Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

I’d try pessimism, but it probably wouldn’t work.

I know this must be bad for Joe Biden, I just don’t know how.

If you’re pissed about Biden’s speech, he was talking about you.

I wonder if trump will be tried as an adult.

I’m pretty sure there’s only one Jack Smith.

Russian mouthpiece, go fuck yourself.

After roe, women are no longer free.

The revolution will be supervised.

No one could have predicted…

Since when do we limit our critiques to things we could do better ourselves?

A sufficient plurality of insane, greedy people can tank any democratic system ever devised, apparently.

When do the post office & the dmv weigh in on the wuhan virus?

It’s always darkest before the other shoe drops.

And we’re all out of bubblegum.

This has so much WTF written all over it that it is hard to comprehend.

Their freedom requires your slavery.

Ah, the different things are different argument.

Trump’s legal defense is going to be a dumpster fire inside a clown car on a derailing train.

Stamping your little feets and demanding that they see how important you are? Not working anymore.

Putting aside our relentless self-interest because the moral imperative is crystal clear.

When someone says they “love freedom”, rest assured they don’t mean yours.

The willow is too close to the house.

I like you, you’re my kind of trouble.

I didn’t have alien invasion on my 2023 BINGO card.

You are here: Home / Climate Change / Changing Climate / Weather Or Not Open Thread

Weather Or Not Open Thread

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Tomorrow it’s supposed to hit the East Coast.

And a little later for California. I hope some of that California precip leaks over into New Mexico. We have had nothing all winter.

What are you doing to get ready for the weather?

 

Reader Interactions

121Comments

  1. 1.

    peej01

    After not having a whole lot of snow this year in the DC area, we might get a foot of snow on the first full day of spring. GAAAAHHHHH!

  2. 2.

    lamh36

    HA…forgive me Cheryl, but when I saw the post title, I thought it was gonna be about Stormy Daniels…LOL

  3. 3.

    pacem appellant

    My daughter complained this morning that it was going to rain for three whole days! (We live in California) Stay safe in the weather!

  4. 4.

    frosty

    Tomorrow!!??! It started snowing in South PA around 9:00 this morning, it’s still going, and it’s supposed to go until tomorrow evening. 36 hours of snow on the first day of Spring?

    It’s sticking to the roads but periodically disappearing when the temperature rises, so I don’t think I’ll have to shovel the whole 12-18 inches that’s been forecast.

    As for preparation, I brought in enough firewood for two nights and I picked up enough bourbon and rye over the weekend. We’re set.

  6. 6.

    Roger Moore

    I’m trying to get home before the first drops start falling here in Southern California. For tomorrow, I’m glad I have rain pants as well as a rain jacket.

  8. 8.

    FlyingToaster

    That 8″ for Boston is also out of date. The storm is swinging further out to sea, which means that we’ll get no appreciable accumulation before 2pm, and will probably top out at 5-6″. My daughter is moaning because she expected another snow day on Thursday, which she won’t likely be getting.

  9. 9.

    Betty Cracker

    Stay safe, all in the path. Hope it warms up before Saturday in DC for the sake of the high school students from Parkland, FL, who are probably not used to cold weather.

  12. 12.

    NotMax

    Quick, package up the snow and overnight it to Cape Town.

    @Major Major Major Major

    Hope you realize the by-laws require that you recruit another late night/overnight voice of equal or better snarkitude before you pull up stakes.

    :)

  13. 13.

    Fair Economist

    Meanwhile a Pineapple Express is predicted to bring over 6″ of rain to some parts of Central and Southern California, with some of the heaviest rain near several of the huge burns last last year for that oh-so-exciting mudslide risk. Fun weather on both coasts!

    According to predictions, I’m south of the main course and am expected to see only a fairly ordinary winter rainstorm. However, it wouldn’t take much of a shift for my city to get a serious drenching. Not an issue for me personally but we have burn areas too.

  17. 17.

