The Deception That Is Winter

Snow is beautiful to see (though because of its high albedo and limited tone range difficult to photograph). It’s just a pain-in-the-ass to deal with!

snowy-pine-tree.jpg

snowy-rock.jpg

snowy-wood-pile.jpg

It’s been snowing again. This makes three over the last week and a half. The winter’s hardly begun.

Snow is beautiful to see (though because of its high albedo and limited tone range difficult to photograph). It’s just a pain-in-the-ass to deal with!

The tendency is to stay inside. I could drive away right now and probably handle it without problem, but I can’t trust the other drivers. They’re probably saying the same thing about me.

Tonight it gets exceptionally cold–both thermometer and wind chill. The Weather Service has switched to “mom mode.”

“WINDS WILL INCREASE TO 15 TO 25 MPH WITH GUSTS TO 35 MPH LATE THIS AFTERNOON AND CONTINUE THROUGH THE NIGHT. WIND GUSTS UP TO 45 MPH ARE POSSIBLE THIS EVENING. THIS WILL CAUSE BLOWING AND DRIFTING OF THE SNOW AND REDUCED VISIBILITIES INTO THE EARLY EVENING HOURS. IN ADDITION…VERY COLD TEMPERATURES COMBINED WITH THESE WINDS WILL RESULT IN WIND CHILL VALUES IN THE SINGLE DIGITS THIS AFTERNOON AND DOWN TO 10 TO 15 BELOW ZERO TONIGHT. LOCATIONS IN THE HIGHER ELEVATIONS AS WELL AS ISOLATED OTHER LOCATIONS WILL EXPERIENCE WIND CHILLS RANGING FROM 15 TO 20 BELOW ZERO. YOU SHOULD WEAR LAYERED CLOTHING AS WELL AS SCARVES…HATS AND MITTENS IF HEADING OUTSIDE. A WIND CHILL ADVISORY IS ISSUED WHEN THE WIND CHILL INDEX IS LIKELY TO REACH -15 TO -24 DEGREES FOR AT LEAST 3 HOURS. FROSTBITE CAN DEVELOP IN JUST 30 MINUTES WITH A WIND CHILL INDEX OF -20. IF YOU ARE HEADING OUTDOORS…DRESS IN LAYERS AND WEAR A HAT AND GLOVES.”

Who exactly will be in Times Square tonight? What kind of person will brave this weather in order to stand, penned up like cattle, as a backdrop for what is now at least a half dozen broadcasts.

On a day like today it seems like winter is eight months long. It’s depressing. The summer is so much easier to deal with.

5 thoughts on “The Deception That Is Winter”

  1. A thoroughly enjoyable snowfall. I would have liked more (what else is new) but I won’t complain.

    This is the second good snowfall thanks to a clipper travelling west to east. The storms coming up the coast tend to give us a mix on the coast. Geoff any significance that we’ve had two clippers come in and give us substantial snow in December?

  2. Embrace it Geoff, this is New England.

    Can’t you take any solace in the fact that there are some of us who love this?? lol

    Happy New Year!

Leave a Reply to Geoff Fox Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *