Re: Arctic angst

1

I just want rain again.


Posted by: fake accent | Link to this comment | 01- 1-18 1:39 PM
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Hell yeah I felt that way when I lived in the Northeast and Midwest.

Do people count the increased habitability of cold places as a benefit of global warming the same way they count decreased habitability of warm places as a cost?


Posted by: torque | Link to this comment | 01- 1-18 2:36 PM
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Have you ever wandered around looking for staff so you could return a rental car at 5:00 a.m. when the temperature (before windchill) is -8?


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 01- 1-18 2:43 PM
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Well, its 3 degrees right now, but its supposed to get up to 16 tomorrow, and later in the week it might even get up into the 20s before heading down for a low of -18 on Saturday night.

My wife has been asking me why we moved away from the Caribbean. All I remember is that it seemed like a good idea at the time.


Posted by: Spike | Link to this comment | 01- 1-18 2:46 PM
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Anyway, one way or another I've been freezing my balls off since Tuesday and I'm now feeling the symptoms of cold stress (skin cracking, low-grade sinus issues, aches).


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 01- 1-18 2:46 PM
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Pro-tip: If your kid has a science project that requires collecting soil samples, don't put it off until you are off work for a few days.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 01- 1-18 2:49 PM
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New York winters are definitely nicer now than the ones I grew up with. The nice winters give me the creeps, as a sign of the apocalypse, but the 'normal' weather I grew up with meant my hands hurt from the cold even through gloves on a fairly typical winter day, ad I don't miss that at all.


Posted by: LizardBreath | Link to this comment | 01- 1-18 2:49 PM
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8

Just go down to Home Depot and pick up some potting soil. The science teacher doesn't have to know.


Posted by: Spike | Link to this comment | 01- 1-18 2:50 PM
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9

I'm wearing my winter-weight wool pants from LL Bean. I think I need to buy another pair with the wind blocker.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 01- 1-18 2:53 PM
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10

Personally, I find it incredibly unnerving that holidays I'm used to being about 60-65 degrees are now at about 70-75 degrees. This sucks! Like, unnerving enough to think about moving. Thanksgiving in LA this year, which was in the 80s when it should have been in the low 60s, was simply intolerable. We do have seasons, goddamnit, they weren't extreme ones but it was sure nice to have a sweater-weather season with rain and a separate beach-weather season, and that seems to be fading. I mean there are worse problems like wildfires or whatever but I'm talking about me.


Posted by: Robert Halford | Link to this comment | 01- 1-18 2:57 PM
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11

Kathy Griffin made an offensive joke about Donald Trump and this year she got to stay warm on New Year's Eve. There's a lesson in that.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 01- 1-18 3:00 PM
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I want colder winters. Winters in London are usually just cold enough to be rainy and miserable, but not cold enough to have fun things like snow and crisp, sunny mornings. Though, this year, it wasn't even cold enough to be miserable. The forecast for tomorrow is 10 C.


Posted by: Ginger Yellow | Link to this comment | 01- 1-18 3:03 PM
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I hate milder winters. Piles of slush for four months is terrible. Piles of snow for three months and slush for one month is overwhelmingly better. Driving on snow is fun; driving on ice (or ice under snow) is terrifying. And wet snow is much harder to shovel.


Posted by: E. Messily | Link to this comment | 01- 1-18 3:06 PM
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14

It's -10 C here! And sunny. I like it.


Posted by: E. Messily | Link to this comment | 01- 1-18 3:07 PM
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I'm in France in the mountains. Last year at this time they had eight feet of snow. I packed accordingly. Today I went for a walk up to 5000 feet and it was t-shirt weather. Mountains are weird.


Posted by: ajay | Link to this comment | 01- 1-18 3:22 PM
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16

Maybe they forgot to pay the snow bill.


Posted by: Spike | Link to this comment | 01- 1-18 3:52 PM
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17

The mountains are different from you and me. They've got more rocks.


Posted by: Opinionated Plains | Link to this comment | 01- 1-18 3:52 PM
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18

As they say, the piste is a foreign country.


