I'm SO confused! What's with the weather? In the past three weeks we have gone from dangerously cold, icy, snowy weather that is unusual for December in this area, to weeks of monotonous, leaden gray, to bright sunshine and fifty degrees. January usually has a warm spot toward the end of the month, but this is early, and is projected to be around for a while.
Mother Nature must be taking a vacation, because it seems that no one is minding the store.
A member of my herb group who lives in this area wrote to say that her thoughts had turned to planting because the weather was so warm. Of course, anything planted outside prior to the end of April is likely to be killed off in the final freeze. Generally, May 15th is our "safe" planting day for half hardy plants and annuals.
During the waiting of the past few days, my daughter-in-law commented that she thought the odd weather was due in part to the change of the magnetic poles. I know that scientists are anticipating this event. I don't believe they have enough data to determine how often it's happened in the past, but they know it's occurred many times.
My first question would be "Why does it happen?" The second question would be "Does it happen regularly?" Followed by "How long does it take?" Then I'd want to know if it does have an effect on the weather and what happens to birds who migrate. Will our growing zones change?
I can see I have a lot of surfing to do on-line. If you know the answers, I'd be happy to arrange for you to be a guest blogger!
Comments (7)
Same here, only it's been 60 degrees three days this week. I fear we will pay for it dearly in February and March.
Posted by Susan | January 12, 2006 7:40 PM
Posted on January 12, 2006 19:40
And, why does earth have magnetic poles, at all? Surprisingly, we had 1.5 inches of snow, Tuesday (I got to have snow ice cream for breakfast!) We still have a bit of snow hanging about in the shady areas of our yards. One of my friends who lives on the west side of Wichita (Derby is south and a bit east of most of Wichita) said that they had narey a flake.
Posted by Cop Car | January 12, 2006 9:46 PM
Posted on January 12, 2006 21:46
We've had rain this morning, and they are forecasting snow for this afternoon. I think it's a good thing I went to the store yesterday. I can stay in until the roads are clear again.
Cop Car, when we talk about weather here, it's a given that the rain stops south of Interstate 80. I don't know if it's the road, or the topography of the area, but the rain frequently gets to Morris and stops.
Posted by buffy | January 13, 2006 11:02 AM
Posted on January 13, 2006 11:02
It's the Arkansas Rivers (Big & Little become The Arkansas River in Wichita, as you probably recall) that are the divider here. There is usually a 2-degree temperature change when I cross the river (according to my car's sensor system). As to Tornadoes, they seem to follow I-35.
Posted by Cop Car | January 13, 2006 11:32 AM
Posted on January 13, 2006 11:32
I'm pretty sure tornadoes are affected by the heat rising from the asphalt of the Interstate. If that's the case, then thunderstorms or rain showers must be, too.
When I was growing up, my father bought two acres of a farm field and built our house at the corner of the field. You could stand in the kitchen looking south and see where the line of showers stopped just at a ridge in the field between the farmer's house and ours. If it was raining there, we'd be in sunshine. It was my first lesson in microcosms.
The weather break at I-80 is so pronounced that the fertilizer companies have formulations that are not to be used north of I-80!
Posted by buffy | January 13, 2006 2:42 PM
Posted on January 13, 2006 14:42
Wow! Interesting about the fertilizer formulations. I know when I was flying, even when flying above an undercast (which would, of course, be an overcast to those on the ground), we could tell where cities, distillation plants, and power plants were--by the humps in the cloud cover. (Pilots used that knowledge in emergencies, I'd read.) In Florida, I knew exactly where we were on approach (in a commercial airliner) into Panama City when we hit the stench from the papermill.
Mankind does SO affect the weather. I think that I read about how people complained about its "always" raining on weekends; but, that it was the accummulation of particulates in the air during the week (from auto emissions and manufacturing) that triggered the rain. You get the predictable lake effects there in Chicago, while in Albuquerque, they get the valley effect. The balloonists can depend upon the wind directions and the way they change with location/time in the area, due to the topography and radiant energy from the sun at various times of day.
Posted by Cop Car | January 14, 2006 5:09 AM
Posted on January 14, 2006 05:09
Fascinating subject, isn't it??
Posted by buffy | January 14, 2006 3:29 PM
Posted on January 14, 2006 15:29