Sulking in a Winter Blunderland...
Whoever invented snow sucks.
Why is it that when you follow a weather report in Michigan, when they forecast rain... it never freaking rains? However, when they forecast snow - in this instance, "maybe an inch of snow" - it snows WAY the hell more than they predict (in this instance, about 6+ inches).
I've lived in Michigan my entire life, and I still can't figure that shit out. Having grown up on the east side of the state, winters were hit or miss... and when it snowed, you got snow for a day, and then it stopped. It STOPPED. At least for a couple days in between.
In West Michigan, however (where I have lived for about six and a half years now), we get this thing called "lake effect snow." This was a new concept to me when I first moved here... and what it means is this: It snows, then it snows, and then it snows and blows, and intermittenly, it snows like freaking hell. It is a phenomena, or in meteorologist terms - an "event" - when cold air, passing for long distances over the relatively warm waters of Lake Michigan, picks up moisture and heat and is then forced to drop the moisture in the form of snow upon reaching the downwind shore - and in the strong cold air flow behind the storm's cold front, the cold front passage will often be followed by a 24 to 36-hour period of blustery northerly or westerly winds, falling temperatures and persistent flurries of fluffy snow, accompanied by falling and blowing snow and reduced visibility intermixed with brief periods of partly cloudy skies and some blowing snow. When lake-effect snow squalls are well developed, there may be less than 12 hours between the last of them and the more widespread snowfall of the next cyclonic storm system. What does this really mean? It means I can do a Google search and plagarize a bunch of crap I can find describing it.
As a sidenote... wouldn't you expect someone with the title of meteorologist to work at NASA or something? They should be called weatherologists.
Another "event" I have experienced here in West Michigan, that I had never heard of before in my entire life until living here: Thundersnow. This also occurs close to very large lakes (we have a couple here in Michigan) and it has something to do with convection, and ions and negative and positive charges and a bunch of other crap I slept through in college science classes. What it boils down to is this... thunder, lightning, and really, really heavy snow. It happened a couple times last year, and I have to admit... it's a bit astounding. It's the kind of weather you expect to experience right before zombies start sprouting up in the garden.
And so now I have, in my yard, a pretty decent accumulation of snow. Underneath this snow, if you were to dig into it, you will find an equally pretty decent accumulation of leaves, having just fallen off the trees in the past two weeks since Halloween, that I have been too lazy or busy to rake up.
It continues to snow - and according to the weather geniuses - will continue to do so every day for the next week (even though they can barely determine what will happen eight hours from now, apparently they can see seven days into the future now.)
At least I don't have to rake those damn leaves this weekend...
Why is it that when you follow a weather report in Michigan, when they forecast rain... it never freaking rains? However, when they forecast snow - in this instance, "maybe an inch of snow" - it snows WAY the hell more than they predict (in this instance, about 6+ inches).
I've lived in Michigan my entire life, and I still can't figure that shit out. Having grown up on the east side of the state, winters were hit or miss... and when it snowed, you got snow for a day, and then it stopped. It STOPPED. At least for a couple days in between.
In West Michigan, however (where I have lived for about six and a half years now), we get this thing called "lake effect snow." This was a new concept to me when I first moved here... and what it means is this: It snows, then it snows, and then it snows and blows, and intermittenly, it snows like freaking hell. It is a phenomena, or in meteorologist terms - an "event" - when cold air, passing for long distances over the relatively warm waters of Lake Michigan, picks up moisture and heat and is then forced to drop the moisture in the form of snow upon reaching the downwind shore - and in the strong cold air flow behind the storm's cold front, the cold front passage will often be followed by a 24 to 36-hour period of blustery northerly or westerly winds, falling temperatures and persistent flurries of fluffy snow, accompanied by falling and blowing snow and reduced visibility intermixed with brief periods of partly cloudy skies and some blowing snow. When lake-effect snow squalls are well developed, there may be less than 12 hours between the last of them and the more widespread snowfall of the next cyclonic storm system. What does this really mean? It means I can do a Google search and plagarize a bunch of crap I can find describing it.
As a sidenote... wouldn't you expect someone with the title of meteorologist to work at NASA or something? They should be called weatherologists.
Another "event" I have experienced here in West Michigan, that I had never heard of before in my entire life until living here: Thundersnow. This also occurs close to very large lakes (we have a couple here in Michigan) and it has something to do with convection, and ions and negative and positive charges and a bunch of other crap I slept through in college science classes. What it boils down to is this... thunder, lightning, and really, really heavy snow. It happened a couple times last year, and I have to admit... it's a bit astounding. It's the kind of weather you expect to experience right before zombies start sprouting up in the garden.
And so now I have, in my yard, a pretty decent accumulation of snow. Underneath this snow, if you were to dig into it, you will find an equally pretty decent accumulation of leaves, having just fallen off the trees in the past two weeks since Halloween, that I have been too lazy or busy to rake up.
It continues to snow - and according to the weather geniuses - will continue to do so every day for the next week (even though they can barely determine what will happen eight hours from now, apparently they can see seven days into the future now.)
At least I don't have to rake those damn leaves this weekend...
posted by pairadocs at 23:49
1 Comments:
But the snow is sooo pretty! Give in, Vince -- give in to the beauty of the season. ;-)
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