A Snowy Fat Tuesday - The Mardi Gras!!

18 hours of snow @ 1/3" per hour=???
6 inches of light fluffy, cold, dry air snow; champagne!! And, the storm is gone, racing out into the Atlantic with only a light dusting thrown back on New England. The sun is out here in white central Virginia but the temperature is still low. Stuck in the teens all night, it is likely only to move to near freezing but not break through to the melting side.  While this storm has moved on - headed with the Gulf Stream toward Europe, re-gathering energy??, just guessing -  the next, with much less snow to drop, will arrive late tomorrow and bring the wind and the coldest air this late in February since records have been kept.
Below zero, here in the south, is rare enough but usually needs the dark days of the first month of winter to happen.  Snow is far from rare in February for the upper south but it seldom lingers with the growing daylight and rising temps. The jet stream, with several deep dips this year has once again plunged deep into eastern North America, with dry air STRAIGHT from the Arctic. No wandering the plains, with time to warm up, this air mass is straight from the magnetic pole to Virginia. Bundle up!!
Fat Tuesday, the party of over indulgence, that leads to the thin, fasting time of the Christian lenten season likely predates the current tradition as truly a time of thin provisions. Late winter is the hungry time on Earth, for all creatures not hibernating. The birds are looking to get fat this Tuesday at the tire house, wave after wave of siskin and finch and junco and downy and even the wren, visiting and lingering on the feeders. There is likely to be much human overindulgence as this, it's all shut down, snow day keeps most humans inside in Central Va. But, it is a lovely Mardi Gras to venture out and enjoy one of the wonders of the big planet: a Snow Day!! Time to go out and play, today on earth!

Valentine Cold Front!!

Valentine's Day dawns cloudy and average temperature wise but those clouds and south wind warn of an approaching front; cold, dry air formerly of the arctic circle, the second wave of tundra air in so many days.  This one is predicted to be WILD: snow squalls and then the wind and then the cold - with wind chill warnings issued and the numbers deep into the negative range, minus 10's and 20's and maybe 30's.  Bundle up, keep skin covered or better yet, hunker down inside - just a valentine suggestion...
The clipper associated with this blast will re-form, yet again, off the New England coast and hammer the already snow buried region with another foot or two, not what they need but we were warned.  The consequences of global warming would be an increase in storm severity and welcome to our new (but ever changing) world.  Warming means more energy in a system and more energy leads to wild things, and swings.  Bigger, badder storms: hurricane or blizzard, drought or deluge.
Ya gotta love this planet - and this planet is our only option. Be careful out there and bundle up, but it's still worth a wander, today on Earth.