The Weather Thread

[Rommie]

I mean he's not that old, he better! We ended up splitting the front walk, so the mailman or whoever has a path to the front door.

Really fun to walk around yesterday afternoon as I can't remember the last time I had such a huge snowstorm. First time I saw some new neighbors out and about, clearing driveways and cars. Turns out the new house is also right by the biggest sled hill in town- plenty of space and masks, and it was fun to see everyone enjoying the snow day. Now we just need to get a sled for ourselves!

[Rommie]

Because I was worried I wasn't being geeky enough (heh), I'm keeping track of the temperature at our house this year in cross stitch form. 1/6 done so far!

A surprising number of people do these online, so finding a basic pattern was no problem. Station is just a block away from us, on Weather Underground, which is perfect- I haven't figured out which house it's at yet but kind of want to go over once I figure it out and introduce myself!

But yeah, it's interesting how something like this makes you pay attention to the weather a bit more. First time I was ever excited that we didn't hit 20F in January one day so I could use purple. And kind of happy I didn't do this last year, when I would have had to use the color for 70F in January and February, which would have just filled me with even more existential dread about climate change...

[SciFiFisher]

I am not sure why you would ever doubt your geekiness.

[pumpkinpi]

I love it. Something you can work on bit by bit all year.

I found a cross stitch that takes my geekiness beyond-astro: Minnesota Watersheds. One of my work projects has me heavily into watershed maps, so it fits perfect.
Rooster's helping me pick out some different colors. We don't quite like these.

[Rommie]

Love it! I've seen some like this where it's the geology of states.

Also, I found my giant map of the USA project I started a few years ago. The thing is I've put it aside more or less lately because all that's left is the boring stuff, like the ocean border. But it's such a neat piece I really ought to finish it...

[SciFiFisher]

Those are amazing.

[lady_*nix]

Why is it still so damn cold I hate this, Boston weather sucks. ISTG I'd move to Atlanta or something, but I'm scared I'd die from lack of medical care and/or being murdered by Klansmen.

[Thumper]

So Atlanta has no hospitals or doctors and is full of Klansmen?

[Thumper]

I am not sure why you would ever doubt your geekiness.

Hilarious.

[Thumper]

I love it. Something you can work on bit by bit all year.

I found a cross stitch that takes my geekiness beyond-astro: Minnesota Watersheds. One of my work projects has me heavily into watershed maps, so it fits perfect.
Rooster's helping me pick out some different colors. We don't quite like these.

That's awesome, I used to live in the Red River Watershed.

[Rommie]

Definitely an "in like a lion, out like a lamb" kind of March here, with everything in between. So far in the last two weeks I've had to use both the "25-30" and "70-75" colors in my cross stitch weather tracker!

We went skiing yesterday in NH at our usual spot, where all winter we've been worried about getting too cold and unable to go inside to go in and warm up, and yesterday was just so not that problem. 60F and the snow was super wet and sticky- probably would have been ok had we driven further north to bigger mountains, but a bit too much for us for a day trip. Definitely done skiing for the year- made it up 5 times though which honestly, in a pandemic I think is quite respectable (and was one of the few things we could safely do during the cold months so it was great).

Now to wait a month or two until mud season is done and hiking can begin!

[Thumper]

Mud season has begun here. We had a few great weeks of winter with plenty of snow and near 0 temps. It all melted in a day and then we had 2-3 inches of rain. Mud and flooding everywhere. Then it got really warm (was over 70 yesterday). I'm waiting for the relapse. We'll get a few hard frosts and flurries in April. But the mud will stay.

[Rommie]

Oh man, isn't it amazing what a nice spring day can do to the world? Sure there's a pandemic, but it's so much more bearable when it's nice out!

One of those days that makes me think of the Anne of Green Gables quote where she feels sad for people who aren't born yet, because they may have other nice days but the'll never have this one.

[lady_*nix]

Why is it snowing, it's supposed to be spring, I thought we were done with this shit. I hate this

[Thumper]

We got 3 inches of snow in late April, it was 80 degrees two weeks before that and 80 again a week later. It's been cooler the last couple of weeks and rain rain rainy. Lots of rain.

[lady_*nix]

Welp... guess our 2-3 weeks of actually nice weather are over, and the transition from "too damn cold" to "too damn hot" is now complete.

[pumpkinpi]

80+ degrees this weekend. With the high Sun it feels like late July. Later this week I'm driving 150 miles north and the high will be 49. And rainy. Out on a boat on Lake Superior. I'm packing winter gear!

[Rommie]

Welp... guess our 2-3 weeks of actually nice weather are over, and the transition from "too damn cold" to "too damn hot" is now complete.

Yeah, it's been nuts. We discovered this past week the AC in the house we bought and seemed to be working is, in fact, dead, so yeah perfect timing to figure that out...

[Thumper]

That's when you always figure it out.

[lady_*nix]

It's so hot and humid... I can haz thunderstorms plz? The sky is completely gray and overcast even, but no storms are predicted.

[Rommie]

Think it's gonna break tomorrow...

The weird thing lately is how darn regional the thunderstorms are. On Saturday F and I were driving in New Hampshire in two separate cars, and I was maybe 5 minutes ahead tops, and there was a giant cloudburst of rain for a few minutes that required max wiper speed. When we were both at the brewery I asked him about the rain, and he said he hadn't encountered any but saw the road was wet. Wild! That area of the state also is currently considered to be in moderate drought, so I wonder if that's part of the reason.

While I'm on the topic of drought, if I look at the current map for the USA I keep thinking how while I love the South West and the Rockies, I'm not sure if I could take a job there ever with the plan to be permanent. It is definitely the new normal, and those wildfires every summer just seem like an increasingly terrible dystopia with no escape, and at some point it's a feature not a bug. (I always tell F if it hasn't burned to the ground by the time we retire though I'd love to spend the winter months exploring it in a camper or similar.)

[geonuc]

We're girding for another epic wildfire season. There's a fire north of us that's already degraded the air quality.

[geonuc]

It was over a hundred F yesterday while I was on the cool (west) side of the Cascades. Over a hundred here today.

[lady_*nix]

Hot again here too. Not nearly as bad as y'all on the other side of the continent, but I had to reschedule lunch with a friend because of the heat hazard. Even if their heat tolerance is okay, mine is lousy.

(And yes I know that's a huge change from the old perpetually-cold GJ who loved hot weather. Autoimmune diseases are absolute shit.)

[lady_*nix]

And the temperature keeps rising. Today is highs of 97 F; tomorrow is supposed to reach 98.

Meanwhile I have a new roomie, who the management co dropped on me with literally zero notice - I only found out at the last minute from the rental people. And I'm kind of worried about her TBH. She's a grad student from Poland, so unused to this heat, and being on the first floor (instead of basement like my other roomies) means dealing with the full brunt of it.

Think I'll see if I can talk to her about wrangling a second air conditioner.