Posted by: Ginger Yellow | Link to this comment | 01- 1-18 3:54 PM
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19

fun things like snow

DOES NOT COMPUTE


Posted by: Kreskin | Link to this comment | 01- 1-18 3:54 PM
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20

18 was painful.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 01- 1-18 3:55 PM
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I'm usually on team I hate puns but for some reason I feel like 18 is well-played.


Posted by: Robert Halford | Link to this comment | 01- 1-18 3:57 PM
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22

Exactly. Causing pain to readers is the point.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 01- 1-18 4:00 PM
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23

We're not having the Arctic blast on this side of the mountains, just a normal winter. Went XCing by moonlight last night, and downhill skiing today. It's inverted today, so 16F and very foggy at home and 22F and blue sky 4,000 feet up at the ski hill.


Posted by: CharleyCarp | Link to this comment | 01- 1-18 5:12 PM
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We're not having the Arctic blast on this side of the mountains, just a normal winter. Went XCing by moonlight last night, and downhill skiing today. It's inverted today, so 16F and very foggy at home and 22F and blue sky 4,000 feet up at the ski hill.


Posted by: CharleyCarp | Link to this comment | 01- 1-18 5:12 PM
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25

Sorry!


Posted by: CharleyCarp | Link to this comment | 01- 1-18 5:12 PM
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26

Here the main effect of warmer winters so far has been less snow and more freezing rain. Not pleasant.


Posted by: teofilo | Link to this comment | 01- 1-18 5:18 PM
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27

I'm sure that in the end, it will result in more people attacked by bears.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 01- 1-18 5:45 PM
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28

Here the main effect of warmer winters so far has been less snow and more freezing rain. Not pleasant.

Coastal Alaska is the new coastal British Columbia.


Posted by: fake accent | Link to this comment | 01- 1-18 6:00 PM
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29

Pretty much, yeah.


Posted by: teofilo | Link to this comment | 01- 1-18 6:08 PM
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30

Just remember not to smell like a pork chop.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 01- 1-18 6:11 PM
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Or whatever bears eat.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 01- 1-18 6:14 PM
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32

Which makes coastal BC the new Oregon coast , and Oregon the new California coast, and California charcoal.


Posted by: | Link to this comment | 01- 1-18 7:07 PM
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33

31: Honey


Posted by: Opinionated Pooh | Link to this comment | 01- 1-18 7:24 PM
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We're having strange winters since I've been back in Chicago. Some with very cold stretches, and some very mild throughout. I've been enjoying the cold, even the walk to the office from the train when the temperature has been single digits. I just think, "this is why no one here knows what Chikungunya is." And I find the cold easier to deal with physically than the wildfire smoke when I lived in California.

But I think the trend is toward warmer winters, so now I want to move to Canada and comforting insecticidal temperatures.


Posted by: ogged | Link to this comment | 01- 1-18 7:35 PM
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Also, walking around in the cold, I realized that although the difference between, say, 60 and 75 degrees is intuitive and obvious, the difference between 0 and 15 is no less clear, even if you mentally classify them both as "cold".

Also also, folks upthread are right, 40s and rainy is the worst weather.


Posted by: ogged | Link to this comment | 01- 1-18 7:50 PM
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36

Check your privilege, temperate-zone assholes.


Posted by: Mossy Character | Link to this comment | 01- 1-18 7:54 PM
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37

2: Do people count the increased habitability of cold places as a benefit of global warming the same way they count decreased habitability of warm places as a cost?

Sure, if by "people" you mean government agencies charged with economic forecasts and so on. But those benefits might be less extensive than people (this is whoever-on-the-internet "people") think - like, "people" talk about a future Canadian agricultural boom, but farmers need predictable weather without the extreme events that have become more common, and the topsoil in central Canada is apparently not great because 1) during the last ice age, the glaciers scraped it all up and carted it down to the American Midwest, and 2) the last few millennia of tundra climate haven't done much to replenish it.

Oil exploration in the Arctic Ocean, though, that's obviously wide open.

It's the other thread where we're holding on to hope, right?


