The Weather: A Complaint
I would like to lodge a complaint about the recent weather in Southern Ontario. Temperature around midnight on Monday:
Upper temperature is outdoor; lower is indoor. Oh sorry... in metric, that's:
And the weather forecast for Monday night is:
Tonight: Clearing this evening. Wind northwest 20 km/h becoming light this evening. Low plus 2 with risk of frost.
This is reasonable for, say, October or November. But it is late May. "Frost" and "late May" should only be connected when talking about liquid nitrogen containers and creamsicles. I have turned off the heat for the season, pulled down the storm windows, and have run fans to cool off my place. But I am currently eating breakfast with my space heater pointed at my butt.
The weather would not be so galling except for the fact that I am bike commuting to our shipping container site. It's definitely brisk--I've been trying to avoid car use on general principle, including a ride home that I got dumped on badly enough that I had to wring out my socks. Fortunately, it looks like it's warming up this week.
But returning to my idea of weather (and life) being a zero sum game: I wonder if this weather means we're paying for the mild winter, or if we're going to get our asses seriously kicked by late summer this year.
posted by Bats @ 11:34 PM
2 comments
2 Comments:
If it's any consolation (I'm sure it's not), it's cold here, too; it keeps getting down to around 50F at night.
Which would be fine if I had an apartment with insulation, and if I had not taken all of my long-sleeve shirts but one (phew!) back home when I was in Canada last week.
We've had snow in K/W on Victoria Day at least once since D. and I moved there 5 years ago. (I think it was the year when it was also his birthday...)
Last summer was so awful, I don't want to think of what Ma Nature has in mind to pay you folks back for your mild winter.
I just saw a truly unsettling episode of NOVA about Global Dimming. Basically, in addition to greenhouse gasses, we're spewing lots of particulate matter into the atmosphere. Which forms clouds with higher particles-to-water ratios. This "dirtier" cloudcover reflects sunlight back away from the earth, like a mylar blanket. Effect: less sunlight reaches the earth, and temperatures cool. Plus, water droplets are kept from accumulating and becoming large enough droplets to form rain. Effect: water stays in the atmosphere = no rain = drought.
Ironically, Global Dimming has been shielding us from feeling the full effects of global warming. Aparently there was a measureable and immediate effect after 9/11, when we had about 3 days of contrail-free atmosphere. And contrails aren't a huge contributer to the cloud cover.
AAIGH.
As I was watching the show, I had to hit the pause button & go around the apartment to check that all the lights were off.
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