PZ this is Minnesota. There will probably be a blizzard in May.
Grumpy Cthulhu (just woke up)says
Climate is what you expect, weather is what you get.
antepreprosays
Just wait, it will be summer in two weeks.
congenital cynicsays
Our snow is melted to the rumps of snowbanks. But… Woke up to a dusting of snow yesterday morning, and it was gone within the hour.
Pouring rain today.
carliesays
The worm apocalypse is imminent – it’s been a bit warmer, but raining since last night so they’re all up on the sidewalks so as to not drown, which means they will freeze tonight. We have snow forecast for later this week.
spamamander, internet amphibiansays
… and here in eastern WA it will be 81 degrees again.
Earthworms can survive for several weeks under water providing there is sufficient oxygen in the water to support them. They surface as a response to high relative humidity after rain because they can move around safely without drying out.
Anyway, I usually spend a few minutes moving driveway-stranded worms to soil after a downpour.
The first thing that greeted my eyes this morning when I opened up the blind was snow. Not a welcome sight. However, the sun is shining, and it’s melting off. Still too cold out though.
Artorsays
Here in Eugene OR, it’ll be 70 degrees today, but a little hazy from a big fire in Siberia.
rietpluimsays
“April doet wat hij wil.”
mothrasays
“Me thinks he doth protest too much.”
But seriously, last year, in Fargo, on April 15, NDSU was delayed for 2 hrs due to a ground blizzard.
Rob @#16 I usually spend a few minutes moving driveway-stranded worms to soil after a downpour.
That’s good; the birds would get them, otherwise. So you’re still helping them.
robrosays
As you may have heard, we’ve got a problem with no rain, and more importantly no snow pack, here in California. Now there’s this worrisome story about a “giant blob” of warm water off the Pacific Coast. I guess this NOAA graphic actually shows the blob in action.
In other news, we’re discussing making you folks back East grow your own damn fruits and vegetables for a change. And don’t forget nuts! Do you have any idea how much water it takes to grow almonds? Mark Bittman, NY Times food columnist who’s living in Berkeley and teaching with Michael Pollan this term, got into it here. Then the spousal unit sends this article with some nice charts that highlight why it’s crazy to use 70% of our scarce water resources to grow so much for the rest of the world when those things could just as easily be grown nearer to where there’s water.
Of course, the chances of our multi-billion dollar agri-businesses giving up their prophets until some of us are dead is practically nil.
So remember: Think global, eat local.
moarscienceplzsays
Fed Ex all that snow to California, please. We need every drop of moisture we can get.
mykroftsays
@robro:22
You need prophets if your business model depends on the weather.
numerobissays
My favourite snowstorm ever: we were trying to hike up a minor peak in California, but got turned back due to snow — in August. On the way up we could see the valley floor was all covered in white. It was a bit hard to internalize the fact that the white at my feet was snow at the freezing point, but the white down there was a salt flat baking at about 90-100 degrees F.
Death Valley: highly recommended.
leerudolphsays
The worm apocalypse is imminent – it’s been a bit warmer, but raining since last night so they’re all up on the sidewalks so as to not drown, which means they will freeze tonight.
Well, they might be Raptured!
gogsays
@robro #22
Way ahead of you this year! My girlfriend and I are starting our first vegetable garden in our yard. It’s going to be a lot of work, and I’m sure local urban wildlife is going to give us trouble, but we’re excited and have already started digging and tilling. I can’t wait to make stuffed roasted bell peppers on the grill, fresh cucumber and tomato in salad and basil pesto!
slithey tove (twas brillig (stevem))says
speaking of punny names:
NY Times food columnist who’s living in Berkeley and teaching with Michael Pollan this term,
So M. Pollen is in the agriculture food science, eh? (see what I did there, phunny, eh?)
spamamander, internet amphibiansays
Dear Californians,
We Washingtonians feel your plight. We have a drought of our own, though not as severe. This state is the second largest user of irrigation, next to you. We already send you some of our water. Please tell William Shatner to quit trying to crowdsource an above-ground pipeline to send what water we do have to you.
