(no subject)

[cblj_backup]

Either I caught this head cold at the party on Saturday, or possibly I gave it to everyone else; either way, everyone I know is sick, including our entire department. Good thing the Davos research and the yearly budget are both due this week!

I cannot believe how much snot is coming from my face. It seems unlikely that the front of my face could contain or create this much fluid, so I'm forced to conclude that my brain is now producing or storing snot. Which would explain why I'm functioning at half my normal speed, I suppose. That could also be the Sudafed.

Good thing it's not snowing...wait, what?

This weather is seriously creeping me out. There has been no snow this winter -- it has snowed three times, but it hasn't stuck once. It feels like early spring. It's January in Chicago and people are going around in light sweaters. It's been like nine months since we've had snow.

The apparent cause is a shift in the jet stream, which is sweeping further south before it hits us or possibly just not hitting us at all or something, I wasn't paying that much attention to the weather channel when they were explaining it. I don't know if that's global warming or El Nino or whatever, but I don't like it at all. The warm weather in itself is still creeptastic, like I'm living in some pre-dystopian moment in the first five minutes of a weather disaster film, but even creepier is that nobody else seems alarmed by it. Some people don't seem to have noticed that it's January and we haven't had winter yet. Some people are happy about it, and I feel like setting them on fire.

Maybe it's about to really slam us. I could just do with a blizzard right now.

Comments

[alexiel-neesan.livejournal.com]

Some people are happy about it, and I feel like setting them on fire.

Thank for for summarizing my thoughts so accurately. My weather app indicates snow for thrusday, but I call 'em lying liars who lies as I can see people in teeshirts outside in Columbus.
I'm just about expecting a snowpocalypse by mid-january now.

[carmy-w.livejournal.com]

The last time Kansas had this mild a winter Mother Nature sent us an ice storm to get things back on track. 9 inches of precip in that ice storm. People were without power for weeks.

[elucreh.livejournal.com]

Utah too! It's utterly bizarre. My employers just moved here from the Bay Area, and both his sister and I have been promising them that winter will be like NOTHING THEY HAVE SEEN BEFORE, and making them winterize their cars and buy snowblowers and waterproof snowboots...there has been a need for NONE of these things, and I think they are frankly unimpressed.

[the-randomist.livejournal.com]

We also didn't really have a spring last year, it went straight from SNOW to SUMMER. Utah weather is freaky anyway, but this is just bizarre.

[carmy-w.livejournal.com]

I know temps are supposed to plummet for Minnesota down to Kansas over the next few days. No idea if precip is coming along with the deep freeze, though....

[cat-eyed-fox.livejournal.com]

Yeah I'm in the Twin Cities and yesterday and today has been creepily nice out, upper 40s -I have my window opened and am comfy in a long sleeved thermal- but were do for a plummet in temperature on Thursday. WE're talking 10 degrees as a high, and a possibility of snow. Frankly if it's going to be bitterly cold I say bring the snow. This weather is freaking me out!

[venturous1.livejournal.com]

YEAH! we had our first snow yesterday, aand I was overjoyed. but its warm enough for ticks*, dammit, and that's just WRONG.
let's conspire on a serious Snow Spell, shall we?

*I live in Southern Maryland now, but grew up ice fishing in Michigan. a good freeze is important for the soul!

[switchbladesis.livejournal.com]

I've realized Minnesotans in particular get very confused if they can't complain about the weather in January. We've switched to imagining the upcoming summer with a slow dread.

[leighblack.livejournal.com]

Same thing in Minneapolis. Supposed to be the coldest two weeks of the year. It's currently 49F°. I didn't even wear a hoodie yesterday.

We're getting a cold snap starting tonight, but still no real snow on the horizon. It's freaky.

[xturtle.livejournal.com]

I know, right? I'm so ambivalent: on one hand, I got snowshoes for christmas! I would like to try them out! On the other hand, it's January and my dood is not whining about the cold. This is a nice break.

