SEARCH BLOG: WEATHER
In a week, I plan to be traveling for a couple of weeks. A large loop around the eastern U.S. One of the obvious issues is winter weather in the north. For the past few days, we awaken to a fresh layer of snow or ice or both. That's hardly what one wants for a road trip. But it certainly is expected this time of the year.
This winter has been quite a bit snowier than those of recent memory. I talked with my sister in Wisconsin yesterday and they were still digging out from 14" of the stuff. Pretty... but after awhile... pretty awful. Over at ICECAP, the story is that la Nina is to blame for that and a lot of other nasty weather. Of course, you've probably heard all that by now.
So, for this road trip, I will be driving a 4X4 pickup with big mud and snow tires. It will have tools and a golf bag and luggage in the back, plus some emergency gear... just in case. Of course, once I get south of D.C., that should be overkill... hopefully.
I bought a new Garmin GPS navigation device and traffic alert accessory. But there's no weather alert system on it yet. Maybe that's next. But that's what a radio is for. I'll have my digital camera and laptop so if I come across any unusual situations, I'll try to capture that for sharing. Maybe the palm trees in Florida as a symbol of the threat of warming.
In the meantime, I'm working on a project to update the 50 U.S. statewide minimum records temperatures for 2005-07. I have to wait until all of the daily records for all of the reporting locations are updated and then I can condense them in another Excel spreadsheet. I don't expect much in the way of new records, just as there were practically no new high records... although we did have some fairly cold weather last February. Still, the last few years have seemed fairly "average"... that's from someone who got to experience North Dakota in the late 60s and early 70s when a 3" ice storm or -110° F wind chill blizzards became my "norm."
So the 30° F outside right now seems pretty "normal" for February in Michigan... snow and all.
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