Jan 17 2012
Baby, It’s Cold Outside
Also inside. Let’s put it this way: when I got up this morning, Audrey leapt gracefully on top of the propane heater instead of madly clawing at the door to go out.
The propane heater has a thermostat, which tells you how warm it thinks the room is and also how warm it has (supposedly) heated it to. There’s also a little thermometer on the barometer by the front door. Both agreed that it was a very chilly 40 in the house.
After putting on coffee and the heat, I grabbed a flashlight and ventured outside to check the thermometer there, which read a somewhat shocking 25 degrees. This may be the coldest I have ever experienced here in Hooterville.
I’m glad I left my tap dripping last night, and so were the cats – they wasted no time in drinking from it, even though there is fresh water for them daily inside and outside.
The long string of sunny days and freezing nights is coming to an end, though. We are slated to get at least eight days of rain, possibly heavy, which means there may well be landslides and flooding, the banes of a Californian’s winter existence. At least it will be warmer, as it always is when it rains, the clouds providing much-needed insulation. The high today is supposed to be 40. The low tomorrow, after the rains start, is supposed to be 43.
We haven’t had any significant rain since Thanksgiving, and I read an article in the San Francisco paper which said that this was the third driest winter since 1850. Also that there is more snow in Texas than there is on Donner Summit in the Sierras, a place notorious for snow and requiring chains to drive on in the winter.
Seems the weather is mixed up everywhere, doesn’t it?
2 Responses to “Baby, It’s Cold Outside”
Well, winter was delayed somewhat down in Ottawa but as usual it came full force. In this past few weeks, we have had snow storms, then a few days of freezing -33 celsius, more snow and more freezing weather, oh yes, another snow storm today, mother nature never lets us down, she’s in charge.
It’s crazy here too. In Melbourne they had a terrible hail storm, then the next day it was 40 degrees. Here it’s all up and down. One day it’s 36, the next it’s 25 (celsius). They can’t predict the weather here either. Everyday they say it’s going to storm, but it never happens.