Until today, winter had been docile. It was chilly. It really hadn’t gotten cold. All that has changed.
Frank has just cleared the driveway with his plow. There’s not a lot of snow – maybe 3-4″ of very fluffy, easily plowable powder. It didn’t take him long.
I can hear the wind blowing. If I look out my second floor window, from time-to-time I see ‘clouds’ of snow carried in the air. This is the stuff drifts are made of.
It’s still a few hours before I leave for work, but I’ve been looking at the temperature. My thermometer, in direct sunlight, says 27°. That’s a lie. It’s really closer to 10° outside! The closest official reporting site to me, Markham Airport in Meriden, is reporting 7°.
It’s like this in full bright sunshine. Tonight, with no insolation and the snow holding back much of the ground’s long wave radiation, it will easily go below 0°.
Right now there’s really no place in America that’s warm. The wind chill at Massena, NY is -54°. Key West, the nation’s hot spot as I write this, is in the mid-60°s. It’s all downhill from there.
My folks in Florida, and friends in warmer areas, will read this and chuckle. Today I have no snappy comeback.