Weather Notes

[Comments have been added.]

There's a giant snowstorm threatening the East Coast of the US, and several readers have contacted me with good wishes. I appreciate the concern, but I'm a long way from the coast—it's about 270 miles from here to New York City. For our friends in the United Kingdom, that's approximately the drive from Plymouth, in Devon, to Canterbury in Kent via the A303. For Australians, picture the distance from Sydney to Coffs Harbour by air. We might catch the fringe of this storm, but events on the coast are distant.

I do want to offer my own thoughts and concern for readers up and down the Atlantic seaboard. Take it easy with the shovel and we hope you don't lose power. And we don't want to hear reports of you being found frozen solid far from home with a camera in your hand, either. As one governor put it, this is a "Netflix and chill" event. I guess the chill part is mandatory!

While you're socked in, two things you could do—one, think about submitting to the "Objects" Baker's Dozen. The deadline is a week from tomorrow. I've gotten some wonderful pictures so far. (Also a number that I wouldn't really consider pictures of objects, but I've still enjoyed seeing those.) And if you can, and if you would, you could kindly help spread the word to other sites, forums, and friends about our upcoming Infrared Picture Print Sale (previous post). There are a lot of infrared fans out there, but they're scattered far and wide.

Right now it's very pleasant at TOP Rural World HQ in the hamlet of Penn Yan. Clear, brilliantly sunny, just a slight breeze, and a very pleasant 10°F (–12°C)*.

Mike

*Another of my unpedigreed theories: That the reason people don't like cold is because of temperatures hovering around freezing. That's the nasty, chilly, penetrating, unpleasant sort of cold that gives cold a bad name. Plus, it's not cold enough that you really have to dress for it. If you ask me, plus 10 to minus five degrees Fahrenheit (–12° to –20°C) is the sweet spot. It's crispy and dry, cold enough that you have to dress for it (which makes you comfortable), and, except if it's windy, not really all that cold. Very nice. YMMV!

Once it was –30°F in Wisconsin (with no wind) and I went outside in my T-shirt just to experience it. After a few minutes I could start to feel my body heat retreating to my core from my extremities. It was curious to reflect that all I had to do was stay out there and the air would kill me! Made me very grateful for a cozy little house.

Book o' the Week

In Search of Elsewhere: Unseen Images by Steve McCurry. The two Steve McCurry books I own—Looking East and The Unguarded Moment—are oversized (but not too oversized) and have some of the very best color photographic reproduction I've seen. I hope this will be the same, although it has a different publisher. Steve McCurry, although his career is not without blemishes, is a superb and accomplished photographer whose work is a joy to own and revisit. Note that he's a "visual storyteller," not a photojournalist.

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(To see all the comments, click on the "Comments" link below.)
Featured Comments from:

Tom Burke: "I remain in awe of the American climate—so cold in winter and so hot in summer. Here on the edge of Sheffield, at an elevation of about 600 feet, 2021 produced (if I recall correctly) an absolute low of maybe –4°C once or twice, and an absolute high of 30°C once or twice. Anything over 25°C counts as a heat wave here ('Phew What a Scorcher!' —Daily Mail headline), and we only saw that a handful of times last year. And 2021 was fairly typical. Also as I've got older I've found my tolerance of cold has diminished while my tolerance of hot has improved—I used to hate hot weather. My biggest gripe over the last two years has been that I've been deprived of my ration of real heat in the Mediterranean or Southeast Asia. (I hasten to add that I've had a good pandemic, and I recognise that many other people have suffered much more than I have.)"

Mike replies: I've always thought I'm actually British like a lot of my ancestors. A climate that doesn't get too hot would suit me. I had an art teacher for many years (six, from seventh grade to senior year) who was very influential on my life, Gerald Landt. Mr. Landt disliked hot weather. He'd tell us he had a headline from a British newspaper framed on his wall at home: it said, "70 Degrees Again Today, No Relief In Sight." (From the era when Britain used Fahrenheit.) Whether or not it was originally intended as a joke, it fit his temperament!

Our perception of temperature does change as we age—up to 15°F is what I've read. So what 70° felt like when you were 15 might feel the same as 85° when you're 75. Doesn't have to change by that much, but it can.

Henning (partial comment): "I agree with you. Temperatures around 0°F are quite reasonable and accommodating winter temperatures, as long as the wind is quiet and the humidity low. At that temperature you could go outside and do stuff: go shopping, take pictures, go for a walk just for the fun of it. Also, when it got that cold, snow slowly stopped being slippery, so driving was fun. I grew up in colder parts of Canada and that's what we had, a lot of the time."

John Hall: "Mike, I've been reading since the column on Luminous Landscape and I've known for a while that our worldviews overlap. Your opinion on cold cements it though. Barely freezing is well, cold. Truly cold isn't, and is gorgeous. Hope this storm blows you some deep cold and sparkling snow. Happy shooting."

