Anyone else thing the weather has been crazy?

[Guest TN.Frank]

Seems like it's a lot colder now then it really should be. Normally we don't get snow and cold like this up on the Plateau until late Jan. early Feb. but dang, where's all that "Global Warming" they keep talking about. I'd sure like to see some of it now, burrrrr!

[Guest GT_Rat]

Typical Tennessee. The only thing consistent about the weather here is that it's inconsistent.

[Guest RiseMechanical]

Exactly! A saying I've heard since I was a kid is that, if you don't like the weather in TN, just wait a few minutes!

[Guest TargetShooter84]

Exactly! A saying I've heard since I was a kid is that, if you don't like the weather in TN, just wait a few minutes!

+1

[Guest mustangdave]

Global Warming...is now referred to as Climate Change...gives the weather nazi's some wiggle room when they don't get it right

[kb4ns]

[Guest m&pc9]

o nose not the unicorns.

[Mike.357]

Exactly! A saying I've heard since I was a kid is that, if you don't like the weather in TN, just wait a few minutes!

this is the fourth state I have lived in. Heard that quote applied to every one of them.

[Guest Jamie]

Seems like it's a lot colder now then it really should be. Normally we don't get snow and cold like this up on the Plateau until late Jan. early Feb. but dang, where's all that "Global Warming" they keep talking about. I'd sure like to see some of it now, burrrrr!

Well, we may not be right at the usual average, however, 42 years ago we got our first snow on the morning of Nov. 1st.

That's right, we had several inches of snow the day after Halloween.

And then there's always this sort of crap:

So no, I'm not gonna be convinced of "global warming" or "Human-induced climate change" any time soon, or even that what we're seeing is all that abnormal.

[NashvilleStage]

And then there's always this sort of crap:

Was this the morning that we (in Nashville) got almost 2 feet of snow?

[Guest Jamie]

Was this the morning that we (in Nashville) got almost 2 feet of snow?

2 feet? I don't thinks so... 2 feet of snow would shut Nashville down for a month.

No, that's just one example of the late-season surprises that the weather can pull around here. Usually our last snowfall is around the middle or early part of March. So a mid-April one - even one that doesn't accumulate much or stick around for more than a few hours - is rather odd.

[Guest Letereat!]

Exactly! A saying I've heard since I was a kid is that, if you don't like the weather in TN, just wait a few minutes!

Funny, people say that in every part of the country i have ever visited.

[TGO David]

And then there's always this sort of crap:

Not as bad as this front... [link]

[BrasilNuts]

Not as bad as this front...

Looks like PA is about to get f***ed.

[Guest Jamie]

Not as bad as this front... [link]

"So is that a storm in your pants or are you just happy to see me?"

[JAB]

I don't know if we should consider this weather 'odd' or not. I have no stack of statistics to pull out and show. What I do have are memories of being a kid in the 1970s and early 1980s living in the TN Valley (in Lenoir City, nowhere near the 'higher elevations') and having to wear our heavy coats when trick or treating because it was already really cold by the end of October. I remember a time when we actually needed our winter coats for most of the winter, not just a few weeks in January or so. I also remember a few years when we had to go to school for 1/2 days on Saturdays because we used up more than our scheduled amount of our snow days (and we generally had more snow days built into the schedule back then than they seem to have, now.) I remember more than one year that we got a few extra days tacked onto the end of our Christmas vacation because it snowed so much on or around New Year's Day that schools had to remain closed for another couple of days.

As I said, these are only my memories with no stack of numbers to validate them. However, I can't help but thinking that our current 'weird' weather is more a return to normal than anything else.

As for global warming, climate change or whatever you want to call it, I have no doubt that it is real. Such changes in climate have been causing and ending ice ages for millennia and there is no reason to believe that the cycle has stopped just because people are here any more than there is reason to believe that we are causing it now just because we happen to be here this time around. In fact, there is no real reason to believe that the entirety of modern human history (and even some of our prehistory) hasn't taken place in a warming period during an ice age. Maybe that ice age (the Wurm, to be specific) is finally ending, for real.

Further, according to the fossil and geological records (you know, hard evidence), there was a time when there were NO polar ice sheets, Alaska had a climate more like modern Ft. Lauderdale and much of the planet was covered with tropical vegetation. Of course, a lot of that was probably before Australia broke away from Africa and changed the circum-global ocean currents but the climate has 'changed' more than once since. Heck, there have even been mammoth found frozen with undigested palm fronds in their stomachs (suggesting that the climate change took place very quickly.) So maybe this whole 'climate change' thing is really just a return to normal. Not normal for us, maybe, but normal for a planet that was already old when the first recognizable hominid decided to stand up on two feet and walk. Do we humans pollute and damage our environment? Yes, undeniably. Should we believe that we are causing 'climate change' when such change happened untold numbers of times before humans even existed? I don't see why we should.

