Have I ever mentioned that A. doesn't approve of personal questions or conversations with people he doesn't know well? Or even people he DOES know well, for that matter. In his opinion, the weather is the only really appropriate and polite topic of conversation for acquaintances and strangers. This would be pretty boring in a place like Tucson ("Well, sunny again today, huh?" "Yup, sunny again." silence). Luckily for him and his conversational fodder, we HAVE a lot of weather to talk about.
ANYWAY, I was thinking about this because someone in Australia asked what our weather is like here. And this is something A. always wants to know when we visit places. How cold does it get? How hot? How much rain? How much snow? Is it sunny all the time, or is it mostly cloudy? He has this endless fascination with All Things Weather. So it should really be him answering these questions for you (and he could! even though he doesn't know you! because it's weather!), but he's at work and here I am, so I'll just have to do my best.
So, what's our weather like here?* I'm not going to get very specific about where "here" is, but I will say we live in central New York. On a lake. The lake has a big effect on our weather. We don't really get lake effect snowstorms, like the ones that regularly slam Buffalo and Syracuse (these are big cities in New York State, for those of you that might not know). In our case, the lake has a buffering effect. Due to some kind of freak placement on the lake and the way the clouds move or something (yeah, I'm SO TECHNICAL), this means that this square mile of shoreline where we live is usually about five degrees warmer than the surrounding area and gets less snow. And rain. So in the winter, it's possible to be driving home with four inches of snow on the ground, and then you get near our house and . . . nothing.
Except this winter, when we've gotten a lot of snow. We're on track to have one of the snowiest winters in history. But our snow tends not to stick all winter long, so we don't have a huge build-up. There will generally be some thawing periods, even in January, that will get rid of the snow. It rarely gets below zero at our house (I speak of Fahrenheit, of course, because I'm American). This time of year, the average high is in the 30s. It gets to the teens at night. We will generally have at least one stretch of cold weather in the winter when it won't get above freezing during the day and gets near zero at night. This year, that stretch was pretty much all of January.
In the summer, it gets a lot hotter than you would think would be fair. I mean, we suck it up through this cold winter, we should be rewarded with nothing but about 80 degrees in the summer, right? Wrong. It routinely gets into the 90s with stifling humidity, mostly in July and August. It's very, very unpleasant. I hate the humidity. And we have no air conditioning, anywhere, in any room. Also, we tend not to get a lot of rain, because of that same confluence of factors that results in less snow for us in the winter. This does not make it any less humid, however. A "dry" summer will still be hot and humid, we just won't have the moisture falling from clouds.
One interesting point to note is that this area is one of the cloudiest places in the country. Portland and Seattle get all the press about not having any sun, but we're right there with 'em. It makes for a very cheery winter, as you might imagine.
So, to sum up: Cold and snowy in winter, hot and humid in summer. And cloudy. Wow, doesn't that sound pleasant?
So, who wants to visit?
* For those of you from different countries who really have NO IDEA what the weather in ANY part of the U.S. might be like (and why should you? I mean, I have no idea what the weather is like anywhere in Australia), I should mention that there is INCREDIBLE diversity in the weather between different areas of the country. There are deserts and mountains and swamps and plains and EVERYTHING across this country, so this information I'm giving you is really specific to where we live. If you asked someone in California, they would have a totally different answer.
Me, me, me! I want to visit! Because Blackrock is gorgeous, it looks and sounds like you're an awesome cook, and I want me some Slippery Slopes!
ReplyDeleteTwo important points: February is often a great month: warm sunshine and cold air together--frozen or snowy ground, little to no mud. Nothing beats walking the dogs in February sunshine, and we've had lots of that this year, as we often do in a cold year.
ReplyDeleteSecond point: it is about 5-10 degrees cooler here than in the nearby areas, at least right by the lake. One can feel the coolness in the summer as one nears the house.
We won't discuss the clouds in Dec. and Jan., thank you.
I live an equal distance from Lakes Erie and Ontario. We got pummeled with snow this year. Most of the winter we've had over two feet in our yard. I have been very thankful for the sunshine this week. My mood has already improved considerably, and it's not even warm yet.
ReplyDeleteNot me, as I am vehemently anti-snow. Actually, I could probably survive if bolstered with enough Slippery Slopes. A Southerner's tolerance for cold goes up in direct proportion to the amount of alcohol they've ingested.
ReplyDeleteGosh it's down right balmy where you live! I wouldn't trade our weeks of sub-zero temperatures for the clouds though...
ReplyDeleteOh yes, in Colombia where I grew up it was hot and stupid hot with some occational wind & rain. Nice for growing things like bananas & papayas, but not for nice hair.
ReplyDeleteI've thankfully always lived in mild climates. Now I never want to go to NY.
ReplyDeleteWow, A. would totally fit in our family, since we seem to have an obsession with the weather. My brother-in-law even incorporated our name into the word "forecast" (I'll leave that for you to figure out, Kristin, because I'm not putting my last name out there) since we're always looking at the Weather Channel or the local equivalent. In fact, I've been following the changes for Wednesday's possible storm since last week (now it looks like we might get a few inches of snow, which totally sucks). I can't wait until May, when it'll finally be decent around here.
ReplyDeleteeveryone thinks california is sunny and warm... not the case. where i live while the tempertures are moderate in the winter 30's for a low and anywhere from 40-60's as a high. it gets foggy and can stay foggy for days. in the summer it gets hot, thank goodness not humid but it can stay hot with no summer rain storms to cool us off.
ReplyDeletemy husband is like A. always wants to know about the weather anywhere we go.
Hi Kristin,thanks for all the info.I had no idea it was so hot and humid there in summer.As you know Its summer here now,and hot and humid.Its also our wet season.We get most of our rain fall in Jan,Feb and March.So it will be 35c (95f)then it rains for an hour,the sun comes out,and the Humidity is unbearable!!!I hate it too!This is the time when we are most likely to get floods,the towns main street is the most affected,the waters goes right up to the second story.Unfortunately some houses go under too,(not ours)Our Autumn is beautiful,Winter is dry,and cold,we get down to o-5c(32-41f)and get some huge frosts,but the days are usually around 15-25c(59-68f)we might have acouple of weeks of extreme cold,not like you,your winters are soooo long.It does snow in Australia,way down the bottom,about 2000 klms or more south of us.Seeing as the U.S and the U.K have had such a cold,record breaking winter,Im wondering what ours will be like.
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