Posted by: lourdes kayak | Link to this comment | 01- 1-18 8:00 PM
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38

36: Thanks. It's safe under my bed.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 01- 1-18 8:04 PM
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39

The difference between 0 and 15 isn't that big because both are really cold. The difference between 15 and 30 is huge.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 01- 1-18 8:11 PM
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40

37: Also, before they get to the weather, they need to clear the forests, drain the swamps, remove all the glacial boulders, and breed crops that can grow in Arctic day-night cycles. And build a giant seawall along the entire coast of Hudson's Bay to stop the whole region from re-flooding.


Posted by: Mossy Character | Link to this comment | 01- 1-18 8:12 PM
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41

36 You tell 'em, Mossy.


Posted by: Barry Freed | Link to this comment | 01- 1-18 8:39 PM
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42

forty degree days


Posted by: Stringer Bell had opinions | Link to this comment | 01- 1-18 9:06 PM
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40: So, you're saying they have a plan already.


Posted by: fake accent | Link to this comment | 01- 1-18 9:07 PM
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44

I dunno. Ask a Canadian.


Posted by: Mossy Character | Link to this comment | 01- 1-18 9:30 PM
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45

A Canadian doesn't go to the can without a plan.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 01- 1-18 9:33 PM
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46

"Remove pants, shit" counts.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 01- 1-18 9:34 PM
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47

That's a terrible palindrome.


Posted by: lourdes kayak | Link to this comment | 01- 1-18 9:54 PM
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48

It might be a good anagram. I haven't checked.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 01- 1-18 10:15 PM
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49

"Temperas Shiv Not"? "Nepotism Harvest"?


Posted by: Minivet | Link to this comment | 01- 1-18 11:00 PM
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50

It was probably better with the mystery.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 01- 1-18 11:22 PM
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"Nepotism Harvest" is a good description of the Trump Administration.


Posted by: teofilo | Link to this comment | 01- 1-18 11:27 PM
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52

The weather here oscillates between 40s and rainy and 30s and dry. After a couple days of one, the other one seems like an improvement.


Posted by: Walt Someguy | Link to this comment | 01- 2-18 12:51 AM
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53

Have been staring at a map of Canada wondering where the extra agriculture might go. Around the edges of the prairie, maybe. Northern Ontario looks fairly hilly, rocky and forested.

Also, physicist upholds the tradition of 'nature cannot be fooled' speaking:

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/climate-consensus-97-per-cent/2018/jan/01/on-its-hundredth-birthday-in-1959-edward-teller-warned-the-oil-industry-about-global-warming


Posted by: Charlie W | Link to this comment | 01- 2-18 2:45 AM
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AIUI there's a great swathe of flat (forested, swampy, acidic, boulder-littered) land north of the Shield.


Posted by: Mossy Character | Link to this comment | 01- 2-18 2:53 AM
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53 It being Teller one wonders if he had a plan in his hip pocket to forestall global warming by setting off a bunch of H-bombs.


Posted by: Barry Freed | Link to this comment | 01- 2-18 4:07 AM
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56

Would have worked.


Posted by: Mossy Character | Link to this comment | 01- 2-18 4:16 AM
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57

And realistically we're going to end up doing that anyway right?


Posted by: Mossy Character | Link to this comment | 01- 2-18 4:17 AM
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58

The greatest president. A goddamned genius.


Posted by: Barry Freed | Link to this comment | 01- 2-18 4:39 AM
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It's a cold Winter in Philadelphia when they haul out the icebreaker on the Delaware River, which happens about once a decade. By that standard we're not yet having a cold Winter yet, but there's still time.

My train crosses the Delaware by bridge. The icebreaker
at work is an amazing thing to see. Commuters stare and point. Sometimes they even start talking about it with complete strangers. When that happens the icebreaker is successfully handling both of its jobs.


Posted by: unimaginative | Link to this comment | 01- 2-18 5:19 AM
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60

58 what now?


Posted by: Mossy Character | Link to this comment | 01- 2-18 5:21 AM
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Pakistan? Shitgibbon has a point for once. But this isn't how you do business.


