Crazy Weather

The weather, in its stereotypically selfish ways, seems to be unconcerned with what "normal" is.  Since being locked in the deep freeze for the first part of January.... we residents in Alaska have so gratefully sent the cold air down south to NC and beyond.  This past week I was on a string of midnights, and the weather was just nuts.  In something like 3 days we went from below zero to 50 degrees.  50 degrees, in January, in Alaska?  Oddly enough, this is the warmest it's been since I moved here!

I've hit some personal milestones throughout the temperature swing adventure.  First zero felt "a little warm".  While walking up to launch a balloon one day I actually unzipped my jacket because I was sweating.  Then came the freezing mark.  Might as well have been the first warm spring day.  Then 50 happened.  I told the guys at work I was tempted to launch the next weather balloon in only a speedo.

*Note: for those of you unfamiliar with how I actually do things, this is not a joke at all.  If I thought I could get away with it without getting fired, I honestly would have been up to it

With the warm weather came some crazy weather though.  First, it started raining.... pretty much the first rain I've seen since leaving NC.  Unfortunately, the ground was still very very cold, so everything just became a complete icy disaster.  It took my near an hour to get home one morning, and I don't know how I didn't end up in a ditch... or someone's rear bumper.  It was like someone drove a zamboni around the entire city.  I've never seen anything like it.

With the rain and ice came a lot of wind.  I launched a couple weather balloons in 40+ mph wind.  If you've never seen a short guy try to handle a wildly flopping 10-ft. diameter balloon filled with helium in 40 mph winds, I suggest you look it up on youtube (I wish I had a video).  I basically just got taken for a ride with the balloon pulling me around the launch area... which was coated with about 2 or 3 inches of straight ice. 

Something else that is pretty funny to me was that school got cancelled.  That's right, the hardest of the hardcore (supposedly) cancelled school for 3 days.  I guess the funny part is that it took rain to cancel school.... forget the 55 inches of snow we've had so far this year.  It's completely understandable, because getting around was tough, but I think I share a sinister satisfaction in the situation that all Southerners will share with me.

Otherwise things have been pretty low key around here since Dad left.  We've lost all of our snow, so snow sports arent really happening right now.  I have a couple days off later this week so may end up going to chase some grouse and arctic hare again.  Daylight is increasing at about 5 minutes a day... and the difference in unbelievable already.  I also started taking Vitamin D supplements, because I was starting to feel like a vampire when I saw the sun.

So there's a quick update from my end.  I hope yall enjoy the cold weather down south and here's to a snowstorm in NC finally materializing (although I've had like a thousand inches of snow this year anyway, sooo. soooo.)