U.S. Polar Vortex

[wizard509]

I seen it snow 4 feet, followed by weeks of high winds and more snow, so that 2 story snow drifts blocked roads or covered buildings, yeah it could be a lot worse. I'm not a fan of the cold (especially as I get older - 51 years in 2 days...) Winter ain't over though, so it could get worse.

I see you live in Illinois which isn't far from here. Do you live in the far north part, cause I have never seen that much show ever except in photos. I have a friend that lives in Bismark North Dakota and I often wonder what kind of snow they get. Frances lives even farther north, so I wonder.

[Gamerprinter]

Yeah, northern third. If you bisect the state vertically down the middle, then slice the vertical area by thirds. Ottawa is about 10 miles east of the point where the center vertical crosses the top third slice. I'm about 90 miles from Chicago. I've got relatives around the center of Illinois on the Indiana border, and they hardly get snow at all, and it never gets as cold as it does here. Illinois is a lot bigger of a state than most people realize. If you line up Illinois directly over Texas, but keep it on the same latitute - the distance from the southern point of Illinois to the Texas panhandle is a difference of less than 50 miles. In a way Illinois is both a northern and a southern state... (residents in southern Illinois sound like they are from Kentucky, by their accent.)

[wizard509]

I lived and worked in a studio in Dallas for several years and I know how big Texas is and didn't realize Illinois was so big.Several years ago I made a quick trip to Chicago on business but that was in the summer.

[angelize]

Actually Larry even though I live in Canada here on the south coast of BC the climate is not as cold and snowy as other parts of Canada. We do however, get a lot of rain and the coastal areas of BC are actually a rainforest. A temperate rainforest, which is different from a tropical one but still a rainforest. Most of the snow here is up in the mountains. Some winters we do get snow at the lower elevations sometimes it will last a day or two but the rain usually follows to wash it all away. And often the snow here is wet and heavy hard to shovel and horrible to drive in as it makes the roads very slick and icy. On occasion we will get an arctic outflow and it will blow south westward through the mountain passes and when that combines with a low pressure system coming down from the gulf of Alaska then we can get really really hammered with snow. Thankfully though that doesn't happen very often.

[Gamerprinter]

Angelize's location in BC has weather influenced by the maritime climate which is wetter, but warmer, however all locations in the center of the continent, US midwest are much colder in winter (and tends to be hotter in summer). Your friend in North Dakota witnesses Arctic weather - the Dakotas are cold country in the winter, I wouldn't want to live there. As an aside, Ottawa, IL has the US's most diverse weather conditions with sub zero temperatures in the winter, and commonly over 100 degrees F in summer with 100+% humidity. About 50 years ago, the US Army Corps of Engineers was setting up a test road to test various kinds of asphalt for US highways, and after research they placed the test road in Ottawa, due to its wide range of extreme climate.

@Angelize, I spent 4 days stuck in Victoria (out of cash) when I got out of the US army - I was last stationed in Anchorage, AK and drove home intending to use the Alcan highway, except it was December, and 1 out 3 gas stations were open on the way down. I was getting paranoid about driving in the middle of Yukon Territory and running out of fuel. So I bought a ferry boat ticket (and spent most of my traveling cash) in Whitehorse, drove to the panhandle of AK and took a ferry down the Alaska marine highway, eventually getting to Vancouver island and Victoria. My parents were sending me $500 US Mail overnight express, but took 5 days to get to Victoria. The weather was cool, but not even close to freezing. So I've spent some time in your neck of the woods.

[angelize]

Even though the temperature is often 6 or 7 degrees above freezing in the winter here it is a very damp wet cold and you can get hypothermia if exposed to the elements too long. Another condition that can happen is if you don't have proper waterproof footwear and your feet get wet for a prolonged period of time is something called swamp foot and the consequences can be similar to that of frostbite. (these are the kinds of perils that hikers that get lost in the woods can face.

Another thing that takes getting used to here is the lack of sunshine from about October to May. We often go weeks at a time without a glimpse of the sun. And when the hot weather (well for us it's hot lol) arrives in July then we complain we can't stand the heat! There is a local saying that the 4 seasons are Winter rains, Spring rains, The Dry Spell, and Fall rains!

[Su Lawrence]

Hope you guys all stay warm and safe in the cold weather there.

Conversely, there is currently a major heatwave in Melbourne, Australia ... with temperatures in the 40's (and up to 44 degs C).

"At the Australian Open a player hallucinated that he saw Snoopy on court before he fainted mid-match.
A ball boy collapsed and water bottles melted on court as the tournament sizzled in extreme heat." - Herald Sun News article

A lot of weird weather at the moment... that's for sure.

[iamtheblues]

Well, I'm glad to hear no horror stories about the weather, I guess TG members have been lucky.
We woke this morning to our first heavy snowfall of the winter, but within a couple of hours of daylight, it started thawing as fast as it was falling.
I guess the weather has always been weird, which is why we have always all talked about it so much.
Bob.

[gracehjs]

Well here on the left coast we have had 80F weather, red flag warnings and brush fires already. Plus the Governor has declared a drought.

[wizard509]

It was snowing large clumps here yesterday but none accumulated. Kind of reminded me of when I worked in Dallas and was on my way back after Christmas. We had gotten as far as Oklahoma City when it started snowing like this, so we stopped to get something to eat but when we got back on the road about 4-6 inches had accumulated making the further progress impossible. We didn't get very far before we had to give up and spend a couple of days there till the roads once again became usable. I'm just glad yesterday wasn't a repeat of that.