Foggy Morning

I, as so many elderly, am a weather wonk. I look up whether it's going to be raining, snowing, or sunny on March 10 even as I know there's no way that, when March 10 actually arrives, the current forecast will hold. But I check it anyway.

This morning for Detroit I was informed we'd have freezing fog, whatever that is. And I mean whatever that is, because I never heard the term before. So I looked it up.

It's fog which freezes when it touches cold surfaces.

You know, I kinda imagined something more dramatic. 

Offset

I don't think global warming or climate change or whatever they're calling it lately is a big deal. But I do wonder if perhaps the seasons have shifted a bit in the last few years.

It's been cold and clammy around here lately, and we're well into May. Maybe it's me, but back when I was a teenager May sure seemed warmer. I feel as though the cold is hanging around several weeks longer than it once did.

Warm weather hangs around until well into November, if you count highs near 60. But that does feel warm for that month, and even recent Decembers appear to have had their share of relative balminess.

So, has the climate changed? Sure. It's just offset itself about a month.

Worst Ever? Nowhere Near

I'm not saying it wasn't bad. I know it was bad; lives were lost and tremendous damage done. But it was not apocalyptic, as we were being told beforehand. Hurricane Milton offers a prime example of why we should see the media and heed the climate prognosticators with watchful eyes and skeptical minds.

Milton was supposed to be off the charts, a generational storm of epic proportions, a spawn of human caused climate change, misery beyond conception, one up at the very limit of meteorological possibility. And then it wasn't, 48 hours later. Bad? Again, yes. An unmitigated disaster of unimaginable proportions? Um, no. Not anywhere near.

This is why I don't believe the media, the weather forecasters, the government, or any of the gloom and doomers. This is the attitude which brought us the draconian COVID lockdowns. These people thrive on our fear. We need to grow a spine and tell them where to get off. 

 

Another Weather Rant

You are all probably sick of my complaining about climate change and the weather. Well, click off this page or buckle your seat belt, because I'm about to do it again.

Being an old guy I'm also a weather wonk. That means that all this past week I kept tabs on the forecast, which assured me Detroit would have a little to no snow accumulation yesterday, Friday March 22. This prediction was still on about 12 hours before Friday dawned.

So imagine my surprise (not) when I found our cars covered in white in the early morning, and around a half inch of snow on the grass and sidewalks. This snow continued until just before Noon, and was heavy at times. I'm guessing we had a couple inches total, maybe three. This, again, after being told to expect no accumulation a half day earlier.

For the umpteenth time, this is why I do not and will not believe the climate change fanatics. You can't give me an accurate snowfall total the day before Friday but we're all doomed in 80 years. 

Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes. Tell me one more time (because I didn't hear it the first two dozen times) that weather is only part of climate. Well, it's clearly the biggest part of it. If you can't get a forecast right in the near term I'm within reason to not trust your prognostications on the distant future. It's convenient too that your predictions are so far beyond your own expiration date that you ain't gonna be around to pay the piper.

But your kids and grandkids will. Rant over. For today.

To Everything

I am not a believer in climate change in the sense where it's an impending catastastroke, to use one of me Grandpa Joe's coined terms. But I do believe the climate changes over time. Greenland had a growing season a thousand years ago; that's part of how and why the Norse were able to settle there, at least for a while. The glaciers covered Texas a few thousand years before that. The climate changes. I'm not sure we can do much about that or how much we even actually affect it. Nature, too, is resilient. She'll fight back and win her share of battles.

So in that light, I do wonder if the seasons are slowly shifting. My furnace kicked on this morning and I had to layer in order to be warm for my morning walk today. It's May 17th, if you hadn't noticed. We're nearly two months into Spring here in Michigan. It seems rather late for such necessities.

I don't recall May being so cold so late when I was in my teens, yet the last several have been chilly. The leaves have been slow to show up on the trees and the flowers aren't blooming. I only just mowed the lawn for the first time last Saturday; the grass just wasn't growing. Conversely, October and November seem to me to stay warmer later than way back then too. As such, I can't help wonder if the seasonal calendar is becoming off a bit. It's something I'm merely curious about, because even if it's true I see no need to worry. It's just how the climate has gone about its business for all of history.

Forsesight

Two weeks ago in Boston, it was cold. I did not take a coat or jacket of any type with me, so I was just cold.

This morning in Hessel, MI in Michigan's glorious Upper Peninsula, it's cold. But I brought long sleeves and a hoodie with me, so I was warm enough on my morning walk. 

Foresight is important. Plan on any reasonable contingencies. I can be taught.

Detroit Snowmaggedon 2022

I wasn't going to say anything. I weren't. I was jes' gonna let it drop. But sometimes, y'know, a feller cain't help hisself.

