Sunday, December 31, 2006
Snowlessness doesn't equal hopelessness
Andrew Freedman @ 2:00 AM
The new year arriving tonight is not a happy one for most of us winter weather extremists. We're now in a clinical depression and in desperate need of treatment for jilted snow lovers syndrome (JSLS, pronounced "Jeezls"). Nearly every commenter on this site during the past two weeks has exhibited classic signs of the disorder.
Jason Samenow's Forecast
Today: Mostly cloudy. High 47.Tonight: Rain developing between 10pm and 1am. Lows 42-47.
Tomorrow: Morning rain, a break, then a 30% chance of late afternoon showers and even the rumble of thunder. Mild, with highs near 60.
Check back tomorrow for Jason's week-ahead forecast.
A diagnosis is simple. If you answer yes to two or more of the following questions, your answer may not be a change in the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO), but rather prescription drugs:
Have you continuously tuned into local and national weathercasts longing to hear the words "significant pattern change?"
Have you been reading AccuWeather's blogs for the first time, or more religiously than you used to?
Have you hypothesized increasingly desperate explanations for why this mild weather refuses to lose its grip?
And finally, did you vow to harm anyone in Denver during the past two weeks?
I fit all the above criteria. Two days ago I told someone that the people in Denver didn't "deserve" their second major snowstorm because they already got a blockbuster only a few days prior.
The syndrome is glaringly evident in recent comments on capitalweather as the snow obsessed try to explain why Mother Nature has decided to screw us over. The comments offer a peak into the psyche of syndrome sufferers as we fight the urge to "throw in the towel" on winter '06/07.
Thus far acronyms are taking the place of Prozac and Zoloft, but I fear they can only hold things together for a little while longer.
"IF the MJO can stay together and continue to propagate eastward...." said the struggling to be optimistic user "Climo" on Dec. 28.
"Do i see a negative NAO reading in about 2 weeks? tell me if im wrong, but perhaps winter will return," said a momentarily sunny Kenneth on the 29th.
"Madden-Julian update: It looks as though the MJO will be moving to Phase 5 some time next week," wrote the prolific and puzzling John Andre (El Bombo) on the 29th.
We're grasping at straws! At this point it doesn't matter what the reason is for this miserable weather. What matters is that it's miserable and that we're unhappy and that as of today there's no end in sight. My challenge, therefore, for the first couple of weeks of 2007 is for us not to pay attention to long range forecasts. They're too depressing.
We're punishing ourselves by trying to demystify the intricacies of teleconnections and oscillations when what we're really doing is sacrificing our enjoyment of the present in favor of our obsession over the snowless state of the future.
Go for a walk. Take a bike ride. Marvel at the sounds of crickets on a winter's evening in Virginia. Go see a comedy show. Go see a movie. Live my brethren, live! And the snow will come, although maybe not until 2008.
Also, to cheer up a bit, listen to this song making fun of NOAA Weather Radio. Then, if you must indulge in weather research, look to the past rather than the future by reviewing the weather of 2006 courtesy of the National Climatic Data Center.
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