Oh Summer, where art thou? (1 Viewer)

[Ron-P]

A fact I cannot dispute.

 

[Moe Maishlish]

Driving in to work this morning, staring at the grey sky ahead of me, I was forced to ask myself if we'll see another sunny day before the end of the month. September's fast approaching, and I honestly can't remember the last day in Toronto where it hasn't rained at least once!

I'll trade the blistering cold we feel up in Toronto for the hot humid weather down south any day! Like I said - I really thrive in the summer months, and I like the heat... the sun energizes me, and makes me feel alive, while the cold has the opposite effect. When it's cold you've gotta bundle up in layers... but when it's hot, the less layers, the better.

At least you don't need to shovel humidity... and the heat isn't going to make the roads a deathtrap like the winter's snow & ice do!

Yup, pack me up and move me to Florida, California, or anywhere else with a palm tree!

(I'm actually seriously considering getting a fake palm to keep in my house... just so I can at least feel a little tropical...)

Moe.

 

[Joe Szott]

Moe, just move. Why not?

 

[Zen Butler]

Word up!

Unforunately Moe, there are only a few feet left over here. Better act fast.

 

[Ron-P]

For you, Moe. A shot from my town (palm trees included).

 

[RobertR]

The longer I live in this beach city, the more I realize how hard it is to beat the weather here. How many places can you walk around at midnight in, say, December or January with barely a light jacket, yet never have to worry about a hurricane (or super hot, humid weather) and such? And yes, there are some very nice sights in Huntington.

 

[Moe Maishlish]

I wish I could just pack up an move Joe...

...believe me, the thought crosses my mind several times a day.

I've lived here my whole life, and I'm kinda sick of it. A change of scenery (and weather) would definately help... hell, I even went to SCHOOL in the city, so I've never really had a break of it. The problem is that my family is here, my job is here, my home (and mortgage) is here... hell, my LIFE is here. Picking up & moving, as appealing as it sounds, is basically a big, huge, MASSIVE step that I'm not prepared to take at the moment.

Ron, thanks for the pic... :TU:

Moe.

 

[mark alan]

Moe,

You have obviously never lived in a hot humid climate. It absolutely sucks!!!! I lived in the south the first 25 years of my life. I now live in pennsylvania, and you couldn't get me to move back at gunpoint. My ultimate goal is to keep going north until I get close to the artic circle.

There is no torture worse than 9 months of humidity and bugs.

 

[Jimi C]

i havnt seen the sun in 10 months.

 

[Holadem]

I hope this relatively cold summer is not a sign of a crappy winter in New England... Outside of the three weeks or so of subzero temperatures in january, last winter was fine. Heck, it was like 60 deg on Xmas day IIRC. The winter of 2002-2003 however was evil. It seemed there was a snowstorm every other week.

--
H

 

[Ron-P]

For you, Jimi. A shot from under the Huntington Beach Pier (sun included).

 

[MarkHastings]

That sounds about right. I remember this past Xmas to be quite "unseasonable".

 

[McPaul]

Same here in Calgary... haven't really had much of a summer, although I was in BC for a week recently... it was 110 farenheit when we got onto the tarmac in Kamloops, and it never let up all week... LOVED IT!

I'd move in a second too, if I could... but that becomes a serious problem when you actually want to legally WORK in Cali or Fla...

 

[Moe Maishlish]

Exactly... :frowning:

moe.

 

[Andrew Pratt]

I just spent a week in San Diego at a conference and loved the weather there...never too hot or too cold its always just comfortable..I'd move there in a second if i thought I'd actually be able to afford it and find a job in my field (not hard I'm sure) but immigrating into the US is next to impossible

 

[Jimi C]

oh man mark.. you had it tough.. heat and bugs.. glad i dont have to live in such a horrible climate..





wait a minute.. !

not to mention our summers are extremely humid.. arizonas 115ºF feels like our 75ºF.

 

[Chris PC]

I too can acknowledge the lack of summer this year in Toronto. In June we had a fair amount of rain and a few very hot days, like maybe 3 or 4 max. In July, it was similar. Less rain perhaps, but no more than a handful of very hot days. I agree, we haven't had a normal summer. In fact, I cannot remember a summer like this in all of my life and I'm 34 and have lived in the GTA for 33 years. The clostest to this was the summer after mount pinatubo blew its top in 1991, which resulted in the rest of summer after June 15 and onward being cooler and it rained often. Almost every single weekend was rain. I must say though that this brings up some important points.

While I like hot weather as much as anyone else, I think that over the last 25 years (a period I can remember, I was 9 in 1979 and I can't recall the summers too much in the 70's), Toronto has had more than its fair share of hot, stiffling heat waves filled with smog, so I don't mind at all. Yes, I do miss the hot summer weather, but if there is one thing I have learned about living on planet earth, its that I can't control the weather. I have learned to adapt. My seasonal clothes are always available year round. If there's an un-seasonably warm day in November or early December, and there have been ultra weird hot days those months, then I take advantage of it. If its been cooler than normal in Spring, summer or fall, then I dress accordingly. I have a parka for rain too, and sometimes, although Toronto isn't a really rainy place on average, there have been years when its really necessary. I can remember one year, in the first few days of November, driving a work vehicle and looking up through the clouds and seeing the sun for the first time in 3 weeks and saying, "hey look, its still there!

