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

[Betty]

As you can see by the radar & satellite maps below, this is only a very narrow storm band. The problem has been, that these weather maps are almost identical to previous ones since Monday. So it's a constant, continuous, narrow flow of snow lasting days. Buffalo is just north of this band. so in about 90% of the city the snow is only a little above the ankles now. 5-10 miles south of the city line, & it's up to 8 feet deep.

[Betty]

Once again most of America falls into a polar vortex. Such vortexes were rare until last year, when by January they were almost constant, with up to 40F degree below temperatures in half or April. Half of April the ground remained frozen solid in my town. During last winter, average temperatures were colder than Alaska, & it's warmer right now in Anchorage than here.

Brrr, it cold out there, & getting colder. By tomorrow night they say it will be 4F with wind chill effects down to -15F.

[andyg0404]

Hi Betty,

Yes, indeed. The weatherman tells me that tomorrow morning when I head out for bus it's going to be 7 degrees and feel like 7 degrees below zero. Really not pleased to hear that.

Andy G.

[Betty]

Right now it's a windy 2F (-17C) here, with a wind chill of -16F (-27C)! Meanwhile far up north is in Anchorage Alaska, It's 17F (-8C)... toasty by comparison.

[Betty]

We just had a new member join stories from Iceland. Far there in the north, it's currently a cozy 35F (2C) in Reykjavik, Iceland. So the ice in Iceland is actually melting. Our warmest visitors are in Perth & Sydney Australia where they're expecting temperatures near or above the 90s F today & tomorrow. But right now they're cooling down because it's the middle of the night there.

[Betty]

Bad enough that we've been colder than Alaska, but I just found out we were also colder than the location of the Mars Curiosity rover.

[Betty]

Holy shit is it cold. Got down to -2F last night with wind chills down to -18F! My floors were like ice this morning. Even though somebody lives downstairs from me, I think the airspace between the floors froze.

[Betty]

Brrr. Got back down to 8F this morning. Can't complain too much after a weekend in the low 30s F, & daytime highs in the 20s F most of the week... pretty close to normal temperatures for this time of the year. Maybe it will even hit in the 30s for Friday & Saturday.

20s F may not sound like much, but compared to single digits & below, it's quite a relief & toasty. We didn't get many days as warm as 20F last year from January to March, & it was still cold & snowing through half of April.

Every time the furnace kicks on or I turn on a heater, I'm burning away a lot of money. No sissy stuff or sleepers are warm enough if I want to save some money by keeping the heat down a little. I'm wearing a hoodie over a sweatshirt, over a t-shirt to keep cozy. Below, 2 pairs of sweatpants. I look like I weigh 35lbs more with all the extra clothes.

I saw a squirrel outside my window yesterday for the first time since June. I wouldn't have noticed, but the poodle next door outside to take a crap, started barking wildly at one running along the top of the fence. Last winter's severe & extra long cold wiped out a lot of the squirrels, & year-round birds in my area.

[Betty]

It's been relatively mild for almost a week, with no snow. In my neighborhood there was mostly bare ground than snow, until today. We had a light sprinkle of about 1/2 an inch. But it's getting colder again. Not near zero F wind chills yet, but that might happen on Tuesday & Friday night.

I'm hearing about blizzards of 1-3 feet expected from the New Jersy/NYC city area up to the state of Maine. I'm seeing pix & clips of the area, & it looks like just a light sprinkle to me. On the maps & radar I'm not seeing where this snow would be coming from, because there is no blizzard on the radar there. I am seeing a heavy snow storm miles east in the ocean, but it seems to be moving away from land & not approaching. I'm sure the fish won't care about the snow.

It's a false alarm if I'm right, & there is no mega snow storm approaching land. The thing is, I saw no chance of the storm yesterday on the maps either when they were warning about it. I saw one near the coastline heading out to sea then.

[Betty]

Uh Oh. I spoke too soon. I just checked the maps again. The storm at sea just reversed course. It's now just beginning to hammer the coast of Rhode Island, Connecticut, & Massachusetts.