Posted by: Mossy Character | Link to this comment | 01- 2-18 5:25 AM
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58 facetiously to 57


Posted by: Barry Freed | Link to this comment | 01- 2-18 5:31 AM
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I hate being cold and very much enjoyed living in warmer places (weather-wise, at least), but after two very mild winters, my lizard brain is stupidly relieved at all the snow and cold this year. We had a white Christmas for the first time in years! It snowed an inch yesterday! Maybe we didn't break climate! Maybe it's gonna be OK! So no, apparently my climate change dread is stronger than my discomfort at the cold. Maybe ask again in February, when it's been months since I've seen the sun and it's still cold.


Posted by: ydnew | Link to this comment | 01- 2-18 5:59 AM
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55: I have 100% confidence that if we spent any time researching this it would turn out to be true.


Posted by: Walt Someguy | Link to this comment | 01- 2-18 5:59 AM
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I just remembered that I own an parka. Hooray. Off to work.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 01- 2-18 6:20 AM
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Sometimes they even start talking about it with complete strangers.

It probably gets old talking about how you boo'ed Santa Claus back in the day.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 01- 2-18 6:21 AM
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Wikipedia says he later changed his mind:

However, Teller, in his later years, would come to deride much of what he saw as increasingly common exaggerations and general doomsdayism on the matter of climate change.

Thus showing that old people became conservative cranks even in the pre-Fox News era. (Actually he signed on to an anti-climate change statement in 1998 so I guess maybe he was watching Fox.)
And in fact one of his proposed uses for civilian nuclear detonations was to make a port to more readily access fossil fuels.


Posted by: SP | Link to this comment | 01- 2-18 6:25 AM
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Maybe if you nuked the Athabasca tar sands the resulting centuries-long fire would produce enough atmospheric particulates to cancel out the warming.


Posted by: Mossy Character | Link to this comment | 01- 2-18 6:35 AM
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Boston doing their best to keep things warm for everyone in more ways than one.


Posted by: SP | Link to this comment | 01- 2-18 6:46 AM
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That's kind of awesomely badass.


Posted by: Mossy Character | Link to this comment | 01- 2-18 6:48 AM
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Since it is almost never cold enough to need my parka, I always forget about it. It sure is warm. And really dirty.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 01- 2-18 7:13 AM
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The Inuit have 28 separate words for "really dirty cold-weather clothing".


Posted by: Mossy Character | Link to this comment | 01- 2-18 7:15 AM
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That happens when you light you housing by burning blubber.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 01- 2-18 7:21 AM
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67 Actually he signed on to an anti-climate change statement in 1998 so I guess maybe he was watching Fox.

Teller was part of the disinformation machine led by people like Seitz and Singer--the machine that turned its attention to tobacco, to DDT, and later to climate change. Fox News is wrong on climate because of people like Teller, more than the other way around. Teller was always already a conservative crank.


Posted by: essear | Link to this comment | 01- 2-18 8:10 AM
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53.1 Just over a century ago, several of my mom's grandfather's uncles were lured to leave their western Iowa farms and set up farming near Onion Lake SK. Thus it came about that a couple of my mom's cousins were picked early in the NHL draft in the 1960s. (And. a generation before, a couple of my grandfather's cousins spent WWII in the RCAF.)

Oh look, half a dozen elk have wandered down from the mountains to the little hill out behind my house.


Posted by: CharleyCarp | Link to this comment | 01- 2-18 8:32 AM
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The use of hydrogen bombs to herd elk remains unexplored.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 01- 2-18 8:37 AM
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I'm sure there's a white paper somewhere.


Posted by: Barry Freed | Link to this comment | 01- 2-18 8:41 AM
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H-BOMBS ARE GREAT FOR EXTERMINATING VERMIN!


Posted by: OPINIONATED COCKROACH | Link to this comment | 01- 2-18 8:41 AM
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79

I've enjoyed how it's extended the growing season in Utah. We used to have frost by October 11 and now it's sometimes November before we have a frost. I still have peppers in my fridge and up until last week I was still harvesting kale!


Posted by: LizSpigot | Link to this comment | 01- 2-18 9:01 AM
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Kale in December and moose on the loose: truly these are the end times.


