Sissy stuff to keep warm with during the "VORTEX"?

[Betty]

Still nicer than normal temperatures around here for November. But it's no wonder this very long thread started in 2014. Winter weather dramatically changed worse in my area, which was already internationally known a rough area in the winter. Not quite like Sibera until recently.

I remember taking regular trips far North to Quebec city for their winter festivals. It was so cold up there, that I was glad our winters weren't that cold all winter. The festival was a fun visit every year, but I didn't want to live through the whole winter there because it was too damn cold. I was used to it more than most though because in my earlier years, I got shipped up there to do work year-round even for weeks in winters. But Quebec is no longer is colder than our winters thanks to those vortexes.

Maybe because I'm so used to cold, is why I can't take much heat well. My metabolism just isn't built for it. Anybody who has ever cuddled up to me remarks that I give off heat like a furnace. Handy on a cold night but not comfy in the hot summer.

On the news today, 2 large snowflake icons show up on a large world map that a society of the nation’s meteorologists compiled to indicate the most extreme winter weather in the world during 2014.

One icon over the Himalayas & one over my town. We rivaled the Himalayas for the most severe winter weather in the world for 2014.

The entire upper Midwest USA & Great Lakes region is covered by the icon, so it wasn't just my town but the entire area was hit by these pesky polar vortexes.

The year 2014 in Buffalo began under the chill of the polar vortex, followed just days later by Blizzard No. 1.

Then, Blizzard 2.0 came March 12.

And, then after a six-month delay - also known as the Buffalo spring-summer-fall – the double lake-effect snowstorm of November 2014 arrived. Luckily my area of town wasn't hit with as much snow as north, south, & east of me... to the west is, Lake Erie.

But it wasn't just the snow but the extreme cold over the past few winters, where Alaska was warmer most winter & spring days, rivaling polar, Siberian, & Himalayan temperatures. Indeed, many winter days they recorded warmer temperatures at the North pole than in my town. If it happens this winter again, I expect Eskimos & polar bears to move in.

[Betty]

Dec 14th - 70F outside in Buffalo, NY!

Warmer than Los Angeles (52F), San Francisco (48F), Las Vegas (43F), Phoenix (47F), New Orleans (66F), Honolulu (69F), Mexico City (63F), Melbourne (63F), New Delhi (53F), & Rome (52F).

This is getting scary. You know when the cold air finally does blow in over those extra warm "Great Lakes", we're gonna get some serious "lake effect" snow storms & blizzards. Most of our snow comes from "Lake Effect" where cold air blows over the warmer huge lakes (larger than most states & many countries), & generates shitloads of snow.

Since November most days have been much warmer than usual, with only a few serious wind & rain storms. This time of the year last year, the southern most part of the city was buried under 4 feet of snow, & just south of the city line there was 3-6 yards (almost 3-6 meters) of snow since November. I was lucky. In the Allentown arts district, just outside of downtown, we only got a couple inches of snow in my neighborhood back then. But 2 years in a row it was frightfully cold, rivaling Arctic & Antarctic weather during winter.

Although it was unseasonably cold through spring 2 years in a row, with snow still on the ground in April, we've had no snowfall this season yet. Usually by around Halloween we've had at least a few sprinkles of snow. As of last week we officially broke all records since the 1800s for the longest time in a row that Buffalo has gone without even 1 snowflake of snow.

Not that I miss all that cold & snow, but these wild swings in climate over the past few years is scary. I see it has a definite very bad effect on nature & the wildlife. Just the veiw from my windows I see less than 10% of the birds, squirrels, & stray cats we did just 3 years ago. The over 100-200 year old trees I'm surrounded with are still fine, but they never get as bushy & full as they used to. Outdoor bugs around here are much less too... which some of the birds need to eat.

[Betty]

Well, we broke another weather record as the high temperature of the day topped of at 71F, beating the highest temperature ever recorded in December before at 64F in 1901.

Snow expected Thursday night or by the weekend, with a low of 28F expected Friday & Saturday night. A 43 degree difference in just a few days. Crazy climate!

[jeangurl]

Mid Summer here and our weather is the opposite to yours about 96 F today and over 107 F by Saturday.
I only wish I could get away with wearing a nice cool silky dress or even girls cullottes as mens clothes are really too hot and restrictive for this weather.

