for swimming — Polar Bear Club to the contrary — but it never freezes. Not even a little bit. Ever changing, always constant.

[shapinglight]

The water did look awfully cold on that lovely beach in SF you took us to. :)

[singedbylife.livejournal.com]

My husband was in Tampa FL y-day and today he is in Dallas. In two days he'll be in Seattle. There has been no snow in either place, and it's actually pretty warm. So I'll say, your news are greatly exaggerating. Bu up in the north east (New York) they've had a lot of snow.

[shapinglight]

Is it colder than usual in those places, though?

I don't think it was supposed to have snowed in every state including Hawaii and Florida, but every state was supposed to suffer from sub-zero temperatures.

Have I just contradicted my own post?

Probably.

ETA: okay, fixed it.

[singedbylife.livejournal.com]

:)

[spikesjojo.livejournal.com]

Arizona is unaffected, as usual. I really want some cold rain but no - just sunshine and mild temperatures...

[shapinglight]

Really?

The TV news over here must be exaggerating with this 'every state's affected stuff.'

Maybe they've been getting their news from one of our very unreliable tabloid newspapers.

[chasingdemons.livejournal.com]

US takes up a lot of space, so there can be many weather systems going on at the same time. What's happening in Buffalo New York is astounding, though. And that's coming from someone in Minnesota where the weather is frequently severe. My main issue is icy roads. And yup, that's started already. Way too early!

[shapinglight]

What's happening in Buffalo New York is astounding, though. And that's coming from someone in Minnesota where the weather is frequently severe.

We saw some pics on the news today. It looks awful!

As for Minnesota, I know nothing about it, except for what I read in Little Cabin in the Woods. There are lots of bears, aren't there, and people shoot them?

My main issue is icy roads.

God, yes, they terrify me, and we only get winters like the US ones once in a blue moon.

[tripleransom.livejournal.com]

It's just really cccold here in Northern VA - thank goodness, no snow (yet). However, it's unseasonably cold for mid-November. Normally, I don't put the horses' heavy blankets on them until January and they are wearing everything I've got already. Brrr!

[shapinglight]

:(

Mind you, everyone is saying it will warm up again at the weekend.

[shipperx.livejournal.com]

It was 25F here the other day with a 10F wind chill. In Alabama. In November. It was 80F two weeks ago.

[shapinglight]

Ah. Quite a contrast, then. What would you normally expect at this time of year?

[shipperx.livejournal.com]

The last few days have been far more typical and it's been in the mid to high 60F.

It's not that the South doesn't get cold. We can dip into the 20s fairly regularly in Jan - Feb (It is unusual for October), but it rarely lasts very long. We might have a week of cold before it heads back to the high 50s-high 60s (occasionally 70s F)

The weird part of last year was not only that it got so cold but that it REMAINED cold for more than a month.

Buffalo NY's 8ft of snow looks epic though.

[shapinglight]

Your winters sound a bit like ours, except that ours never get that warm.

And it probably rains more here.

or not?

[shipperx.livejournal.com]

I'd guess not. We get crazy amounts of rain.

Speaking of London in purely my own anecdotal terms(summer abroad, study abroad, and a few vacations summing up to only about 6 months of actual time spent over 5 separate trips) My experience was that our weather tends to be more commonly violent/torrential in nature than London's.

I don't know the statistics so London may have more 'days' of rain, but Alabama probably has more inches of rain. That's how it works with Alabama vs. Seattle. You always read about how rainy Seattle is, but when you look up the numbers while they have more days of rain, we get more actual inches of rain (fewer rainy days more rain dumped when it does rain). It's not uncommon for us to have over an inch of rain in the space of an hour and there have been a few times when we've had over 4 inches in one storm.

Googling the statistics:

Birmingham, England averages 26 inches (66 cm) of rain per year.

Birmingham, Alabama averages 54 inches (137 cm) of rain per year.

Looking at "Plant Zones" the UK is somewhat equivalent. Coastal UK has the same planting zone the same average lows as B'ham, with inland UK only being slightly lower. So, we're similar cold-temp zoned. We probably average higher highs though as our summers are ubiquitously very hot.


Right before the drop to freezing temperatures last week, we had flash floods. (That's what usually happens when we have those drastic temp changes come through. Dropping from 80F to 27F in one day means we had a violent thunderstorm sweep through when the two weather fronts met.)

[shapinglight]

You probably do get heavier rain. While we do have some rain storms that are so heavy they cause flash floods, they're not that common. Usually, we just get steady rain.

Sometimes for days, and days, and days...

[rahirah]

No snow here. It may be snowing up in northern Arizona, but eh, they're used to it. I hope it does hit here, though; a crapton of snow might put a dent in our decades-long drought.

[shapinglight]

:(

Decades long? That's bad.

[ringthebells]

Ironically here in Montreal (to the north of New York state), we're actually fine; squinting southwards at all the snow, but we barely got any here (a centimeter-ish, just enough to coat the sidewalks). The temperature dipped down to about -6C, but that's not even unseasonal here.

[shapinglight]

Really? How utterly bizarre.

[yourlibrarian]

My delay in replying can't actually be blamed on the weather ;)

We have actually not gotten any snow here the past few days -- in fact this weekend it's zoomed up to fall temperatures and we have had two days of rain. But next week winter returns, it seems.

Mostly I'd like to see the return of the sun. It seems we've had one sunny day for the past few weeks, although some days have been partly sunny.

[shapinglight]

It is hard getting through the endless grey days. They do make you feel low.