Morgan!? the Slithy Tovesays
Ahhhh, the worm apocalypse. When I see them on the pavement and they are still alive I scoop them over into the dirt. If they are deceased, my doggies get worm jerky.
UnknownEric the Apostatesays
As a native Buffalonian, I have no right to point and laugh.
Feel free to redirect that snow here, Taiwan is still in the throes of a drought. The torrential rain yesterday was a drop in the bucket compared to what was needed.
Like California and its 5% of normal snowpack, Taiwan had zero days of typhoons last fall and is now paying for it. People’s water is being cut off for several days per week, and like California, it’s hitting the poor the hardest. (The current levels of the major reservoirs can be seen here.) On the bright side, the levels have leveled off in the last few weeks, so the rationing is having an effect.
But as we all know, climate change is a fiction. 9_9
Scientists working with NASA’s New Horizons mission are predicting gusts of charged particles with speeds up to 1 million mph (1.6 million km/h) that will slow as they interact with the dwarf planet’s atmosphere.
mudskippersays
@left0ver1under — They actually SHUT OFF your water supply for two days a week? No flushing toilets, no turning on the taps to wash your hands, no water for cooking?
Holy shit. The next time a fellow California complains about having to let their lawn die to meet a 25% reduction target, I can tell them it really could be worse.
mudskipper (#34) – It’s not my water being cut off, it’s other people’s.
Just like the US, it’s hitting the poor the hardest. You couldn’t know it unless you’re here, but all those areas listed on the link for water rationing are older areas, areas with lower rents and high population density (i.e. where the poor live). Wealthier areas and nice new suburbs like the one I live in aren’t being asked to sacrifice. On top of that, the only people who drink tap water are the poor, those with money always drink bottled or purified water because many don’t consider it to be safe. I’m not rich and I can afford bottled water, but a lot of people can’t.
One of the most ironic things is who isn’t suffering. West of the large island is the small island of Penghu, population about 100,000, less than 30km long. Foreigners like me don’t want to work there, nor do most Taiwanese because of the isolation. But unlike the larger island, Penghu has a desalination plant, so they can generate their own drinking water. Taiwan has cheap electricity from nuclear power and Penghu is on the grid, so the people there aren’t feeling the pinch.
PZ gets snow.
Down here on the Gulf Coast, we get near-endless rain (which, thankfully, has let up for a few days). Not sure which is worse.
mudskippersays
@ left0ver1under (#35) — As far as I can see, the state of California is trying to be reasonably equitable when it comes to water savings, at least for residential consumers. (Whether the state is unfairly favoring agriculture is another question.) Each water district has been given a conservation target, which is based on their current per-capita consumption. So San Francisco, which uses about 45 gallons per day per person, is being asked to reduce 8%. Beverly Hills, on the other, has to reduce by 36%, based on their current consumption of 236 gallons per person. (It will be interesting to see how they try to wriggle out of that — I’ve read stories of the rich trucking water in or digging private wells.)
Most water districts are using tiered pricing to discourage overconsumption — each tier raises the price per gallon considerably. Since the poor tend to be low water users — no vast expanses of lawn to keep green and no swimming pools to be kept full — this kind of pricing is fairer to them.
blfsays
South of England here, we just had a couple of weeks of heatwave.
What a Briton calls a blizzard would, in Illinois or Nebraska, be a flurry, and a British heat wave is often a thing of merriment to much of the rest of the world. (I still treasure a London newspaper with the banner headline: BRITAIN SIZZLES IN THE SEVENTIES!)
That was written before the recent(?-ish) trend of calling any breeze (or so it seems) a “hurricane”.
Cue the global warming deniers, who can’t differentiate between weather and climate….
PZ this is Minnesota. There will probably be a blizzard in May.
