April Alive Again

April may be taxes and tariffs this year.  Thousand-year rains and tornadoes, economic uncertainty. But April is also national poetry month. Here's a post from two years ago  on April  9th, 2023---

 

 April is National Poetry Month

April  may be the most poetic month---alive again, the earth in bloom---flowers and new green leaves.  Buds on the lilacs,  and today, the magnolias are blooming!

And how many poets have been inspired to write about April and Spring?

Wordsworth and the daffodils--

and ee cummings--in just spring---

Chaucer's  opening of Canterbury Tales --When that April with showers sweet with fruit  (modern English translation)

and moody modern Mr. Eliot--April is the cruelest month...

Simon and Garfunkel  sang  "April come she will, when streams are ripe and swelled with rain..."

 There are Japanese poets who write about the fleeting beauty of cherry blossoms.  There are  French poets writing about rain...

 And Shakespeare--"thou art thy mothers glass, and she in thee beholds the lovely April of her prime" 

 And William Carlos Williams---the alphabet of the trees is fading in the song of leaves...

April--love and spring  

when everything is new again. 

 

Spring for a Day!

 

 

Saturday and  Spring for a day!  New grass  and mist of green leaves.   Buds on the branches, crocuses and daffodils blooming.  Do we feel a sense of renewal in spite of the daily news?

Warm breeze, blue sky, and highs in the 70's.  Lots of people in shorts and T-shirts---kids riding bikes and playing baseball in the street.   One thinks of other springs, other baseball opening days,  

 Many things have changed, perhaps accelerated by the COVID pandemic.  More shopping online, more social media instead of newspapers, and public phones. Maybe isolation has divided us,  in ways we have not experienced before. But we can all agree  it's a joy to see the buds on the magnolias, the red shoots of peonies. Hope and renewal, the promise of spring!  

 Enjoy it while it lasts. Like the magnolia flowers, such a day is all-too fleeting. Today is a Severe Weather Sunday...

Five Weathers

 Since elon musk is requiring people to list five things they have done this week,  I thought I'd write about the  weather. Here goes---

1.  almost spring--first crocuses and daffodils

2  severe weather forecast-- charge devices, pack scram bags

3 summer for a day--men wearing shorts and t-shirts

4  severe weather--thunderstorms, high winds, tornadoes! 

5 snow!!! 

Early March Madness

 

 Weather is something we all have in common. Do we not share the same rain, don't we all get wet?

We  are entering severe weather season--blizzards, flooding, high winds, tornadoes are all possible in March.  It  can be sunny  and springlike in the morning and rain and snow in the afternoon!

How much we depend on the National Weather Service for weather forecasts and  safety information!   Farmers depend on the weather forecasts for planting and harvesting. Stock markets and futures traders also rely on forecasts making their own predictions.  What is the forecast? Uncertainty.

Among other agencies, DOGE is targeting the National Weather Service, and NOAA for budget cuts.   

Why are these agencies being targeted?  I think one reason may be the meteorologists and climatologists are quite outspoken about climate change, and the harm to the environment if we don't make changes in the way we live. They know it is not a hoax. It is happening now.

Another reason may be the "Sharpie Incident," in September 2019, when then-president Trump used a Sharpie marker to alter a weather map depicting the path of Hurricane Dorian.  When he was corrected, he  demanded an apology from the NWS, and people who corrected him to be fired.  He did not get his way.  You can read more about it here.

Both Trump and Musk are very fond of firing people. The cruelty is the point.  And the money...

Presidents' Day

 February 17---

Sun and subzero here in Chicagoland---yes, Chiberia is back. and there are floods in Appalachia, tornadoes in Tennessee.  Meteorological Spring begins on March 1, but extreme wintery weather is not going away. not this week anyway.

Today is Presidents' Day. It's a federal holiday--no mail delivery today.

But the current administration is not taking a day off. DOGE team is hard at work at USAID, the National Weather Service, National Park Service,  and Social Security Administration, and  more.  According to Business Insider, at least 15 federal agencies have been targeted by DOGE.

They were not elected or approved by Congress. What authority do they have?  Some people are calling this a coup, or a constitutional crisis. 

No, we the people are not powerless. The resistance is growing.

I am thinking of President Lincoln and the Gettysburg Address, maybe one of the greatest speeches ever. 

It was a time of Civil War---

Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.

Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.

But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate—we can not consecrate—we can not hallow—this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us—that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion—that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain—that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom—and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.

—Abraham Lincoln

It's Groundhog Day!

 

 

 

 

 

It's February 2  and almost feels like spring here, today.  Today is Groundhog Day, when the groundhogs in Punxutawney, Pennsylvania and Woodstock, Illinois, and all over Canada, are called upon to predict whether there will be an early spring.

 

This day is also known as Candelmas, A Catholic celebration of Christ as the light of the world, marking the lengthening days in the Northern Hemisphere.  

Imbolc is a pagan or Gaelic holiday marking this time  halfway between the winter solstice on December 21 and the spring equinox on March 20. The old calendar calls this a cross-quarter day.  It is the triumph of light over the dark part of the year. 

Groundhog Day is a festival, too, more folklore in a way. People may dress in old-fashioned costumes. There is food and dancing. too.  Some may watch the movie Groundhog Day,  set in Woodstock, Illinois

The star of the day is the groundhog, who is coaxed out of his burrow, and if he doesn't see his shadow, there will be an early spring.  If he does see his shadow, there will be 6 more weeks of winter. 

According to NOAA,  these prognostications have been right about 30% of the time.  But there is some science to this too. Long ago, people observed that animals became more active around this time.  A cloudy, overcast day without shadows would be warmer than a bright and sunny day. 

Warmer days means  warmer ground, and a longer growing season, which farmers would be hoping for. 

Have you noticed more activity among the squirrels and other animals? The other day, just before sunrise, I saw a possum in the alley.  Yes, spring is coming!

 In Pennsylvania, Punxsutawney Phil did see his shadow.  It's breezy and cloudy tin Woodstock, Illinois.  The temperature feels like 41.  Woodstock Willie did not see his shadow, predicting an early spring. 

There are also Groundhog Day celebrations in Canada. According to the Globe and Mail---

Living on the East Coast, Shubenacadie Sam is typically the first groundhog in North America to issue a long-term forecast. She is followed by Quebec's Fred la Marmotte, who made the same prediction of a longer winter, and Ontario's Wiarton Wllie, who predicted an early spring.

Postcard from Chiberia

 

 Chiberia

 

January 20----

On this day in 1985, Chicago recorded  its coldest temperature on record---

NWS Chicago on X: "Today is the 40th anniversary of Chicago recording its coldest temp ever on record. This record low of -27°F was set on January 20, 1985, and was also accompanied by the lowest wind chill on record -57°F. Today’s low is forecast to be -2°F with wind chills around -20°F #ILwx #IN https://t.co/tIEjYcGYed" / X

It was not that cold today, but it was still subzero, and even more subzero on Tuesday.

Greetings from Chiberia!  Chiberia of the frozen pipes and cars that won't start, waiting at the bus stop in 20-below.  

Why is Chicago called Chiberia?  It's a combination of Chicago and Siberia.

According to Wikipedia--"Chiberia"  was coined by Richard Castro, at the National Weather Service, during a cold wave  in 2014... The National Weather Service  used the hashtag "#Chiberia  during its reporting on the cold wave. The nickname continues to be used during cold weather events."

 Yes, it does get brutally cold here, and mid-January is historically the coldest time. What's different this year is not much snow to go with the extreme cold.

Meanwhile, snowplows are getting ready in Houston for Winter Storm Enzo...