James Bullard: "Your body heat wasn't retreating to your core, it was being sucked off by the cold air. Cold is an absence of heat energy, a heat vacuum so to speak, and heat moves into that absence. Stay long enough and all your body heat will get sucked off to warm the air. Hint: you don't have enough body heat to warm all that air significantly. My cold comfort zone is 45–60°F but only if I'm active, hiking, working, etc. Otherwise, it is 60°+. But then, I'm old. I don't tolerate cold well."

Mike Ferron: "My original home town of Bridgewater, Massachusetts, received 24 inches, or about .66m for our metric friends. That’s a lot of snow for one day. I don’t think I could handle moving back north again."

Comments

[Richard Parkin]

I thought you might get in trouble with the definition of object. ㋡

[James]

Once in Antarctica ('twas a January) someone asked me how I liked the cold.
My answer?
"I've been colder in Wisconsin"
And since then I've been MUCH colder in Yellowstone!

Both true.

[Greg Heins]

I imagine you've seen this already:
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/jan/28/swiss-photographer-rene-robert-killed-indifference-france-shocked-hypothermia-death-busy-paris-street

[John Krumm]

The sweet spot is 18 degrees after a stretch of below zero windy and nasty weather. Everyone goes sledding and skiing, like we did today (well, I lurked about on the margins taking photos in the woods). It was a perfect winter day.

[Doug Anderson]

12º F and windy tonight with a foot of very light snow here at the Jersey Shore. The snow removal crew was having a hard time of it because the snow kept blowing right back on the driveways and walks they were clearing. They quit once it was dark but said they will be back at dawn. We'll have a big pot of hot cocoa waiting for them.

[Henning]

I agree with you. Temperatures around 0°F are quite reasonable and accomodatable winter temperatures, as long as the wind is quiet and the humidity low.

At that temperature you could go outside and do stuff: go shopping, take pictures, got for a walk just for the fun of it. Also, when it got that cold snow slowly stopped being slippery, so driving was fun.

I grew up in colder parts of Canada and that's what we had, a lot of the time. However, I still have a certificate which I can't lay my hands on at the moment, certifying that I lived through (or at least got the local paper) a two month stretch where it didn't get above -20°F (-29°C). Mostly it was around -40°F (or C°) every night. That was a bit much.

About twenty years ago we went back to visit my in-laws and it was -46°C (-50°F). In the morning, but clear and sunny, but 'sparkly' (frozen morning fog crystals) so I got dressed up and went out for an hour taking pictures, again mostly to refresh my memory of what that kind of cold was like. The camera stayed out as it was in danger of fogging up if I kept on putting it under my jacket. The cameras was fine, but I did use the spare battery.

[brian]

Cold is relative.

I used to climb frozen waterfalls for fun, but I grew soft when I moved to California. Early in the month-long rock climbing trip that began when our baby was four months old, my wife lead a steep pitch on the chilly side of a dessert gorge while I belayed, snug in my down jacket and knit cap. Unfortunately, I'd parked our daughter just a bit too far down slope, so I couldn't reach her as my wife began the crux sequence. Fortunately, a nearby climber hurried over and cuddled the hungry little one. He said he was on a road trip from Calgary, and he was dressed in shorts and a t-shirt in the fine weather.

[Robert Roaldi]

I'd extend it to 25 Celsius but basically, yes, you're right.

[Chris]

Thanks for the distance comparison for us Aussies! As a 10-year-old I spent a year in Syracuse when my father was studying at the university there. It was 1966 - the year of a very big snowstorm that effectively shut down the city, and a large part of the east coast, for a week. You might recall it yourself? Very glad we don't have that weather where I now live. Take care.

[I was in a very bad accident during the blizzard of '77--lucky to be alive--so I remember that one. But I grew up in Wisconsin; only moved to New York in 2015. In my youth the big thing about Winter was the winds (Milwaukee is windier than Chicago, the so-called Windy City), which could be bitter. I remember standing out waiting for the bus and crying because I was so cold--at 5 below zero with a stiff wind at age 9 it can get pretty bad if you're not moving, even if you are wearing "snow pants" and boots. The coldest I ever remember being in my adult life was at a nighttime football game in Chicago with Michael McCaskey—it was 7 degrees at kickoff with a hard wind, and it got colder from there. I thought I was overdressed for the cold and actually wondered if I would be too HOT during the game! Wrong! I actually had to go inside for ten minutes after the beginning of the second half. It was so cold that people drained steadily out of the stadium. When the people in front of us left I realized they had been providing significant protection from the wind!

The biggest snows I experienced were in New Hampshire during my time at Dartmouth. One time we got 24" of snow starting at noon Saturday and overnight, and by the time I woke up at noon on Sunday they not only had the roads completely cleared but also all the sidewalks. No big deal. --Mike]

[Stéphane Bosman]

Humans are a tropical species. Left outside naked, we die under 20°C. Yet we survived the last ice age thanks to covering ourselves in fur, knowing how to light a fire and getting cover in caves. A weak tropical species with enough genius to survive ice ages.

