mellowtigger

The winter storm has finally arrived in Minneapolis.  We're supposed to get a few inches of snow and ice as it passes through the Twin Cities.

I need to go to downtown Minneapolis for a conference today (and Friday and Saturday).  My choices are:

A) Drive in rush hour to an unfamiliar destination on new snow.
B) Commute by bus and roam outside on a cane and a bad leg.

I'm opting for the bus.  I think it might be the better choice for my safety and sanity.

It's so very tempting to just stay home today and forget it all.

It's been a few years since the day's high temperature was still sub-zero (Farenheit), but today is such a day.  It's currently -23C/-9F (windchill -32C/-26F).

We've had rain recently.  Yes, rain in January (thanks, global warming!) and the temperature has been above-freezing a few different times (thanks, again!), so there are patches of land showing through the snow cover already.  The jet stream currently has a high northern loop in it, so it's bringing arctic air to Minnesota.  Today is colder than the recent trend.  It also happens to be a holiday from work today, so I don't have to drive anywhere.

I'm curious, does the Celsius world have any equivalent to the Farenheit concept of "sub-zero" as "really, really cold"?  I don't know of one.  It strikes me as similar to southerners using the word "yankee" to describe northerners.  There isn't really a reverse equivalent, is there?

We had our first snowfall in the Twin Cities yesterday. It did not accumulate, but it lasted about 20 minutes that I saw.  You'll need to click the photo to see the larger version that makes all of the snowflakes obvious.

I keep saying that global warming will result in the atmosphere becoming "well mixed", pushing air pockets off to farther places than usual resulting in weird or off-season combinations. I can't imagine any more unusual combination than a hurricane-blizzard like Sandy that is now approaching the USA coastline.

Brad Panovich is the chief meteorologist for WCNC tv news, and he says on Facebook that "Sandy combined with the strong trough will create a unique type of storm system. ... It's very rare to see a strong tropical system merge with such a strong winter like trough of low pressure. ... This system is 1 part Hurricane, 1 part Nor'easter and 1 part Blizzard potentially. Impacts of all 3 types of storms are possible depending on location."

An Associated Press story is also reporting that "National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration forecaster Jim Cisco, who coined the nickname Frankenstorm, said: “We don’t have many modern precedents for what the models are suggesting.”"

They're estimating $1 billion in damage from Hurricane Sandy.  For comparison, that figure is nowhere near the $81 billion property damage from Hurricane Katrina in 2005.  A blizzard hurricane, though, does add to strange weather like the winter tornadoes that we've had in recent years.  Why do Americans still doubt global warming?  Oh, yeah, Faux News uninforms its viewers, that's why.

I saw flakes of snow falling from the sky this morning as I walked to the local convenience store.

Hennepin County has voted unanimously to prevent sleepovers at the county plaza, staring Monday.  I absolutely intend to be there Monday night with my sleeping bag, body bag, and protest poster.

I was thinking about sleeping out there tonight, but I might wait until tomorrow to do it instead.  The Veterans For Peace are holding an all-night vigil from 6pm Friday to 6am Saturday in honor of Veterans Day on Friday.

Wow, "news" agencies sure have gotten lazy. I find many reports of the entire state of Texas as a drought disaster area (213 counties out of 254, so 84% of them actually), but nobody bothers to link to the primary source of the actual government announcement.


The obvious point to liberal treehuggers like me is that global warming deniers are finally getting to roast in their own juices as U.S. weather goes haywire this year. There's even a good-but-scary video making the rounds that makes it seem ludicrous for deniers to continue denying.


Objective scientists are more hesitant to make such declarations, but they're obviously leaning to the same conclusion.


The connection is so obvious that even people who would normally know better than to associate a single instance (the year 2011) with a long-term trend (global climate change) find themselves unable to outright evade the possibility.


And this is just short-term speculation.  The long-term forecasting is much worse, even if you take into account solar decline.

It's hard to deny the link when you try to imagine a potential "teachable moment" about global warming, and you end up with scenarios exactly like what we're really experiencing already.  I'm glad I've managed to commute by bicycle this month.  I regret that I plan to go back to gasoline-guzzling transportation before the summer ends.  I offer my lame apologies to future generations of humans (and plants and other animals) who will have to suffer for my convenience.

We had a tornado in Minneapolis this afternoon. It came very near to my house. I never did see it, but I heard it and ran indoors to start preparing.

The weather had been semi-stormy for a while today, and the tornado alarms had already gone off once. I was in my bed napping with the kitten, when I finally decided to get up and look outdoors. The continuous thunder is what got my attention and woke me up.  I could hear a continuous thunder roll, but I neither saw nor heard lightning bolts to cause the perpetual thunder. As I was searching around for shoes to put on so I could go outside, the city sirens went off again.

I wandered outside and couldn't tell much of what was happening. It had stopped raining, and the wind wasn't bad. Sirens were still blaring, and gentle thunder was still rolling with no obvious source. Clouds were moving mostly northward, which was unusual. Clouds were obviously thicker to the west, so I climbed up on top of my truck to see if I could spot anything.