Posted by: Spike | Link to this comment | 01- 2-18 9:19 AM
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People might like this article: what if, instead of pushing cattle into a zone and checking back on them periodically, ranchers stayed with and actively guided their cattle? Much better protection from wolves, apparently, plus a boatload of other ecological and nourishment improvements.


Posted by: Minivet | Link to this comment | 01- 2-18 10:03 AM
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On the OP, I am indeed slightly relieved by having warmer winters - walking the kid to school in 5F weather makes me question my life choices - but long before I worry about apocalyptic climate change issues, I worry that the winters aren't cold enough to kill of, say, stink bugs.


Posted by: Nathan Williams | Link to this comment | 01- 2-18 10:12 AM
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one of the defects of our nation's capitol is that 40 and raining is the main mode of winter weather and/ it's hot as balls in the summer (albeit it is freezing cold there now.)


Posted by: alameida | Link to this comment | 01- 2-18 11:51 AM
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dammit


Posted by: alameida | Link to this comment | 01- 2-18 11:52 AM
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On the OP, indeed no I am not grateful for this cold. Good grief, are you kidding? I had harbored some hope that it might bring home the reality of climate change to some of the deniers, but I'm actually not sure anyone (scientist) has claimed that it's a result of climate change, so I dunno there.

5: I've been freezing my balls off since Tuesday and I'm now feeling the symptoms of cold stress (skin cracking, low-grade sinus issues, aches).

This. I had intended to second this 5 minutes ago, but had to put some lotion on my hands first (cracking skin on knuckles).

At any rate, everyone around here has a sort of serious, this-is-not-funny look on their faces as they go about their business. And it's a balmy 22-ish degrees F. in the last few days (when the sun is out). This morning I joked with a gentleman at the store that tomorrow might be barely above freezing, and he allowed as how it would therefore be spring, and he'll surely have to go golfing.


Posted by: parsimon | Link to this comment | 01- 2-18 12:18 PM
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Since it is almost never cold enough to need my parka, I always forget about it.

Kid checked out of his dorm on 12/9 and walked outside to find it had gotten much colder overnight and maybe he should have put on a heavier jacket for the sprint to his Lyft. He landed at O'Hare several hours ago and hasn't been heard from since leaving the airport. The Christmas sweater may not have been up to the task.


Posted by: DaveLHI | Link to this comment | 01- 2-18 4:02 PM
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Midway is much easier.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 01- 2-18 4:15 PM
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Except for the part where you can't hardly get there from here.


Posted by: DaveLHI | Link to this comment | 01- 2-18 4:50 PM
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Some wag at the other place defined "MNsplaining" as that thing that Minnesotans do of condescendingly explaining how whatever winter weather someone from another region is experiencing is actually very mild in comparison to a real Minnesota winter.


Posted by: Natilo Paennim | Link to this comment | 01- 2-18 8:43 PM
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I would love to live up in the far north though. Maybe I can buy some land in Manitoba, up near Gimli, of course. Sigh.


Posted by: Natilo Paennim | Link to this comment | 01- 2-18 8:44 PM
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The glittering caves of Manitoba.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 01- 2-18 8:50 PM
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89: That's good. Canadians are similarly guilty of CANsplaining.


Posted by: Just Plain Jane | Link to this comment | 01- 2-18 9:19 PM
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We just watched the first episode of season 1 of Stranger Things, and I'm so anxious I feel like I'm going to have a heart attack. I love the costumes and set design and characters but I cannot imagine watching another episode. That first episode felt like it lasted for hours.


Posted by: heebie | Link to this comment | 01- 2-18 10:07 PM
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We just finished both seasons- watched the last 4 hours on NYE!- and didn't like it that much because it felt manipulative and illogical, trying to force you to keep watching. I mean, not as bad as Lost, but I don't think any show will ever be that bad again.


Posted by: SP | Link to this comment | 01- 3-18 2:23 AM
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"Bomb cyclone."


Posted by: ogged | Link to this comment | 01- 3-18 8:18 AM
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I've seen those forecasts. They don't appear to be driving inland far enough to hit me. Also, I'm now not so sure I was getting cold stress as I appear to be just regular sick.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 01- 3-18 8:19 AM
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