Last week on February 2 were were supposed to have a blizzard for the generations here in the D. Accuweather was calling for 1 to 2 feet of snow as late as the wee hours of that Wednesday morning. And what did we get?

Not two foot of snow, that's fer sure. Not even one foot so far as I could tell.

According to Click On Detroit from Detroit's Channel 4, no one anywhere near Detroit had anything like a foot of powder. Most of the City and suburbs were between 3 and 6 inches. You have to go to Flint, hardly in the Detroit area, to even sniff at a foot of accumulation. where there was an 11 inch snowfall. Yet all the way up until the morning of Wednesday, February 2, we were supposed to be absolutely slammed.

I say again, for the umpteenth time, and so much so that even I'm becoming sick of it, this is another reason why I don't automatically trust 'experts'. It is why I cannot trust science because it's science or government because it's government (for from where did most weather projections come from but The scientfic-governmental complex?). They can't tell me, within scant hours of the snow arriving, how much to expect. But that Miami will be underwater in 2100 due to bizarre weather or climate change or global warming or whatever the damn concept is labeled these days is to be taken as an absolute fact.

I don't believe you. Until you can be closer to the truth closer to home, I cannot believe you. You can't tell me what to expect in modern times, when the event is right around the corner. Don't tell me you are certain of things 78 years off. That's not being a scientist. But it might be a charlatan.

Talk About the Weather

I've decried this before. I certainly will again. But this morning offers yet another example of the primary reason I cannot give credence to the climate change fears which someone's bizarre science insists we accept.

Ten days ago we were not forecast to have significant snow overnight January 1 - 2. Then about three days ago the weather boys and girls said to expect 1 to 3 inches...which became 3 to 6 inches by Saturday morning (which was being revised down to 2-4 inches around Midnight). Any way you slice it, I will soon be shovelling the not that long ago unexpected snow, and then cleaning off the cars. Bear in mind too that I haven't even mentioned the temperature anomalies among the ever changing forecasts during this same time period.

They can't predict the weather a week and a half or two weeks ahead of time, but the Earth is ten years from irreparable doom.

I. Don't. Believe. It.

Postscript: where I am, we actually got about an inch. More fuel to the fire so far as my position.

The weather curmudgeon

Perhaps I am making too much of this. But perhaps just the same it's part of the reason I have trouble believing the weather forecasters. 

As I was doing a typical old guy thing and checking the weather report early this morning, something I do virtually every day almost immediately upon waking, I saw that the temperature was 21 degrees Fahrenheit. Yet something called the 'real feel' of the temperature is 26.

Pray, doesn't that mean that it's 26 outside?

Honestly, how else are we supposed to take it? They're saying that it's 21 but it feels like it's 26. Then it's 26, not 21. 

If it feels 26 outside why don't we say that it's 26 outside? I mean that's five flippin' degrees difference. Am I missing something or just being cranky today?

Let's talk about the weather

Old guys talk about the weather. It's what they do. So, me being an old guy and you being a properly courteous and deferential youngster who will listen to me politely, I'll talk about the weather.

The Internet is a positive boon to old guys where weather is concerned. I just finished checking the radar and it's raining. Just like it was when I checked it five minutes ago. Or maybe four. You lose track of time when you're delighted.

Then there's the nice colors on the radar screen. Ohh, dark red, maybe even deep purple (you just had the opening guitar riff from Smoke on the Water run through your head, didn't you?) coming our way. What does it mean? The handy chart over to the side tells you very heavy rain is coming. Be still my heart. Will we get it? Will we?

It's tracking downwards on my screen. My live, real time radar feed that is. But that means it's heading south or southeast compared to my position. Nuts.

I'll leave it at that so as not to bore you (though I know you're not). I could do this all day myself.

The Weather Dad

Yes, I'm supposed to be helping my daughter with her yard sale. I'll be back out there in a minute.

You see, the skies look iffy. So I'm doing what every dad does in this internet age when the sky looks iffy.

I hopped online to check the radar. What's wrong with a little planning?

And for your information, it looks like it's going to stay clear until after the sale is over. So there.

The psychology of temperature

Look, I know it's in the low 50s today and I should be thankful for that. But I'm still going to wear my big Carhartt coat because I'm still cold. Hey, even I don't get it.

You take last weekend. I was as many of you know playing in a bonspiel in Detroit. While on the ice (and it was actually warmer in the arena than it was outside then) I was wearing a pullover over a t-shirt. That was it. It wasn't even a fleece or insulated pullover either, just a nylon pullover. And I was fine on the ice. Off the ice I got so cold I put on my winter coat as we sat in the warm viewing area talking after the games.

It makes me think of those first warm spring days when it's about 63. I rush to put on shorts and a tee. But a similar 63 degree morning in July and I'm scrounging for a jacket and sweat pants before my walk. I find myself thinking about turning on the heat.

The psychology of temperature. It's weird.