Posts Tagged ‘forecasting weather’
Tricky Footing
As demonstrated by my antics a few days ago when I tried to plant my feet to slow my momentum on the way down the backyard hill with Asher, the ground this time of year does not offer dependable footing. With the extreme swings of temperature we’ve been experiencing, the dirt and turf freeze solid overnight. That alone makes for a rather annoying walking surface that is uneven and unforgiving.
It only worsens as the day progresses and the sun thaws the uppermost layer.
The melting turns the first centimeter into a greasy slurry that then rides atop the hard, frozen layers below. It becomes a diabolically unreliable footing to hike on.
I’d rather walk on the almost-as-unreliable scree on the slope of a mountain.
Part of the problem is that you can’t see that it will be slippery. It’s like being gaslighted. Perception and reality don’t align.
In areas where there is no grass, like around my piles of composting manure, I ran into a different challenge. The black dirt looks solid enough, but I am well aware it will be slippery so I step carefully. My boots didn’t sink in, so things seemed tolerable. However, it got messy real fast when I picked up a foot and discovered that the thawed top 1 centimeter was staying attached to the soles of my boots.
In the good old days, we only dealt with these conditions briefly in the transition from winter to spring. This year it’s been happening throughout the entire winter. I keep hearing Paul Simon in my head singing, “Slip sliding away…”
March is not coming in like a lion. If the folklore holds, does this portend storms at month’s end?
When it comes to weather possibilities in this day and age, I don’t know what to believe anymore.
At the very least, I’d like to believe the tricky footing will be behind us sooner rather than later.
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Rusty Hue
The changing season has taken a very noticeable shift in a short span of days, from brilliant to subdued, in terms of color palette. Last week, the color was electric, but yesterday the landscape looked like someone had unplugged the power and all the trees have begun to rust.
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Those pictures were taken just four days apart. Our forest is quickly becoming transparent, as you can see.
It kinda gives the impression that winter is on the way, which is mind-bending because yesterday the temperature was so summer-like. How it looked, and how it felt were not quite in alignment.
Naturally, I base my perception of what kind of weather to expect, on what I’ve experienced in the past, but the planet hasn’t been itself lately. With all that humans have done to muck up the natural order, we’ve made the art of prediction less predictable.
It has me trying to reclaim the naiveté of my youth, when I didn’t have a clue about weather and seasons. Each day was just something to be explored. I’m sure it was magical. I don’t actually recall. Though, of course, I didn’t need to plan and prepare for what would come next.
This has me longing for the benefits of childhood freedom from needing to be concerned about preparing property for the freeze and clearing snow, having enough fuel, getting vehicles winterized.
Oh, to just wake up one morning and exclaim, “Snow!” with pure joy about going outside to play in it.
That is, if it still gets cold enough for snow in coming days.
It’s getting hard to predict.
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Relative Something 