Edited December 15, 2010 by JAB

[StPatrick]

Don't be too surprised - if you look at the "Old Farmer's Almanac" (I know, the predictions are based on silly stuff like solar activity and ocean currents, as opposed to BS models with myriad assumptions*), they're calling for a colder than normal winter for TN, with average precipitation. Like most every other year, they expect the heaviest precip to occur in late Feb / early March.

*No bull there - I know the ins and outs of statistical modeling, especially the limitations.

[Guest Letereat!]

I don't know if we should consider this weather 'odd' or not. I have no stack of statistics to pull out and show. What I do have are memories of being a kid in the 1970s and early 1980s living in the TN Valley (in Lenoir City, nowhere near the 'higher elevations') and having to wear our heavy coats when trick or treating because it was already really cold by the end of October. I remember a time when we actually needed our winter coats for most of the winter, not just a few weeks in January or so. I also remember a few years when we had to go to school for 1/2 days on Saturdays because we used up more than our scheduled amount of our snow days (and we generally had more snow days built into the schedule back then than they seem to have, now.) I remember more than one year that we got a few extra days tacked onto the end of our Christmas vacation because it snowed so much on or around New Year's Day that schools had to remain closed for another couple of days.

As I said, these are only my memories with no stack of numbers to validate them. However, I can't help but thinking that our current 'weird' weather is more a return to normal than anything else.

As for global warming, climate change or whatever you want to call it, I have no doubt that it is real. Such changes in climate have been causing and ending ice ages for millennia and there is no reason to believe that the cycle has stopped just because people are here any more than there is reason to believe that we are causing it now just because we happen to be here this time around. In fact, there is no real reason to believe that the entirety of modern human history (and even some of our prehistory) hasn't taken place in a warming period during an ice age. Maybe that ice age (the Wurm, to be specific) is finally ending, for real.

Further, according to the fossil and geological records (you know, hard evidence), there was a time when there were NO polar ice sheets, Alaska had a climate more like modern Ft. Lauderdale and much of the planet was covered with tropical vegetation. Of course, a lot of that was probably before Australia broke away from Africa and changed the circum-global ocean currents but the climate has 'changed' more than once since. Heck, there have even been mammoth found frozen with undigested palm fronds in their stomachs (suggesting that the climate change took place very quickly.) So maybe this whole 'climate change' thing is really just a return to normal. Not normal for us, maybe, but normal for a planet that was already old when the first recognizable hominid decided to stand up on two feet and walk. Do we humans pollute and damage our environment? Yes, undeniably. Should we believe that we are causing 'climate change' when such change happened untold numbers of times before humans even existed? I don't see why we should.

Hark, I hear the voice of sound reason and self directed thought and it is pleasant and soothing. Agreed on all statements above!!:up:

[NashvilleStage]

Was this the morning that we (in Nashville) got almost 2 feet of snow?

2 feet? I don't thinks so... 2 feet of snow would shut Nashville down for a month.

Alright, now you're gonna make me look it up.

(rummage, rummage...)

Ok, looks like you're right. The one I was thinking of was Jan 16th, 2003. NOAA says that we got 7" that day. Link: Snowstorms Producing at Least 6" at Nashville

I coulda sworn that there was a foot & a half in my front yard, but that could have been from drifts & such.

But yeah, that one shut down Nashville for almost a week.

[StPatrick]

Hark, I hear the voice of sound reason and self directed thought and it is pleasant and soothing. Agreed on all statements above!!:up:

Amen. We are capable of great and terrible things, but it would be wise to remember that the Earth has been here for billions of years, and will be here for billions more. It seems a bit arrogant to assume that we can change the entire planet by our very existence. Rather, the world is as it is because we are able to observe it as it is now, and if it were any other way, we would not be here to observe it. I'm not sure I agree entirely with the previous, but here's the philosophical underpinnings of the idea:

Anthropic principle - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[Guest Jamie]

Alright, now you're gonna make me look it up.

(rummage, rummage...)

Ok, looks like you're right. The one I was thinking of was Jan 16th, 2003. NOAA says that we got 7" that day. Link: Snowstorms Producing at Least 6" at Nashville

I coulda sworn that there was a foot & a half in my front yard, but that could have been from drifts & such.

But yeah, that one shut down Nashville for almost a week.

Yeah, '03 was a rough year for snow... we had several that were more than a couple of inches up here in Feb. alone.

This one on the 9th:

And this one around the 25th or so:

Thought I had pics of the one in Jan. of that year but I'll be damned if I can find 'em... :-\

Oh, and don't forget, we started this year out with a couple of good ones in Jan...

... and Feb...

... so I guess the year's gonna go out the same way it came in.

[Guest Jamie]

And now we're back to 50 degrees this morning.

The previous few days must'a been a practice run...