    Mary G

    My joints hate the Pineapple Express. Ugh. We should be OK where we are, but our systems are not designed for ten inches of rain in a week. Hope everyone in the areas where we had fires are taking care.

  20. 20.

    Spanky

    Fellow DC area Juicers! Drink every time a newscaster says the word “snow” tonight. We’re not going to be going to work in the morning anyhow. 8″-12″around DC, 4″-8″ down here in Southern MD.

    BTW, St. Marys County has already announced no school for tomorrow. I’m thinking it’s not entirely snow-related.

    (Edited for numerical correction)

  24. 24.

    gene108

    What are you doing to get ready for the weather?

    Move in with mom and let her worry about keeping me fed ?????????

  25. 25.

    RSA

    The MD government facility I work at closed a couple of hours early today and will remain closed tomorrow. Driving wasn’t too bad this afternoon, but there were accidents here and there.

  27. 27.

    Mnemosyne

    You reminded me that I need new rain boots — I had some that I loved, but the rubber cracked. ? I ordered some online from Target for in-store pickup.

  29. 29.

    Aleta

    Wa Post and map

    Models have presented a real dilemma this afternoon with respect to whether to increase the snow forecast for Wednesday. They are in two camps. The first camp is represented by the European model which showed a crippling snowstorm with double digit accumulations. But the American models, the NAM and GFS, showed a moderate event, more along the lines of our original map posted early this afternoon.
    Less than 12 hours before the storm starts, model forecasts suggest as little as 2 inches and as much a foot could realistically fall in the region Wednesday.
    We have decided not to increase our snow forecast, but to expand the chance and intensity of the boom scenarios, or the likelihood snowfall exceeds our forecast, to reflect the European model’s extreme solution.

  30. 30.

    Mnemosyne

    @Major Major Major Major:

    If you’re moving to NYC to get away from rain, I have some bad news for you … ?

    I hope you like Santa Barbara. My weird recommendation is going to see the taxidermied animals at the Santa Barbara Natural History Museum up by the Mission. They are truly artistic and lifelike.

  33. 33.

    MomSense

    Well I’m changing my flight home since the airline said they’d waive the charge and if so don’t change it, my flight will likely be canceled anyway.

    Can’t say I’m devastated by the prospect of enjoying warm weather for another couple of days.

  37. 37.

    Ceci n est pas mon nym

    @frosty: Snow line must be just about the Philly city line. I’ve been downtown all day and there were a few flakes but nothing stuck. Lot of frozen slush on the sidewalks though, so walking was kind of an adventure.

    Plans: Hunker down with the wife, read books, eat warm food, read political news and get outraged, watch the snow fall. No reason to go anywhere.

    Note to self: charge all the things tonight. 40 mph gusts expected, could be more power issues.

  39. 39.

    NotMax

    @Major Major Major Major

    Should you need one, my step-brother runs a headhunting firm in NYC. No idea how good he is at it but he has been doing it for a quarter century or more since putting his lawyer shingle into storage.

  40. 40.

    Yutsano

    Is this where I mention if DC is shutdown tomorrow that’s one less day for Congress to work on a Budget that expires Friday and isn’t even out of the house yet?

  41. 41.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Baud:

    Doesn’t the European model always outperform the American model? That’s my recollection.

    That’s healthcare.

  43. 43.

    frosty

    @Adam L Silverman: frosty seems to be the word of the day. Sigh. We took our camper to Florida for February, for the third time. Next year I’m worried my wife will put me on a plane to go back to work and she’ll stay through March.

  44. 44.

    NotMax

    Gonna be a not so fun week for Mom, looks like. Big storm and then her co-op building is to be without water on Friday in order to have the water heater replaced.

    On the plus side, small building (9 units) and there’s ample scratch in the coffers to cover the cost without requiring additional tenant charges. The board recently asked her if she’d be interested in taking over as president as the current one is moving out. She demurred, citing her age as the prime factor for reluctance.

  47. 47.

    Fair Economist

    @Baud:

    Doesn’t the European model always outperform the American model? That’s my recollection.

