My climate/weather thoughts

by Bobby Pine
(Knoxville,TN,USA)

this is what TN snow looks like; wimpy. It melts while it accumlates weird.

I do believe the climate is getting warmer and I think the weather is becoming much more severe because of this.

Climate and weather are different. The more moisture in the atmosphere means higher precip totals liquid or frozen.

I also think the planet goes through cycles and we are coming back to a cold snowy climate here in the past few years.

I live in Knoxville Tennessee and it doesn't snow much but the past two years; its been colder and snowier here. We haven't seen this since the late 70's and early 80's. December 2010, we have had 3 snow events, not heavy accumulations but each storm it snowed lightly for 2-3 days each with snow depth ranging from 6-10" on the plateau to 4-8" in the valley and 15-40" in the smoky mountains. This is unusual for this time of year.

Our temperatures have been running in the mid 30's for highs to teens for lows. This is 10-15 degrees colder for this time of year. January is our coldest and snowiest month. We usually have a 2 week stretch of sub freezing temps.

In '09 (January), we had 2 weeks of temps in the 20's for highs and lows -1 to 10 above and the rivers froze enough to walk on. In 20 years I never seen this happen.

I'm expecting this January to be even worse and I think sometime before the warm up in March we will get that storm we been dreaming of. Personally, I'd like to see a storm of 6-12" or more hit us. This would be great; I haven't seen snow like that since I left New York in 1990.

I think it's coming and so far this year has the most promising forecast yet. I won't get excited 'til it happens.

Barry's Response - An advocate for huge snowfalls and wintery weather. I like it.

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