Not much to see, really.  As I stood there on the roof of my truck, though, I noticed something "wrong".  When you're looking up into the sky at clouds, it's easy to get confused about which direction they're traveling because different layers move at different speeds, causing an illusion of relative motion.  So I looked down between two fixed objects, the houses right across the alley from me.  It was very obvious what was wrong.  The clouds on the other side of the Mississippi River were moving southward, but the clouds right above me were moving northward.

Oops.

That's when "the sound" started.  There's no need to know the specifics of what the sound is.  Instinct takes over.  It's the same instinct that drives housepets into hiding during thunderstorms.  I knew what it was, and that's when I got down from the truck and went indoors.  I went back to my bedroom, got the pet carrier ready to stuff the two cats inside.  I turned on the television to hear the local news.

The rain and wind hit then, and "the sound" disappeared.  I went to the bedroom window to see if I could spot a funnel.  I didn't find one, but I did see the rest of the household (2 landlords and 1 renter) driving into the garage.

Heavy rain and wind continued for only 15 minutes or so.  The power went out.  When the rain stopped and the sunshine appeared briefly, I walked around the street for a bit.  I saw a few small tree limbs in different roads, but nothing major.  I could hear lots of sirens, mostly in the area that I had been watching earlier.

Electricity came back on quickly, after only 60-90 minutes.  I turned on the tv again.  The news station was showing from helicopter the obvious tornado trail of destruction through north Minneapolis.  I mapped out its path from the image that they showed on local news station KSTP.  They said the path was about 3.5 miles long, and it crossed the river before disappearing.

I live at point A on this map, and I work at point B.  I usually drive to work along the blue path.  I usually drive home along paths that cross the black arrow.  I guess I'll see tomorrow if the ride home is open or if I need to take detours.

This view outside my window yesterday morning was discouraging.

It had a beautiful "first snow" look to it while driving to work, but honestly we've had enough of winter already.

The calendar says that spring season started a month ago. You wouldn't know it here in Minnesota.  I think we got an inch or less total of snowfall yesterday.  I'm not sure quite where we place yet, but I'm sure we're in the "top 10" years in Minnesota history for winter snowfall this season.

I want to get outside and work on the garden, but the weather still isn't cooperating. If my meals depended on it, this spring would be a yucky way to start the growing year.

In the last 48 hours, we've had:

fog, rain, thunderstorm, sun, sleet, ice, snow

That's quite a range of weather.  For the last week or so, it's been quite warm for us.  We've had above-freezing weather in both daytime and nighttime.  Most of the snow has melted, and I could see bare ground in most places.  You can notice the difference in the snow pile between this morning (left, Mar 23rd) and last month (right, Feb 21st).



We had some more snow last night, but not nearly as much as expected.  When I went to bed, the weather.com webpage warned of up to 8 inches tonight and today.  We obviously haven't received that much.  Still, though, I'm pretty sure Winter 2010-2011 is in the Top 10 list for most precipitation during winters in Minnesota recorded history.

I heard on the radio that last week's snowstorm was eventually rated the #5 blizzard in Minnesota state history. I know it was unusual because it was the first time that I had to miss a day of work (Monday) to continue digging my truck out of snow, even after spending the previous day shoveling snow.

Today we've had more snow. It took 2.5 hours for me to drive home from a SQL Server 2008 class that I'm taking this week. Ugh! I've shoveled what was already on the ground in the driveway.  We're in a lull at the moment, but more snow is expected soon after midnight. At least it's been warm here recently. (Note: "warm" here in winter means only about 10 degrees below freezing.)

I read somewhere a few months ago that this winter in North America was predicted to be colder and wetter than usual.  We're certainly on our way to fulfilling that prediction. The prediction was based more on La Nina conditions than global warming.

As I understand them, La Nina is characterized by colder equatorial Pacific ocean temperatures than usual. Meanwhile, global warming means that average temperature increases, but this increase means that liquids (ocean) and gases (atmosphere) get "well mixed" like watching the various eddies and currents that accelerate in a pot of water that continues to warm. Expect to see more of the jet stream meandering into weird configurations that draws weather into unusual times/places.

We had a fine mist fall on us during the weekend. In warm weather, it would have barely been enough to wet the ground. In cold weather, however, it turned every surface into a slippery hazard. I had to walk very carefully while taking the trash out to the garbage can.

We had hundreds of road accidents, including a few fatalities. A dozen of the salt trucks even had their own accidents. That's unusual. Hundreds of people ended up in emergency rooms just because of falls on stairs and walkways. I read one blogger who said that their power flickered. I read from kjvbear that he picked up the phone to make a call but heard the recording, "Emergency calls only".

Our forecast calls for sinking temperatures.  It might rise above freezing next Sunday... barely.

Basically, though, winter has arrived finally in Minnesota.  The snow on the ground may stay here until March.