    On average but not always.

  49. 49.

    mai naem mobile

    We’re supposed t9 get to 90 degrees on Friday in Phoenix and then drop to the 70s over the weekend with some rain.

  50. 50.

    Steeplejack

    I’m set for the bad weather. Went out in the early afternoon today to get groceries at the supermarket and instant coffee and treats at Trader Joe’s. (For some reason I can’t take Trader Joe’s seriously as a place to get “regular” groceries. Everything I get there is a one-off special thing I can’t find anywhere else.) Cold rain with flecks of sleet, roads not slippery. Came home for an hour or two and then loaded the housecat into her carrier for a vet’s appointment at 4:00. More snow in the wintry mix, roads still not slippery.

    Ended up spending over two hours at the vet’s. The housecat had her claws trimmed and some blood work done. A couple of claws were found to be poking into the footpad, so that was a complication. And it looks like she’s facing dental surgery in the next few weeks. She has some teeth that are in bad shape. The blood work will show if she’s healthy enough to be put under anesthesia. She’s 18 years old and only 5 pounds 12 ounces, so this is a big concern for me. Will hear back about the blood work by the end of the week, and then I can make an appointment with the veterinary dental specialist in Gaithersburg.

    On the way home, about 6:30, the rain/​sleet had actually subsided almost to nothing. Checked the weather when I got in, and they have reduced the predicted snowfall for tonight and tomorrow—looks like 5-7" total here in Falls Church. No matter: I can easily hole up for the next two or three days, which is exactly what I plan to do.

    The housecat took her ordeal in stride. She is snoozing at her workstation beside me, and she has eaten heartily a couple of times since we got home. Daddy Steep is sucking on a margarita and about to fast-forward through the Chris Hayes segment with Wilmer. If Bernie takes a vow of poverty and pledges to go live in a remote monastery, I’ll catch it in the recaps later.

    With all the bullshit that happened today, it will be interesting to see Rachel Maddow’s show. It’s starting about now.

  52. 52.

    NotMax

    @Steeplejack

    No Trader Joe’s here. When am in NY area, make a point of stopping by to pick up 3 or 4 bottles of their spicy brown mustard to ship back home. Enough to last for the year, until the next trip.

    Good stuff, better than what’s on the shelves locally.

  53. 53.

    seefleur

    Last week Wednesday I spent THREE FREAKIN’ HOURS snow blowing my very short driveway clear of 2 FEET of snow. (Husband no help since he had a full hip replacement the week before during the March 8th nor’easter – what some people will do to get out of clearing snow…) Us Mainers have NO sympathy for DC, in fact, I’d say it’s karmic payback for all the shit that’s been rolling out of that area. (Ok, for the restayous, I feels for you, really. I mean it.)

  57. 57.

    geg6

    Supposed to get 6 to 8 inches here through tomorrow. Warned the boss when I left this evening that I will likely take a personal day if we get any real accumulation. Been snowing here since noon but it was warm enough that it didn’t accumulate. But it has now all turned to ice and snow is now piling on top of that. Looks like I’m using that personal day.

  58. 58.

    Feathers

    @Dorothy A. Winsor (formerly Iowa Old Lady): After 2015, this is nothing. There has been time for snow to melt between storms. The snow removal has been able to keep up. What’s so weird about this is so many storms so late in the year. Note: this is Boston, the rest of the coast didn’t get it as bad then.

  59. 59.

    efgoldman

    @NotMax:

    The regimen for obtaining the proper permits in Manhattan is a bear.

    And bear permits are harder than gun licenses.

  61. 61.

    Miss Bianca

    I’m going riding tomorrow in Brown’s Canyon, which finally got made into a National Monument a year or so back, since we are expecting sun and a high in the mid 50s here in CO.

  62. 62.

    NotMax

    @Miss Bianca

    Dunno is you saw the very late to the thread response to you earlier. Steeplejack was correct, the show is El Ministerio del Tiempo. Completely absurd premise, but kind of fun if one can get past that.

