Well, nobody can argue that winter hasn’t officially begun in the Northern Hemisphere, but over much of the U.S. it’s not wintery at all. Temperatures in places like New York will be in the mid-70s (Farenheit), which is in the mid-20s on the Celsius scale; and Christmas Day may give us record high temperatures in many places. On December 22, 1965, the speed limit in the UK for rural roads and motorways was set at 70 mph; surprisingly, before that there was no speed limit. Surely some readers remember this. On this day in 2010, President Obama repealed the hypocritical “Don’t ask, don’t tell” policy, which allowed gays to serve in the military so long as they kept quiet about it. On this day in 1943, Beatrix Potter died at age 77, and, in 1989, Samuel Beckett died at 83. We’re still waiting for Godot. Finally, in Dobrzyn, Hili, well fueled by her winter fat, is bouncing around the orchard like Tigger.
Cyrus: Where do you get all this energy from?
Hili: The pursuit of food gives you good condition and a supply of proteins.
Cyrus: Skąd ty masz tyle energii?
Hili: Pogoń za żywnością daje kondycję i dostarcza protein.
Leon: Will we manage to decorate all these Christmas trees in time?
More of this to come with a massive El Nino this year… 🙁
The Gävle goat is standing amidst snowless & frostlessness!
http://www.visitgavle.se/sv/gavlebocken
Lots of warm damp weather in the British Isles with air masses from the Azores… near record highs of 17 C last week.
Is it my role to play the Devil’s Advocate!? =D Maybe El Nino isn’t such a good winter weather predictor after all:
“An analysis of fossil corals and mollusk shells from the Pacific Ocean reveals there is no link between the strength of seasonal differences and El Niño, a complex but irregular climate pattern with large impacts on weather, agriculture, fisheries, tourism, and air quality worldwide.
The finding contradicts the top nine climate models in use today, which associate exceptionally hot summers and cold winters with weak El Niños, and vice versa.
“The idea behind this link is based on very well-established physics, so it’s appealing to think that nature works this way. But our analysis shows that it’s not that simple,” said Julien Emile-Geay, lead author of a study contradicting the models and assistant professor of Earth Sciences at the USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences.
His study was published on December 14 in the journal Nature Geoscience.”
“”The causes for prolonged periods of weak El Niño are either beyond the current models, or we’re missing an important piece of the puzzle” Emile-Geay said. “This points to deficiencies in the way these models simulate various aspects of tropical Pacific climate, from average conditions, to the march of seasons, to El Niño itself.””
[ http://phys.org/news/2015-12-current-climate-misrepresent-el-nino.html ]
I hear there was a proposal this year to _set the goat on fire_, which would have been irresponsible (and destroy the market for it).
Luckily the city council was more level headed than the minority member that proposed it! (Gävle is a harbor city situated in the north climate regime, there is a lot of opportunity for windy weather to freeze and/or remove brain cells through the ears…)
Oh, I forgot the disclaimer: Gävle is the province city capital from where I come, but I was raised far inland in a dry-and-so-manageable winter weather locale. Visiting Gävle in winter was a childhood adventure, froze my butt off at times.
A friend and I figure that the reason there is no snow is not because of El Niño but because both of us bought all wheel drive vehicles with a set of snow tires.
Well, congrats, all you warm-air dwellers.
Here in the mountains of NM, we are expecting six days of heavy snow, with a brief break in the middle, the ski areas are all open already (many since Thanksgiving), and we are at the third wettest year on record, and the wettest since 1941. L
The pursuit of food is all my cats do, but I don’t think decorating trees is a priority.
I was in the U.K. in 69 and but don’t recall much of a speed limit. Only on the motorways did there seem to be a straight enough road for much speed.
I forgot to mention, for those interested in the Falcon 9 launch and landing there is video over at Space.com on this.
That is truly awesome! I didn’t think it would be possible to land vertically like that, just like Dan Dare in my 50s comics.
Incidentally, I saw Elon Musk do a cameo a few nights ago on “The Big Bank Theory”, and had to Google him to find out who he was. I am impressed.
He’s the richest man in Los Angeles.
Hili looks like she’s been caught mid-air!
We’re supposed to have thunderstorms this morning. 🙁