Poll 2014-03-24 Spring is here! But this winter was...
Poll
Spring is here! But this winter was...
Mild
15 votes (33%)
Decently cold
7 votes (15%)
Ridiculously cold
3 votes (7%)
Ludicrously cold
8 votes (17%)
Meh. I don't live in that hemisphere.
6 votes (13%)
Meh. I live on an island in the tropics.
1 vote (2%)
Meh. I rarely go outside anyway.
6 votes (13%)
Reply 9 comments

I voted "Mild", for the same reason as why others voted "Ludicrously cold" (Score: 4, Informative)

by koen@pipedot.org on 2014-03-24 12:35 (#S4)

And that reason is the Jet Stream.

I live in Belgium, we had the second warmest winter since we started recording, and we broke the record for highest lowest temperature (it never went below -0.5 degrees Celsius).

The reason: the Jet Stream, which normally makes a wave movement, stayed in the same position for a very long time. For us that meant a constant supply of hot air and very warm weather. For England, the consequence was a lot of rain and storms. For the USA, the consequence was a constant supply of cold air and a very cold winter.

Now if the Jet Stream remains stable in a slightly different position (my country is only 300km*150km at its widest), we have a constant supply of cold air and very cold winters, like in the previous two years.

The diminishing of the wave movement of the Jet Stream seems to be caused by the lower difference in temperature between the arctic and the equator, due to the melting of the arctic ice, due to global warming.

Source, in Dutch: http://www.demorgen.be/dm/nl/5376/Ecologie/article/detail/1823838/2014/03/20/Waarom-deze-winter-nooit-een-winter-is-geweest.dhtml

Re: I voted (Score: 0)

by Anonymous Coward on 2014-03-24 12:36 (#S5)

It's going to freeze soon but thankfully only in the early hours in the morning will it actually be bitterly cold. Unless it rain. Then I may be screwed.

Re: I voted (Score: 0)

by Anonymous Coward on 2014-03-24 12:46 (#S6)

Be thankful you don't live in Kind Island. The Roaring Forties dumps dumptrucks worth of rain which combined with the cold can drench and freeze you in seconds. Brrrr.

Re: I voted (Score: 3, Insightful)

by songofthepogo@pipedot.org on 2014-03-24 15:52 (#SB)

We don't generally get more than about 10-20cm of snow in the valley where I live, and it doesn't tend to stay around long, but this year we didn't even get snow on the mountain. In fact, we got more snow in the valley than at higher elevations. The local ski/snowboard facility remained closed for the entire season, and even the facilities further afield received only about a half-meter of snow. All my shiny, new snowboarding gear remains untested.

Selfish reasons for my winter disappointment aside, we are also looking at a serious drought situation, now, and I wouldn't be surprised if this fire season is right up there with some of the worst on record. Not looking forward to the summer.

Re: I voted (Score: 3, Insightful)

by hombre@pipedot.org on 2014-03-25 01:07 (#SP)

I think you mean for parts of the U.S., not the U.S. as a whole. Remember, it's a pretty big country. (Yes, there are some larger, but that's hardly the point. The point is that the U.S. is sufficiently large that we have wildly different climates across the country. My boss has been out shoveling snow off his roof, while I've been sitting in a t-shirt & shorts)

I live in Phoenix (Score: 3, Funny)

by hombre@pipedot.org on 2014-03-25 01:05 (#SN)

So I voted "Mild." I think I had to put on a sweater once. Damned inconvenient, if you ask me.

As for the "Just wait until summer!" crowd, sure, I like sitting in the shade and sipping fresh-squeezed lemonade, or going back into the A/C when I actually need to do some work...

Re: I live in Phoenix (Score: 2, Informative)

by wiz0690@pipedot.org on 2014-03-25 03:39 (#SV)

Here in Ohio, tomorrow March 25, the weather people are calling for up to 2" of snow.

Pacific NW...Washington State (U.S.) (Score: 1)

by pslytelypsycho@pipedot.org on 2014-03-26 17:43 (#TY)

Here today we have rain, high 55F low 38F.
Very mild winter with only a couple of feet of snow spread out over the winter with the majority about 3 weeks ago.
We average low to mid 30's here in the winter and I think the coldest this year in Spokane (Eastern Washington) was around 16F.

Mild winter for us. (a few years ago we did get 73" of snow and a few years before that ice storms with temps in the negative 20's, but those are generally once every 10-20 years)

Motorcycle Weather (Score: 1)

by dotdotdot@pipedot.org on 2014-03-26 20:53 (#V0)

I was only been able to ride to work a couple of times this winter. I'm glad I can finally climb back in the saddle.