  63. 63.

    efgoldman

    I’m waiting for Flying Toaster to come on and pre-complain about shoveling.
    I wonder if the power company got the broken pole from the last storm off of her front steps.

  68. 68.

    FlyingToaster

    @efgoldman: If it’s only 5 inches, the three of us (yes, the 10 year old can now shovel) can clear the way, including the plow wall and the top of my minivan, in about 30 minutes. No big deal. And the plow won’t plow in the sidewalk at that shallow depth.

    Verizon’s pole was removed from my stoop by Eversource on Sunday the 11th (while removing their live wires from my pine, rhodos, hollies, etc.) courtesy of the Tweet-shaming I gave them. Verizon has not yet collected the pole, surrounded by DPW cones in front of my house, next to the new pole.

    This past Saturday the adjuster came while we were at music school, and totaled the front steps. Today the contractor came, took my stack of printed photos, looked at the pole, looked at the damage, called us “REALLY LUCKY”, and will drop by in the morning to put a temp support under the roof of the porch, in case we get more than 6″ of snow.

    I have to hit a fabric place in the morning to find a yard or so of silk to make a Japanese schoolgirl uniform tie. This is WarriorGirl’s cosplay for Anime Boston, which her godless parents are taking her to. And then, assuming it’s not snowing yet, turn off the power to the outside, replace the newly dead GFCI in the side door’s outlet, turn the power back on, and set up the ‘lectric snowblower for round 4.

  73. 73.

    FlyingToaster

    @efgoldman: Nope. I loved that joint (Fabric Corner), but gentrification left the building without the fabric. Alas. And I truly miss the old Fabric Place (Woburn and Framingham Center). I must have made about a hundred costumes and curtains from fabric they supplied.

    I’ll probably end up out in Natick at the Fabric Place Basement (they bought the name when the original went Chapter 7). They’ve been rock solid on weird fabrics for costumes. Far more likely to have the right material than Sewfisticated in Somerville.

    edited for spelling kinda

  74. 74.

    Steeplejack

    @NotMax:

    I’ll have to check out the mustard. Although I just got a five-jar mustard sampler from Woot Gourmet that I have yet to try out. But that’s the kind of thing I’m talking about—“specialty” items.

    I’m not a big coffee drinker—one cup maybe 3-5 mornings a week—and the Trader Joe’s instant coffee in the jar (not the little packets) is pretty good coffee, not just good instant coffee. Good enough for my non-gourmet needs, anyway. I do like a little roll or something with my coffee, and Trader Joe’s has this amazing “cinnamon nut rugelach.” I don’t know how cinnamon comes into it; the main taste is a really tart hit of raspberry. Great with the flaky dough and nuts.

  81. 81.

    FlyingToaster

    @Omnes Omnibus: We are large. We contain multitudes.

    I can also run Cat5 wire, be sysadmin for ChezToaster, do minor soldering, and replace the gaskets in the kitchen faucet.

  85. 85.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @FlyingToaster: I can make omelettes and open wine bottles.

    ETA: Come the Revolution, I may well be one of the first up against the wall. Although, I suppose it depends on which Revolution actually happens. If it is one that prioritizes dinner parties and brunch, I am golden. Okay, against the wall it is.

  87. 87.

    NotMax

    @NotMax

    Amended for clarity.

    Presume the parents know that “Japanese schoolgirl uniform” is otaku code for “gratuitous panty shots.”

    ;)

  88. 88.

    FlyingToaster

    @NotMax: I’m the parent. The “skirt” is a Land’s End uniform skort. The blazer is a LE gray blazer. The top is a LE uniform polo.

    WarriorGirl’s dressing up as a specific character from a specific anime, and we have everything except the tie.

    Her godparents (legal relationship to forestall certain elements from our respective families from attempting guardianship if something happens to us) are athiests. Hence, godlessparents. They and their son (my god(less)son) are big anime-heads, and always attend the cons. Since WG is taller than her godmom, they invited her along for this year’s con.

