Our Subaru has an external-temperature gauge in the dashboard, and it is somewhat weird to be tooling toward the gym in the morning and seeing the gauge read 43 degrees Fahrenheit. I'm used to it being at least a little warmer here. And this nippy-Bay-Area-winter phenomenon felt a little weirder after I read yesterday's "Seldom Heard in January: Hot Enough for Ya?" in the WaPo. 73 degrees Fahrenheit! In January? Back when I lived there, January was all about fretting over how not to freeze during inauguration, stocking up on bread in anticipation of snow days, casting longing looks at Bahamas posters strategically placed in travel agency windows.
That this should appear the same day the NYT runs the speculative piece "The Ununited States, When It Comes to the Weather," is just delightful. The argument in the piece is this: because the U.S. has such vastly different weather systems, it's hard for anyone to make global warming seem like a national issue. Days like yesterday certainly seem to back that theory up.
We have had equally weird weather in the middle of the country, too. I was well and truly insulted New Year's Eve that it was so cold as I walked across the parking lot on my way to the movie theater. And it was probably in the mid to upper 30s. Averages should be mid-teens to mid-30s so we should have been used to it. But the low the day before was above 50, so that 28 degree low on 12/31 was quite a shock to the system.
Posted by: Dellface | 2007.01.08 at 21:22