Climate is what you expect, weather is what you get.
Just wait, it will be summer in two weeks.
Our snow is melted to the rumps of snowbanks. But… Woke up to a dusting of snow yesterday morning, and it was gone within the hour.
Pouring rain today.
The worm apocalypse is imminent – it’s been a bit warmer, but raining since last night so they’re all up on the sidewalks so as to not drown, which means they will freeze tonight. We have snow forecast for later this week.
… and here in eastern WA it will be 81 degrees again.
22°C and sunshine
The last years I’ve had the impression that we simply skipped spring: Too cold for too long and then *whooosh* summer.
We’ve been leaving the house open the past few weeks. But I suspect soon, we’ll have to air condition at night.
We all face our burdens, I guess.
Knowing Minnesota weather we could be in shorts by the end of the day.
At least you didn’t spend most of yesterday under a tornado watch?
Oh good, so we don’t have to worry about the Totten glacier then. That’s how it works, right?
PZed, I have been snowed upon every month of the year. Somewhere.
May: Northern Arizona, ca 1973, about a foot of snow on May 28.
June: A foot of snow in Wyoming while visiting Yellowstone National Park. Our tent broke under the weight of the snow.
July: The San Juan National Forest in southwestern Colorado. We were above 10,000 feet and got about six inches. This was summer of 1974.
August: On top of Mount Whitney, at 14,495 feet. We got four inches of snow. And were wearing shorts.
September: At a fire camp in Montana back in 2000.
The other months aren’t all that surprising.
However, you are in Minnesota. You know, the state that celebrates the melting of the last snow and ice with Independence Day?
No snow here, but we got a blast of wind yesterday that pushed the temperature below 60 degrees, and the wind’s not going to stop until Thursday.
Think how annoying it is for the mosquitoes!!!
carlie> @6: Worms don’t drown that easily.
Anyway, I usually spend a few minutes moving driveway-stranded worms to soil after a downpour.
PZ:
The first thing that greeted my eyes this morning when I opened up the blind was snow. Not a welcome sight. However, the sun is shining, and it’s melting off. Still too cold out though.
Here in Eugene OR, it’ll be 70 degrees today, but a little hazy from a big fire in Siberia.
“April doet wat hij wil.”
“Me thinks he doth protest too much.”
But seriously, last year, in Fargo, on April 15, NDSU was delayed for 2 hrs due to a ground blizzard.
Rob @#16 I usually spend a few minutes moving driveway-stranded worms to soil after a downpour.
That’s good; the birds would get them, otherwise. So you’re still helping them.
As you may have heard, we’ve got a problem with no rain, and more importantly no snow pack, here in California. Now there’s this worrisome story about a “giant blob” of warm water off the Pacific Coast. I guess this NOAA graphic actually shows the blob in action.
In other news, we’re discussing making you folks back East grow your own damn fruits and vegetables for a change. And don’t forget nuts! Do you have any idea how much water it takes to grow almonds? Mark Bittman, NY Times food columnist who’s living in Berkeley and teaching with Michael Pollan this term, got into it here. Then the spousal unit sends this article with some nice charts that highlight why it’s crazy to use 70% of our scarce water resources to grow so much for the rest of the world when those things could just as easily be grown nearer to where there’s water.
Of course, the chances of our multi-billion dollar agri-businesses giving up their prophets until some of us are dead is practically nil.
So remember: Think global, eat local.
Fed Ex all that snow to California, please. We need every drop of moisture we can get.
@robro:22
You need prophets if your business model depends on the weather.
My favourite snowstorm ever: we were trying to hike up a minor peak in California, but got turned back due to snow — in August. On the way up we could see the valley floor was all covered in white. It was a bit hard to internalize the fact that the white at my feet was snow at the freezing point, but the white down there was a salt flat baking at about 90-100 degrees F.
Death Valley: highly recommended.
