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Thursday, December 22, 2022

The Last Few Days to Christmas

The notorious "Bomb Cyclone" and "Once in a Generation Cold" that many of you are getting is predicted to pass through through Crematoria here tomorrow, although in a rather mild form.  I keep hearing about the records being set in various places, but our temperatures will be nowhere near the records.  

Here's where it gets almost hard to describe. I've been following two forecasts: Weather Underground and the National Weather Service local office. WUnderground, which is (AFAICT) a fully automated computer model extraction with no actual human forecaster's knowledge involved, has consistently been saying colder than the local NWS site has said.  

It's a bit hard to read, but the bottom line is the WUnderground forecast, left, says Christmas Eve morning low will be 30 and Christmas morning will be 29.  The NWS (right) says 35 and 36. Not just lower but the colder day is reversed from WU to NWS.  

The NWS records book says the coldest recorded Christmas eve morning was in 1989 at 22 and the coldest Christmas morning was 1983 at 21.  The two forecasts are nowhere near record setting, and with the 15-20 mph winds expected both mornings, there's no frost warning in either forecast.   I know many of you won't consider the 30 or 29 forecasts as cold, but it's a change for us.  The last time I recall it being cold enough for frost was January of 2018, almost five years ago.

But enough of that, Christmas is Sunday!  That's the day after tomorrow for most of you reading this on Friday. 

I suspect a lot of you are as tired as I am of the wokeism lately and Christmas has been a target for years.  I'm sick of it.  Every year you hear about some overzealous morons somewhere deciding that the most innocuous secular symbols are too Christian.  I hate to break it to them, but candy canes are nowhere to be found in Christian scriptures; nor are wreaths, trees, or decorative lights on those trees.  They are not religious symbols.  And even if they were, the absence of religious symbols isn't a diversity of views; it's presenting one view, the atheistic one.  A few years ago, the ubiquitous charge of racism joined the party as we learned that the 1960s stop-motion animated "Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer" is a horrible show charged with bullying, racism and homophobia.  It joins arguments about "Baby It's Cold Outside" being about rape and not mutual flirtation, as was the intent, and "White Christmas" being banned.  Woke idiots (colleges) are at the heart of this fake diversity fest. 

A Glenn McCoy cartoon I've been running for years - and I still love it.



5 comments:

  1. watch out for gravitationally challenged and really "cold" iguanas

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  2. My first Christmas in Satellite Beach, 4 blocks from the ocean, we had snow flurries Christmas morning. Actual snow flakes, flitting and floating and they'd hit the window glass and die a wet death. The next 3 years saw temps on the beach during winter drop into the low twenties, which meant the land-side was significantly colder.

    And, for poops and giggles, my tv informed me that Spain is expecting the coldest winter EVER (caveat, they only started officially recording nationwide temperatures in... 1961.) bwahahahahahahahhaaaa coldest winter EVAH, since 1961. Wow. Let's see, the first reliable thermometer was invented by Daniel Farenheit (yes, that Farenheit) in 1714, with the Farenheit scale introduced by Farenheit in 1724.

    Great going, Spain.

    Now it makes me wonder exactly when all the other nations screaming 'globul warm/cold climate change' started actually keeping official records (that haven't been spooged by climategate-class scientists and other 'officials'.

    Stay warm. I survived the Freeze of 1989, when it went from mid 70's to mid 10's in 5-6 hours during a rain then ice storm here in Gainesville. Could hear cars sliding on I-75 all night long, before FHP finally shut it down. Note to self and others out there: Never ever ever rely on a waterbed heater to keep your bed warm if you have no backup power system. Brrrrr.....

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  3. SiG, I had never thought about it that way, but you are precisely right: most of the "objectionable" Christmas symbols and items are in fact things secular culture has added.

    Stay warm, and the merriest of Christmases to you and yours!

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    1. Beans, Your are spot on about the waterbed heater with no power.

      SiGraybeard, IIRC Weather Underground uses the ECMWF aka European forecast model. That model is better at some things than others. Of course that is true of all of the different forecast models. ECMWF tends to be over optimistic regarding precipitation, especially more than 24 hours out, at least for my area. Temperature forecasts tend to be lower on lows and higher on highs compared to NWS here also with it.

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  4. "They are not religious symbols. "

    -- but they are, just not CHRISTIAN symbols. The early church, and the people in it co-opted local beliefs. The germanic people used to tie ribbons in trees to appease or placate spirit or gods (can't recall the specifics), germanic and norse used the tree or log as a religious symbol, and you still see pine trees go up on the structure when a modern building "tops out" as a blessing on the building... Easter is even more of a mish mash of pagan (ie. non-Christian) beliefs and symbols then Christmas is, but Christmas has a bunch of 'borrowed' ideas.

    The cultural and traditional lines are still blurring, with things like the "Elf on a Shelf", or watching movies (shared story telling around a hearth or table) replacing and extending older practices.

    Whatever symbols or practices one uses, my best wishes go out you, if you are a person of good will and a supporter of western civilization...

    And specifically to you (SiG) and yours!

    Merry Christmas, and a Happy New Year.

    nick

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