  89. 89.

    Steeplejack

    @NotMax:

    How thoughtless of her!

    There are about seven recipes—or techniques, some of them—that I am in the process of wheedling out of my 88-year-old mother. She grew up on a Tennessee farm in the ’30s and ’40s and is a great Southern cook. Then she added to her repertoire as she traveled all around the world with Air Force husband and kids. There is a whole subculture of military wives’ cookbooks—similar to the Junior League ones—that have some amazing adaptations of various regional and foreign cuisines. (Lots of “mid-century dreadful” stuff, too.) And there are some things that just became her favorites or “specialties.”

    She makes the best cornbread, but it is maddening to try to get her to explain it, because to her it’s just something she had every day growing up and there’s no recipe, “you just make it.” Grr! Same thing with biscuits. And you would think that with something as simple as cornbread it would be easy to replicate. But mine is not there yet. Maybe it’s her magic cast-iron pan.

  90. 90.

    FlyingToaster

    @Omnes Omnibus: No, if you can cook, we don’t have to kill you. You will spend some non-trivial time as a short-order breakfast cook, feeding the masses. And after the revolution, we’ll still, eventually, need lawyers. Significantly fewer of them, though.

    [my next youngest sister is a lawyer; not much of a cook, but can garden and like me, wire an office for phone and ethernet]

  92. 92.

    Steeplejack

    @MomSense:

    Thanks. I’m hoping this will all be “maintenance work,” but the anesthesia thing worries me. But my vet (shout-out to Dr. Rosen at Feline Veterinary Clinic in Falls Church!) says that the Gaithersburg guy is the only one he would recommend and is top-drawer. Top. Drawer.

  94. 94.

    NotMax

    @Steeplejack

    Seem to remember it involved much time spent using a mortar and pestle to make raisins into a paste.

    Have previously mentioned a grandmother who made the best damn dill pickles in the known universe, swore she’d take the recipe to the grave, and did. (Different side of the family. She died early, at only 106.)

  95. 95.

    MomSense

    @Steeplejack:

    Fingers crossed for her.

    I’m a huge fan of Junior League cookbooks and church cookbooks. I have a lot of them and have found some amazing recipes in them.

  96. 96.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @FlyingToaster: Okay, let’s add specificity. I can open champagne bottles without losing wine. But it seems that the omelette thing is the way to go….?

  99. 99.

    FlyingToaster

    @Omnes Omnibus: The champagne thing makes you an elitist here in the states. Though if you can aim and actually put out someone’s eye, it would have definite entertainment value.

    Cooking, on the other hand, will endear you to the future tricoteuses.

  100. 100.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @MomSense: I am always willing to bring wine. I have spent all but seven years of my life as the bachelor guest. I bring wine and flowers. I am charming. I pretend to be interested in the single woman you wanted me to meet.

  101. 101.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @FlyingToaster: I can iron, now that I think about it. Army stuff, I am actually rather good at it.

    ETA: MomSense’s Revolution seems nicer than yours. I won’t survive any because I will inevitably be sarky/snarky, and that will be it.

  102. 102.

    Steeplejack

    @NotMax:

    [. . .] swore she’d take the recipe to the grave, and did.

    What the hell is up with that attitude? I would be honored if anyone showed a special interest in any of my recipes, for posterity or otherwise.

    My mother is not one of those “take it to the grave” people. But she announced a while back that she is done with cooking, end of story. And she’s entitled, after 25 or so years of putting breakfast and dinner on the table for a husband and three sons. (I think she dialed it back a bit when they became empty-nesters.)

    She is willing to share her recipes, and I have gotten some of the ones that she took from books. (I’ve already gotten some of the cookbooks, too.) But, as with the cornbread, she’s not good at distilling and communicating her particular techniques for certain things.

    I have been thinking that I need to cook some of these things with her, but that is a chilling thought. She never taught me to cook—I’m pretty much self-taught—and we would be strangers in the kitchen. I have nightmares of doing some simple step and hearing, “Why are you doing it that way?” Et cetera.

