See? This is where "The Holidays" originating in the Northern Hemisphere, are better suited to the South.
In about 14 hours, people are going to start gathering in Times Square in New York City, and stand outdoors, en masse in -13 C weather -- in a strong wind, off the Hudson River. They'll have thousands of other people packed in close around them, but still...
Not around here -- we're on the coast, less then 20 feet above sea level, and near the southern border with North Carolina. The coldest it usually gets is +2 C. And around Christmas, we have 3% chance of snow.
But the east coast of the U.S. is having a major cold snap this week (it's usually not that cold in New York, either -- doesn't often get that cold until February)...
Thanks to global warming, though, the jet stream, which usually keeps arctic air restricted to the arctic circle is fluctuating, and dipping south, so we're feeling temps usually reserved for northern Canada...
Of course, the climate change deniers (including that man in the White House) say this is proof that global warming isn't really happening at all.
If I recall correctly -- might have been this time last year -- I think you and I are roughly equidistant from the equator... Just in opposite directions! East/West, too.
So it makes sense that our climates are similar.
BTW, I'm wearing the leg warmers you made for me, right now. Thanks again. They're comfy.
Are we? Cool! I know that when I last looked, we're opposite the north coast of Spain, and Milan; I looked because an Australian friend thought I'd almost moved to the Antarctic circle. Inland from here the climate is very northern Italy: hot, dry summers and cold, snowy winters, but it's pretty even and mild here. It's generally cooler than Auckland but drier; I loathed the sticky humidity up there. Is it humid where you are?
I'm so glad! I must get round to writing up that pattern as I had to research techniques for getting the Fibonacci rings to be rings and not the spirals they actually are.
In the summer it is, yeah. But that's 'cause the whole area is marshy.
(The places where it snows/gets cold in Virginia is the Blue Ridge Mountain region. Here's a simplified map (I'm in the lower right corner --right at the edge of the picture)
Thank you! Level with the word Virginia, right on the coast? Can you see that large island, Delmarva (?) from there? I've heard about Tangier English, I think in the TV series The Story of English.
It's not an island, Delmarva is a peninsula (which contains bits of the states Delaware, Maryland, and Virginia [postal abbreviated as VA). The reason it looks like an island when you look for maps of Virginia in isolation, is they don't show the Delaware and Maryland parts that're attached to land.
And no, I can't. The bridge from the end of the Delmarva peninsula to mainland Virginia is 20 miles long (the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel -- one of the longest bridges in the country), and I'm several miles inland from the shore. It's also north of me, by a smidge.
That explains the name! I did read that it was a peninsula till they dug a canal, but yeah, that doesn't really mean it's a proper island. It's hard to gauge distances on maps so I wondered.
My father noted that he whole peninsula is shaped like one of those old fashioned Pointing Finger icons... And it's pointing, more or less, at my neighborhood.
I often feel sorry for people in the other half, only getting a couple of days off and hardly any school holidays, heading straight back to normal life instead of getting our long, lazy break. Even businesses that stay open have a quieter time of it, with so many others closed and not making orders.
Though our winter does get long and dreary, with no public holiday between early June (Queen's Birthday ) and late October (Labour Day).
Well, we still get a long vacation time away from school in summer (your winter), from June - September, so...
But the lights and the extra greenery bedecking everything is welcome.
And then we get Valentine's day, which comes at the tail end of winter. And that would be great -- except all the pressure to find romance kinds of spoils it.
I used to think the school holidays of 6 weeks stretched ahead for glorious ever, but you guys get 3 months! [envies in retrospect] No wonder kids get sent to camp! But once we're working, we have 4 weeks a year by law which I think is more than Americans get.
And now, it is midnight and a few seconds into the New Year, for me!
(Audrey's staying with her other client over night, and I'm sleeping in my chair tonight -- well, I told myself I'll stay awake until after the fireworks are over, 'cause I'd rather get to sleep late than be startled awake).
It's a sunny day, an improvement on the morning drizzle yesterday. Our cool new PM spent the new year at a music festival. At least politics will be vastly improved in 2018, here anyway.
Happy New Year. The weather in the UK can't make up its mind at the moment. Keeps going from chilly (with snow) to only needing a hoodie to go out in. Global warming!
Happy New Year! Paihia had excellent fireworks launched from a barge in the bay, some real window-rattlers, reflecting in the calm water. Today is rainy in the north, putting a damper on the craft market, but bad weather is not distressing when there's a lovely view.
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In about 14 hours, people are going to start gathering in Times Square in New York City, and stand outdoors, en masse in -13 C weather -- in a strong wind, off the Hudson River. They'll have thousands of other people packed in close around them, but still...
Anyway! Happy New Year!
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Happy new year to you too!
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But the east coast of the U.S. is having a major cold snap this week (it's usually not that cold in New York, either -- doesn't often get that cold until February)...
Thanks to global warming, though, the jet stream, which usually keeps arctic air restricted to the arctic circle is fluctuating, and dipping south, so we're feeling temps usually reserved for northern Canada...
Of course, the climate change deniers (including that man in the White House) say this is proof that global warming isn't really happening at all.
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And this year we have summer, 6 weeks of it so far! We only got two last year, and then in single isolated days.
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So it makes sense that our climates are similar.
BTW, I'm wearing the leg warmers you made for me, right now. Thanks again. They're comfy.
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I'm so glad! I must get round to writing up that pattern as I had to research techniques for getting the Fibonacci rings to be rings and not the spirals they actually are.
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(The places where it snows/gets cold in Virginia is the Blue Ridge Mountain region. Here's a simplified map (I'm in the lower right corner --right at the edge of the picture)
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And no, I can't. The bridge from the end of the Delmarva peninsula to mainland Virginia is 20 miles long (the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel -- one of the longest bridges in the country), and I'm several miles inland from the shore. It's also north of me, by a smidge.
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My father noted that he whole peninsula is shaped like one of those old fashioned Pointing Finger icons... And it's pointing, more or less, at my neighborhood.
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I often feel sorry for people in the other half, only getting a couple of days off and hardly any school holidays, heading straight back to normal life instead of getting our long, lazy break. Even businesses that stay open have a quieter time of it, with so many others closed and not making orders.
Though our winter does get long and dreary, with no public holiday between early June (Queen's Birthday ) and late October (Labour Day).
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But the lights and the extra greenery bedecking everything is welcome.
And then we get Valentine's day, which comes at the tail end of winter. And that would be great -- except all the pressure to find romance kinds of spoils it.
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If you get two weeks vacation a year, that's considered generous.
This is a country that prides itself on supposedly being founded on Puritan ideals, remember...
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(Audrey's staying with her other client over night, and I'm sleeping in my chair tonight -- well, I told myself I'll stay awake until after the fireworks are over, 'cause I'd rather get to sleep late than be startled awake).
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It's sunny today but nowhere near as hot as late November and most of December was.
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A friend uphill from the fireworks said he house was shaking. Right underneath, we could feel it in our bones.
We had the drizzle yesterday but still went to the farmers market; it cleared up in the afternoon and today is lovely.
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