Maybe we should just cancel the whole semester?


Classes are scheduled to start tomorrow. I’m ready, I’ve got a couple of weeks of lectures in the can, swarms of flies at the starting gate, and a grand plan for lab work that’ll take me all the way to May. Students are probably trickling back this weekend, except…

It’s -12°C, snowing, and we’ve got 40kph winds howling outside my window. It’s supposed to drop to -20°C tonight. There are travel advisories up all over the place.

I’m anticipating a half-empty classroom tomorrow. I don’t anticipate the school being closed — this is Minnesota, we take a stubborn pride in plowing ahead through the most frightful weather — but I might have to offer the class over Zoom, for just this one day. I have a strong allergic response to Zoom anymore, but it might be the safest recourse.

Comments

  1. Hemidactylus says

    It’s 5.6 °C here. I don’t mind given it’s a welcome reprieve from summer. We used to have several freeze watches per year, but that sort of thing seems to have become a thing of the past, even with these recent Arctic blasts. I keep my thermostat kinda low and snuggle under the duvet. My power bills have been quite low in recent months.

    Hopefully I get away with not having to scrape ice off my windshield again this year (improvised CD case). Yes that can happen in Florida.

    Stay warm everybody.

  2. says

    Yep. It is definitely winter. In my area, the temperatures are not at the -20 degrees stage yet, but we are heading there. Meanwhile, the cold is biting if you step out of the door. I am wearing a warm base layer plus a sweater even indoors.

  3. Becky Smith says

    SNOW! ICE! SLEET! Been stuck in the house for three days! Schools, businesses, governments all closed! No mail! No deliveries! Running out of the cat’s favorite food! Temperatures at night in the teens. Highs in the low 30s-Fahrenheit. Help! We’re not prepared! Y’all, this is Georgia!

  4. Tethys says

    The wind chill is quite unpleasant, but I consider 19 F an almost balmy temperature for mid January in Minnesota. I haven’t even had to break out the down parka yet.

  5. rwiess says

    Seattle here, further north than Morris, suffering at 38 F. at the moment. Please accept our sympathy.

  6. Rob Grigjanis says

    Toronto has shelters available to the homeless if the temp drops below −15C. As though −14C is OK. Another brick in the fucking wall.

  7. Rich Woods says

    If climate change kills the gulfstream and turns the UK into Europe’s version of Newfoundland, I’m going to be a little miffed.

  8. Pierce R. Butler says

    Rich Woods @ # 8: If climate change kills the gulfstream and turns the UK into Europe’s version of Newfoundland…

    You’ll have a chance to appreciate the wisdom of Arthur C. Clarke in The Forgotten Enemy (even if he worked up a different backstory).

  9. Bekenstein Bound says

    Have you seen the results of the Brexit vote? The UK is already Europe’s version of Newfoundland. Certainly the people there are acting the part. :)

  10. John Morales says

    [ref]

    Just asked MS copilot about my location’s temps:

    “Winter (June to August): Daytime temperatures average around 70-71.5°F, with nighttime temperatures dropping to about 35.6-37.4°F.

    Summer (December to February): Daytime temperatures average around 75-77°F, with nighttime temperatures around 70-71.5°F.”

    (Nice climate is nice, so I moved from the Adelaide Hills when I retired)

  11. John Morales says

    [OT]

    And yes, I have a 6.6 Kw array with a 5 Kw inverter facing north and east; get around 8.2 Mwh/yr, since inception. Already paid for itself, not even paying any electricity bills, though without Gov subsidies I’d actually have to pay a pittance since the last adjustment.

    Got fans in every room, three reverse-cycle ACs (bedroom one is nice).

    (Still, some of us must suffer these things, so that others can do the brass monkey thingy)

    [OT]

    StevoR, I came to Adelaide (Rockville Avenue) in 1972, then burned out with EDS and bought a house in the hills (Springton, 1 acre), then sold that 11 years later for 3 times what we paid for it, then bought a place in Birdwood, then moved to Qld in 2020.

    My oldest sister (2 years younger than I) lives in Bridgewater.

    I know all about Adelaide Hills weather.

    And hey, no snow in SA hillls. Sleet and frost, sometimes. Less often, these days.

    Never, ever, where I live.

    (Not an accident, that)

  12. StevoR says

    If memory serves, didn’t we get snow on Mt Lofty once or twice . very rare and, ofc, getting rarer but still?

  13. StevoR says

    Hmm.. Googles :

    Duty forecaster Jenny Horvat it had “definitely been cold enough” for snow but said what was spotted at Mount Lofty could have been hail. “It could be a combination of both,” she said. “It’s definitely cold enough for hail and for snow as well up there. It’s probably the coldest it’s been at Mount Lofty all night [at 7:00am] so if it’s happening now it’s around the time.” BOM senior forecaster Vince Rowlands said snow in SA in September was “pretty unusual” — although it had occasionally snowed in October.

    Source : https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-09-25/snow-falls-in-sa-during-cold-snap/12701554

    Of course that’s Mt Lofty “summit” not Birdwood or Bridgewater so.. yeah. “Quotes” for Mount Lofty being not much of a real Mountain by global standards.

  14. John Morales says

    Anyway.

    By our standards in Oz (alpine regions aside, but not that much), PZ’s climate is basically antarctic.

    (Yeah, I know, arctic actually, but I don’t want to be hyper (ahem) literal)

    Of course, the climatic and the political landscape need no be similarly amenable to comfort; not like PZ would move to Florida, but then Qld aint what it was with Hinze and JBP.

  15. Hemidactylus says

    Oz would be a great place to live (or visit) if not for the drop bears. Must be terrifying without always wearing Vegemite on your ears.

    On a serious note, while I was watching a show about evolutionary leaps on Curiosity late last night before sleep, while they were highlighting how an ancient retrovirus is implicated in the novelty of placentation in mammals, they also had a sidelight about KoRV in koalas.

    https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/PEG10

  16. birgerjohansson says

    In winter, a bit of warm air can be a curse. Today we had rain…on the very cold roads and sidewalks. Bus traffic in Umeå has been cancelled and lots of people have hurt themselves.
    It is the kind of mayhem that would make the president-elect chuckle with delight as he watches children and old people comically slip and break their legs. “Look, Smithers. That street urchin might become quadrophlegic!”

Leave a Reply