Strange Weather

Like many of you I got up last Saturday morning really interested in seeing whether the forecast for the area was correct. The local weather man had said a winter storm warning was in effect for 3 to 6 inches of wet snow with as much as 6 to 12 inches in the higher terrain. We live at 950 MSL which can only be considered high if everything else around you is at sea level.

When it started snowing in earnest we decided to close shop and head home.  I had worked late the night before and we had a wedding and go to that night so when I got to the house I decided I’d take a nap for an hour then shower and dress for the wedding.

When I woke up the snow was really coming down. We already had about five inches on the ground and it was falling furiously. I hopped in the shower and suited up for the wedding. We got in the truck and started backing down the driveway. When it came time to turn around, the truck was still moving in the same direction and no amount of control input was changing that. I brought it to a stop and tried reversing course. We just sat there and spun the tires. Four wheel drive wasn’t much help and I quickly came to the conclusion that we would need to plow the driveway prior to leaving for the wedding. Unfortunately the plow wasn’t already on the truck so we bailed on the festivities resigning ourselves to the fact that we weren’t going anywhere.

Well it continued until midnight and when it was finally done we were left with 19” of heavy wet snow, on October 30^th. We lost power around 7PM and now a full seven days later the power still hasn’t been restored. Turns out this was one of the worst storms in many years and the worst October storm in my memory.

The leaves hadn’t yet fallen from the trees and the rapid snowfall accumulated on them causing branches to snap off and take down  transmission lines.

So we’ve had two one week long power outages in as many months, the first from Hurricane Irene and our unexpected snowstorm. It seems odd that this should be happening but only if we view these storms as isolated events. 2011 has seen its share of bizarre weather.

Weather Underground meteorology director Jeff Masters, who wasn't involved in the study, said in the United States from June to August this year, blistering heat set 2,703 daily high temperature records, compared with only 300 cold records during that period, making it the hottest summer in the U.S. since the Dust Bowl of 1936.

Anyway the weather will be what the weather will be, and I believe that these wide swings and storms define what the new normal is. As pilots we’ll have to learn to adapt to it.