@robro #22
Way ahead of you this year! My girlfriend and I are starting our first vegetable garden in our yard. It’s going to be a lot of work, and I’m sure local urban wildlife is going to give us trouble, but we’re excited and have already started digging and tilling. I can’t wait to make stuffed roasted bell peppers on the grill, fresh cucumber and tomato in salad and basil pesto!
speaking of punny names:
So M. Pollen is in the agriculture food science, eh? (see what I did there, phunny, eh?)
Dear Californians,
We Washingtonians feel your plight. We have a drought of our own, though not as severe. This state is the second largest user of irrigation, next to you. We already send you some of our water. Please tell William Shatner to quit trying to crowdsource an above-ground pipeline to send what water we do have to you.
Ahhhh, the worm apocalypse. When I see them on the pavement and they are still alive I scoop them over into the dirt. If they are deceased, my doggies get worm jerky.
As a native Buffalonian, I have no right to point and laugh.
But I’m doing so anyway.
Feel free to redirect that snow here, Taiwan is still in the throes of a drought. The torrential rain yesterday was a drop in the bucket compared to what was needed.
Like California and its 5% of normal snowpack, Taiwan had zero days of typhoons last fall and is now paying for it. People’s water is being cut off for several days per week, and like California, it’s hitting the poor the hardest. (The current levels of the major reservoirs can be seen here.) On the bright side, the levels have leveled off in the last few weeks, so the rationing is having an effect.
But as we all know, climate change is a fiction. 9_9
Weather forecast for a far more scenic and hospitable place:
@left0ver1under — They actually SHUT OFF your water supply for two days a week? No flushing toilets, no turning on the taps to wash your hands, no water for cooking?
Holy shit. The next time a fellow California complains about having to let their lawn die to meet a 25% reduction target, I can tell them it really could be worse.
mudskipper (#34) – It’s not my water being cut off, it’s other people’s.
Just like the US, it’s hitting the poor the hardest. You couldn’t know it unless you’re here, but all those areas listed on the link for water rationing are older areas, areas with lower rents and high population density (i.e. where the poor live). Wealthier areas and nice new suburbs like the one I live in aren’t being asked to sacrifice. On top of that, the only people who drink tap water are the poor, those with money always drink bottled or purified water because many don’t consider it to be safe. I’m not rich and I can afford bottled water, but a lot of people can’t.
One of the most ironic things is who isn’t suffering. West of the large island is the small island of Penghu, population about 100,000, less than 30km long. Foreigners like me don’t want to work there, nor do most Taiwanese because of the isolation. But unlike the larger island, Penghu has a desalination plant, so they can generate their own drinking water. Taiwan has cheap electricity from nuclear power and Penghu is on the grid, so the people there aren’t feeling the pinch.
South of England here, we just had a couple of weeks of heatwave.
PZ gets snow.
Down here on the Gulf Coast, we get near-endless rain (which, thankfully, has let up for a few days). Not sure which is worse.
@ left0ver1under (#35) — As far as I can see, the state of California is trying to be reasonably equitable when it comes to water savings, at least for residential consumers. (Whether the state is unfairly favoring agriculture is another question.) Each water district has been given a conservation target, which is based on their current per-capita consumption. So San Francisco, which uses about 45 gallons per day per person, is being asked to reduce 8%. Beverly Hills, on the other, has to reduce by 36%, based on their current consumption of 236 gallons per person. (It will be interesting to see how they try to wriggle out of that — I’ve read stories of the rich trucking water in or digging private wells.)
Most water districts are using tiered pricing to discourage overconsumption — each tier raises the price per gallon considerably. Since the poor tend to be low water users — no vast expanses of lawn to keep green and no swimming pools to be kept full — this kind of pricing is fairer to them.
Which reminds me of Bill Bryson (excerpt from Mother Tongue — English & How It Got That Way):
That was written before the recent(?-ish) trend of calling any breeze (or so it seems) a “hurricane”.