Luv Jeangurl  

[Betty]

I thought mid-summer there was sometime in January & spring should just be ending for you in a week.

Wow. My weather feed from there is way off. It's showing that it's currently is 81F at about 4:30pm there (12:30am my time). Isn't it usually the hottest there this time of the year between 2-5PM? It shows the high was 77F yesterday.

My weather feeds shows it should be in the mid to upper 90s there Thur-Sun, cooling down to 69F Mon, & a chance of rain Sun. & Mon. Are my international weather feeds BS, or is some of it close?

Our current hottest visitor over the past couple hours came from Bangkok at a very humid temperature of 90F, making it feel like a very sticky 98F. Our coldest is from Edmonton Canada at a bone chilling 11F. They're expecting 6F overnight, with no snow expected this week. But that's nothing compared to the 0F or colder we had in March, & -10F with -45F wind chills here in Feb. The north pole & Siberia was actually warmer than Buffalo in most of Feb. 2014 & Feb. 2015.

[Betty]

It's still been unusually warm here for December. It got up to the low 50s F today, & it's currently 48F. But just a couple days ago we had overnight lows in the 20s F. I was surprised near the beginning of the weekend to see on the national news that Buffalo got a lot of snow - - with deep snow in the pictures! Those most have been file images of previous year's snows or images from some distant town miles south of the city.

Living in the middle of the city, let me assure you we had no snow since April! However the airport miles east of the city did report one tenth of an inch of snow this past weekend.

We're expecting 63F tomorrow breaking all records for December, & 60F Thursday. But we'll only have a high of 48F for Christmas.

Lots & lots of clouds, & very little sun these days. With COPD I'm almost a prisoner in my home, because I can't walk far without getting out of breath. I also breathe worse outside, esp. on damp or humid days. With only 2, 3x5 foot windows, & a 12x18 inch window in the bathroom., it's almost like night in here on very cloudy days. This far north, we only get about 8 hours of decent daylight a day in winter. All my windows face north too, so it's even less daylight.

Fortunately, I stocked up on a deal on daylight CFL light bulbs right after the fire. So I can keep the place lit up bright for less energy than just one of my 2 air filters in the house consume. These were a quality brand that would last around 9 years of continuous use at room temperature. So the few that died, I still have lots of spares for. Because they lasted so long, I never got LED lighting except for battery operated lights & my Christmas lights. Except for the most expensive AC powered LEDs, I find they don't last nearly as long as they promise, or grow too dim to be useful in a short time. Some are even shock & fire hazards.

I don't really keep the place bright much though. For most purposes, a single 4 or 9 watt CFL in the main room, & a 4 watt one in the bathroom is all I need. But I'll turn on more light when doing projects to see better. When doing my hair & shaving in the bathroom I may turn on up to 20 watts of CFLs, which would be very bright in there.

[alison]

They are talking near or above 70 degrees F (21 C) on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day in the New York/Northern New Jersey area, which is crazy warm.  Average high is about 45 F (7 C).  I was out in short sleeves and sandals and no jacket this evening.  And while I don't put too much faith in long range forecasts, they're saying right now that New Years Eve in Times Square will be above freezing.

[Betty]

They had on the news that some plants are flowering outside because they think it's spring. Some trees have buds on them. They said because of it, there will be less flowers when spring gets here. Less flowers means less fruit, seeds on them, less food produced, less bees, & less for wildlife to eat.

When it does finally get cold plants & wildlife won't be ready for it anymore. It wasn't just a few days of unusually warm weather, now it's been a couple of months of it being warmer than normal.

All this dampness & high humidity is making my breathing terrible. I'm hardly getting anything done.

[Angela M...]

Hey Betty, I drove down a street the other day and there were yellow Dandelions growing at the side of the road on somebodies lawn and yesterday I saw a large flock of geese flying North.

[Betty]

We had some sun yesterday for a change. I would have loved to go downstairs outside, walk around the property, yard, or sit on the porch for a while. But my breathing wasn't good enough for me to want to bother trying to make it down & back up all those stairs.

Still, is was nice to see the sun shining from my windows while working on my new, my used computer. Too many dark gloomy days in a row can be depressing.

Cloudy & 47F here on Christmas. Breathing has not improved yet, but sometimes it's better by later in the afternoons.

Mon. night they say it will go down to 27F & snow. Tue. it will be back up to 40F & rain.