A Wintry Blast

I guess that Mother Nature wanted me to have a taste of winter before I leave for the milder climes of Mexico.  She sent a blast of Arctic air that has kept us well below freezing and given us nighttime lows in the single digits (Fahrenheit).  On New Year's Eve and New Year's Day our lows are forecast to be below zero.

Although the ground is covered with a blanket of white, we have not had the extreme snowfall that some places have had.  I live in the western suburbs of Cleveland, and here we do not get as much snow as in the "snow belt" on the east side of Cleveland.

(Image from the web)

As you can see from the map above, just to the east of downtown Cleveland, the shore of Lake Erie slopes northward.  That means that the westerly, moisture-bearing winds coming across Lake Erie dump the most snow on the east side of the city.  This "lake effect" snow is even worse along Pennsylvania's coast.  Thus, while I only have a few inches of snow, the city of Erie, Pennsylvania was buried under five feet of snow!

Of course the "pendejo" in the White House has used this winter weather to mock the reality of global warming.  His feeble, anti-scientific brain does not understand the difference between weather (the atmospheric conditions at a certain time in a given place) and climate (the long term trend).