[DavidB]

Here is a link to an image on Twitter put together by a colleague showing snowfall amounts. A lot of snow on the coast with lesser amounts inland.

https://twitter.com/burgwx/status/1487816024602955785/photo/1

[Those are nice. Atlantic City did indeed get almost as much in this one storm as they normally get in a whole winter: 16" vs. 17.1". That's gotta be a shock! --Mike]

[Herman Krieger]

Brr!

[Kirk]

63° and heading for 71° today in Austin. A nice, sunny day to swim in the outdoor pool. Again. But don't worry, life isn't perfect here. Next week we'll have three or four days where the lows dip into the low 20s. Thank goodness the pool is heated....

Writing a note in my iCal to dig out gloves for Thursday.

[Mike Chisholm]

Ah, the A303, highway to the sun:

https://vimeo.com/25813595

Mike

[That was interesting! Thank you Mike. --Mike]

[Moose]

56°F out on the deck this afternoon. I just decided it's a bit chilly for sitting out in the winter sun. \;~)>

Somewhere in the vicinity of 25 years ago, we had, for us, a real freeze, around 30°F for a few hours. Killed a couple of succulents in the garden.

Coastal Calif is for me.

[John]

For me, McCurry has lost all credibility. I don’t trust any of his work anymore, including what made him famous. I will thus never buy one of his books.

[Daniel]

Wind chill sign in a local Elementary School.
Outdoor recess cancelled when wind chill is colder than 18 below zero(f).

[Tony Ayling]

I’m 75 years old and have lived in the Australian tropics for more than 40 years. I think once your body has experienced the relaxation that comes with warm air temperatures it doesn’t like to go back to the cold. To me the perfect daily temperature range is from 25°C (77°F) minimum to 30°C (86°F) max. That is what we have most of the time at the moment. Shorts and a T shirt are all you need to wear, if you need to wear anything, and dressing takes about 15 seconds maximum! At night you just need a sheet over you. Anything less than 15°C (60°F) is too cold and down near freezing is just unthinkable! To each his own I suppose but the tropics are my choice!

[I wouldn't mind that either. 20°C is still where I'm most comfortable, but 30°C does not seem nearly as hot to me now as it did when I was a kid. Most of all I'm happy you're happy where in the world you are, because you might as well be. ::thumbs up:: --Mike]

[Lynn]

Glad you didn't lock yourself out that day in Wisconsin, Mike!

[*Shudder!!* --Mike]

[Sean]

My tolerance for the cold has shifted since losing 20% of my mass. I have layers on now that I doubt I'd have needed ten years ago, but removing them is easily done. The 20% was a little tougher

[Tex Andrews]

Agree about the cold! I had this revelation after my first visit to Jackson Hole. Had to open my coat up while walking around, and it was about 5 degrees F. But soooo dry. Here in Baltimore the worst possible weather in winter is 33 degrees and raining. But the worst possible weather all year is mid 90's and above with dew points over 70. Disgusting. I gotta get outta here!

[longviewer]

I cannot comment on zero-ish (°F) cold; in 1968 northwestern Oregon reached about 5° and I've subsequently gone no lower. Four years after that I acquired frostbite in 33°/0.5°C when cold rain soaked my gloves and essentially froze - so I agree fully on that contention!

[John Abee]

Grew up in the Carolinas but we've spent the last 20+ years in SW Michigan. We prefer uncomfortably cold to uncomfortably warm. You can always add another layer of clothing but you can only remove so much before the neighbor's tongues start wagging or the police show up. A good friend relocated to Santa Barbara years ago and brags that whenever he exits a building it's the same temp outside as inside as if that was a good thing. That absolutely would not work for us. Regardless of temperature preferences, our time in the SE USA taught us that humidity is the enemy of almost everything. You learn to manage the effects but you inevitably lose.

[Bill Tyler]

About McCurry - what John said. I can't look at any of his images any more without wondering whether they were faked in some way. It's one thing to boldly and explicitly label something as a "photo-illustration". It's another to show the same image without that disclaimer, especially in a context where photo-journalism is expected.

[Stuart Phillips]

To add to the point about the relative sizes of the UK and USA. According to Google maps, Miami to Jacksonville is 5hrs and 347 miles by car. London to Edinburgh is 7.5 hrs and 403 miles by car... To a first approximation, England (as there's much more Scotland North of Edinburgh)is the same length as Florida. For the pedants, Berwick-upon-Tweed is the town at the East coast England-Scotland border and is 346 miles from London.

[Fred Mueller]

“Netflix and chill”

I’m almost as old as you and take that phrase literally inasmuch “chill” meaning just lazing about

But… the younger among us use that phrase differently.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Netflix_and_chill

[Interesting! It really was a phrase used by a state governor. Anyway I'm not supposed to speak teen; at my age, my misuse of it is probably part of what young people like about it. Like when people my age say "hook up" for meeting up. When Xander was young, whenever I tried to use teen slang he'd say, "Daddy, you can't say that." --Mike]