  105. 105.

    FlyingToaster

    @Omnes Omnibus: You see, if you convince the mob that you can take care of things they need done right now, they probably won’t kill you. Cooking, ironing, planting, harvesting, repairing broken stuff, distilling, brewing — all tasks the salt-of-the-earth can perceive as “necessary” — will keep you alive.

    Hope this helps.

  108. 108.

    FlyingToaster

    @Omnes Omnibus: I don’t think she grew up in a gun culture. I did. Plus I did a lot of reading back in the day on the French Revolution and the English Interregnum and how the various revolutions of 1848 failed.

    If you were heah in the Hub of the Universe, you’d probably survive — even our cops are snarky. But you’d more readily find work now as a cook than a lawyer. That’s an export product.

  109. 109.

    NotMax

    @Steeplejack

    That particular grandmother insisted she hated, hated, hated cooking. Grandfather insisted on home cooked meals and adamantly refused to ever be served leftovers.

    A bone of contention spanning most of the 20th century.

  113. 113.

    Steeplejack

    @NotMax:

    Well, that sort of explains it. Cooking as oppression by the Man. “With death I cast off my chains! And also this awesome dill pickle recipe.”

  114. 114.

    Steeplejack

    @NotMax:

    One line of inquiry might be to look up “semi-dill pickles.” This came up in conversation with Bro’ Man, the squire of Sighthound Hall, a week or two ago. He is the youngest of us three boys, and apparently Mom did teach him some things in the kitchen. (I left home for college when he was nine and pretty much never came back except to visit. It was years before we really reconnected again as adults. But I digress.) He is a very good cook.

    We were talking about his garden, and he said he wanted to do beets again this year, because he had great success with pickling them last year and was still finishing off the crop. I made some comment about how Cook’s Country had top-rated some brand of dill pickles that I had always thought was low-rent (Mount Olive?). Then he mentioned a friend of his who is a complete lunkhead except that occasionally he will come up with an awesome dish. And he makes great dill pickles, apparently. Bro’ Man couldn’t remember the details, but he said he was pretty sure “semi-dill” was a key point and that the lunkhead had told him the recipe was somewhere on the Interwebs.

    I will have the research staff here at Threadkill Systems S.A. look into this.

  116. 116.

    NotMax

    @Steeplejack

    In her much later years she did bend enough to buy half-sour pickles at the market and re-pickle them. Almost but not quite totally indistinguishable from the from scratch method.

    Know have mentioned before she was the first (and maybe the only) female in her little Polish shtetl to graduate high school.

  117. 117.

    Mnemosyne

    @Steeplejack:

    Most baking authorities now say you should weigh the ingredients rather than measuring them. If you do it all the time, you probably get used to how much each ingredient weighs in your hand. In fact, that might even account for things like humid days since you’d still be able to judge the relative weight.

  118. 118.

    Steeplejack

    @Mnemosyne:

    Probably true. I do try to weigh baking ingredients, but I’m a bit lazy about it. And I don’t do a huge amount of baking.

  119. 119.

    JAFD

    Greetings from New Jersey !

    Was cloudy yesterday, but no precip here yet

    There are more ornamental cherry trees in Newark than anywhere except DC, and with the equinox they’re sending out their pollen. Me eyes watereth, even tho ye new HEPA air filter speeded up a notch.

    Am not a pickle connoisseur, but Mt Olive’s always seemed pretty good to me. One thing – when visiting parents after they retired to Dixieland, found pickle ‘salad cubes’ – like relish, but half-inch cubes instead of little pieces. Howcum you can’t get that in the North ???

  120. 120.

    lowtechcyclist

    National Weather Service bulletin for Los Angeles starts off:

    …FLASH FLOOD WATCH FOR RECENT BURN AREAS REMAINS IN EFFECT FROM WEDNESDAY EVENING THROUGH LATE THURSDAY NIGHT…

    And all the Angelinos sing: I’ve seen fire, and I’ve seen rain…

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