[kukkaseksi.livejournal.com]

Finland isn't having winter either, so don't think it is just a North American thing. I'm only 300 miles south of the arctic circle; I should be drowning in snow right about now. I wouldn't say that anyone here is wearing a hoodie, but we're a lot warmer than usual for January and with a pathetic amount of snow. It's just....weird.

[http://users.livejournal.com/jane_drew_/]

Yes-- I was expecting my trip to Chicago to be full of snow (which I was actually looking forward to, since I grew up in the snowbelt and am living down south), and the fact that it was not was just weird.

[dreamwaffles.livejournal.com]

The winter of 2010-11 was a La Nina year (I was sailing on the Pacific Ocean taking measurements of it during the fall), and the year following it is usually warmer just by comparison, but I agree about the weirdness of not having winter yet. I don't think this year quite qualifies for Nino though, because you have to have the matching ocean current, which I don't think we've had.

I know the PNW doesn't have 'seasons' like apparently the rest of the continent does, but we barely had a summer, and we're barely having a winter right now. At the very least we usually get *frost*, and that's only happened, like, three times.

Also, I hope your head cold gets better. I know the feeling of your sinuses deciding, 'fuck EVERYTHING, snot production overdrive time!' If you can manage cooking I recommend hot and sour soup. (I'd say just obtain it, but its base is chicken broth, or at least it is when we make it...)

[carmy-w.livejournal.com]

I am so f-ing jealous of your job right now....

(misses her lousy 14 foot styrofoam dingy)

[yoiyami.livejournal.com]

Yes yes yes. Granted, I'm also disoriented because I'm in Texas and grew up in NY. But this is still extremely disorienting and frightening. What does this say about the upcoming summer weather if we're already this warm??

[riari.livejournal.com]

Yeah that's my worry about summer. We've had warm winters before but last summer was HOT. I really hope it's not a repeat. 100+ degree days for months are not my favorite.

Though a cold front just pushed through with our highs in the high 50s that's a nice start back to Winter.

[twirlynoodle.livejournal.com]

It seems like nowhere is getting their normal winter weather, regardless of the jet stream ... SoCal is usually pretty mild, winter-wise, but this year has been vastly more so – we've hardly had any rain, and there is no snow at all in the Sierras which means we won't have any water next year. YAY.

I seem to recall reading an old folk weather proverb thing that said something to the effect of 'if you get an unusually early blast of winter, the rest of the season will be mild,' which certainly seems to have held true at least for us and the Northeast. So perhaps the pattern is not completely unprecedented?

Everyone I know has or has recently had a cold. It's only a matter of time for me – I'm coasting on garlic pills and adrenaline but I'm sure that even if I fend it off, as soon as this show is done I'm going to get it bad.

TMI: I totally sympathise with your snot-face – I had a cold once that was so bad for the congestion that I used one of those nasal sprays, which worked astonishingly well as far as emptying the sink, but it didn't turn off the tap, and without the barrier of existing gunk to slow it down it just kept coming and coming. Of course I was taking a 2 1/2 hour flight that day, of which the entirety was spent with a napkin clenched on my nose ... luckily my seatmate was sympathetic, not horrified, and gave me all her napkins when I ran out of mine. NOT FUN.

[bare-bear.livejournal.com]

*dying from the tmi*

[wellowned.livejournal.com]

i live in louisville, ky. which, granted, doesn't always get snow. but it got up to the 60s last week. i've barely been wearing a coat. and the one day it *did* snow? it was snow flurries that barely stuck on the grass. i miss snow. i long for snow. i need a blizzard so everyone can get a goddamn nap for once and come back refreshed because there was nothing to do.

if you get a blizzard, send it my way too.

[sgt-majorette.livejournal.com]

The warm weather in itself is still creeptastic...

Yeah. We're having this in NYC too. I always think a warm Christmas is bad luck for the coming year.

[rosefyre.livejournal.com]

Yeah, seriously, our one snowfall this year was the 1.3 inches we got...in October? Since when is the ONLY SNOW before Halloween?

[shazp.livejournal.com]

I'm down near Munich, Germany, and we have no winter either. It hasn't even really frozen peoperly yet. Up till last weekend they didn't have much snow in the Alps either. That changed. OMG that changed. People still snowed in after 4 days.

[utopia83.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I was in Switzerland over the past weekend.

I was *not* impressed, especially when the snowstorm translated to "no skiing for you! And no leaving the Engadine. Maybe."

[tree00faery.livejournal.com]

Isn't the jet stream supposed to like. Not shift?

I don't actually know anything about that. But whatever the reason, this year definitely seems noticeably different weather-wise in a lot of places. OH HAI, CLIMATE CHANGE.

[dreamwaffles.livejournal.com]

Caveat: I'm a biology major, not a weather person, but I do know a little bit.

The jet stream gets a little bit of variation, depending on what the ocean currents are doing, and El Nino and La Nina can both screw with it. I don't know that we're having an El Nino right now (though 2010-11 was a Nina) but if the ocean's warmed up enough, that would screw with the surface currents which then screws with the air currents.

OH HAI CLIMATE CHANGE indeed.

[alarivana.livejournal.com]

The SF Bay Area is also not having what passes for winter. It has barely drizzled in the last three months, never mind the storms that mean snow in the mountains that mean we don't immediately return to drought.

Even here, it's supposed to get below 60 sometimes. And WHERE IS THE FOG?

[marian715.livejournal.com]

I like to annoy the people who are happy about the lack of winter by telling them authoritatively that we'll have snow in April, to make up for it.

[bare-bear.livejournal.com]

I KNOW! It's normally about -25C here and multiple feet of snow, and yet even here in Winterpeg Manitoba we've got nothing on the ground and I haven't even broken out my winter jacket yet. >:(

Although I hear that we're supposed to get a snow storm tonight (it's about bloody time), and tomorrow is supposed to be pretty chill (for this year anyways) at -17C. I'll try to convince it to head your way next, eh?

[altorogue.livejournal.com]

I think Mother Nature is fucking with us, and is going to bitchslap us like crazy with a massive blizzard and then laugh. Dunno if it's the rumored snow this Thursday, but I'm sure it's coming.

I just want it to FREEZE GOOD already. Things are warm and thus wet and moldy and my sinuses are not appreciative.

[ysabet.livejournal.com]

It's being freaky here in Arizona too. Yeah, yeah, I know, desert blah blah blah... but January and February are usually when we get hit with the real cold, and it's 64 degrees out right now. It's supposed to go back up to 70 this weekend. WTF, Mother Nature? We've had snow on the Santa Catalinas ONCE this year, which is just freakin' wrong. I keep expecting us to get something horrible like a giant duststorm and hail combined... It's Arizona. It could happen.

[elrhiarhodan]

I'm coming to Chicago this weekend. And while I can appreciate the discomfort at the freakishly warm and dry weather, I have to say, Sam - SHUT YOUR MOUTH. Just for a day or two longer.

Take a look at the NOAA forecast for your fair city:



I would someday like to be in Chicago and be able to enjoy your city.

[copperbadge.livejournal.com]

But it's so much prettier in wintertime with snow! Otherwise everything's brown and muddy and disgusting.

[lunar8i8star.livejournal.com]

The weather is creeping me out too. I wore flipflops and no jacket when I ran down to the drug store last night. I shouldn't be able to do that in January. But they say there will be some snow by the end of the week.

[immelmanturn.livejournal.com]

It's so very home-like, having a Texas winter up here! I appreciate the welcome wagon, Chicago.

...then again, I keep looking over my shoulder for the giant hell-blizzard that's going to hit any day now. o_o

[(Anonymous)]

It's creeping me out, too. I'm in DC and it's been flip flopping between 60-65 degrees and 30-35 degrees every two days! I was almost relieved when it snowed a little yesterday because I'd been seriously worried, except it was back to 5o again today.

[derien.livejournal.com]

It's like that in Maine, too, and EVERYONE is creeped out.