When I was a kid, I used to only enjoy summer, because that was when I could ride my BMX bike or skateboard. Going toboganning wasn't enough fun to justify the cold. Eventually I made friends with winter and now I don't care what season it is. In the winter, I'll go cross-country skiing, snowshoeing, downhill skiing or snow-boarding or just stay indoors. I admit that I do prefer Spring, Summer and Fall to winter. Quite frankly, I view the yearly seasons as Winter from December to mid-March/April and Summer lasting from mid-March/April (depending on the year) to mid-November. Its just the way its worked. Yes I recognize Spring and summer, and I LOVE FALL. Fall is like a drug to me. I don't know why it has such a powerful affect on me, but other seasons affect me too, just not like fall does. The reason I say summer is from April to November, is because thats when I do summer activities. Yes, on average, the weather isn't always like hot summer in April or even in early May sometimes, but there are many days in those months, and sometimes in March, when its summer weather. If you take advantage of those days, even if it means a brief outdoor activity after work, then you will learn to maximize your use and love of the seasons. Its annoying to hear people refusing to do an activity because its not is season, and yet the weather is perfect for it. Fine if you do different things each season and always enjoy something and are satisfied, but I often hear these same strict season following people complaining that the weather in that season isn't typical. It never has been typical on average. Its always varying each year.

If its really really hot in the summer, you can overheat. On super hot heat wave days, whether male or female, you can be outdoors in the shade wearing a bathing suit, but you cannot do anything to lower your temperature outside except stay in the shade and maybe swim. In any other seasons, you simply wear the correct layers of clothing and you're ok. Even in the coldest insanely cold days of Toronto's damp cold winters, as long as you dress in layers, you don't freeze, in fact, you can overheat. If anyone says "Air Conditioning" for keeping cool, fine, but anytime you're in an air conditioned place, you aren't experiencing summer. I'm not arguing here that you must do without air conditioning, I'm just saying if its so hot that you've choosen to be in the air conditioning, then you're no longer outside where we like to spend most of the summer.

So yes, this summer has been lame as summers go, but we've had fewer hot sweltering days of heat stroke and smog, and I don't have to sleep on my bed in nothing but boxers with zero blankets while still sweating (BTW I'm not overweight, at 162 LBS and 5 9 1/2").

As far as the environmental concerns, I won't get into that too much. I do want to say that for anyone who sees a cold summer like this, and our brutally cold winters and says "Hah. So much Global Warming!" and they're serious, well, its unfortunate that there is confusion. Its been proven that concentrations of CO2 (and other greenhouse gases) in the atmosphere have been steadily increasing. Greenhouse gases are any gas which allows the majority of sunlight energy (shortwave) to enter the earths atmosphere and for much of it to reach the water and the ground, but prevent Longwave radiation (sensible heat) from escaping. As a result, you are allowing the same amount of energy in, but letting less of input energy to escape. Same energy in, less out. The first and most obvious conclusion from that scenario is that the earth will heat up. This may be true. I must stress here, that the Earth's "GLOBAL AVERAGE TEMPERATURE" is what increases, and that doesn't mean that every single place on earth will simply increase in temperature by some amount. The Earth is a climate machine, so that changes in the composition of the atmosphere will affect how it operates. Its a big machine. Nobody can predict very much of the earths climate from year to year, nor can we predcit the weather very far in advance from day to day or week to week without radar and forecasting. We are getting a little better at forecasting.

Anyways, what I want to stress is that with the earth as a climate and weather machine with so many variables involving how it operates, we cannot predict what the future holds. Cold summers here are mearly the result of a different distribution of the suns energy over the globe. If its cooler here, its likely hotter somewhere else. Climate Change is about the earths climate and variability changing, so when people say Climate Change isn't happening, they haven't looked at the records.

Who knows why it ends up this way sometimes, but I would have to bet that in this fluctation we are experiencing as we are moving from a more steady state of weather and climate to a different state, we can expect more extreme and/or un-usual weather. I predict this year that we won't have a normal fall in Toronto. I thinks its going to be a mild Indian Summer. If not, don't be surprised if its deep freeze. I can remember one September going to highschool the first week and it was below zero.

Anyways.......I should get outside myself and enjoy what little summer there is left! :p

 

[Steve_Tk]

Ready for summer to end here in Atlanta.

 

[DaveGTP]

I agree with the feeling, Moe. Here in mid-Michigan (we are right in the middle of the L.P.) we have had a very very mild summer. Only a couple weeks of icky 90's. I can only think of a few days we ran the wall-unit AC (good because it barely works).


But I have a different outlook. I've never really liked summer (except for the break from school - I've been going to school, and college, for so many years...)

I love fall. But I like the seasonality a lot. We recently drove across the country and got married. Stacey was all big to move to another state - she's lived here in the Midland area for her whole life. But the trip changed her mind.

After being away from home for 18 days - MI to Las Vegas, Las Vegas to Big Bear Lake & LA/Long Beach, CA, cruise to Ensenada, Mexico, and back across the middle of the country through Wyoming, Utah, etc....perhaps we got our dose of summer. When we got married in Vegas (June 3rd) it was 110+ degrees F. But I've been glad for the mild weather. Esp. after the extreme winter we had (a lot of snow).


My wife has had me watching some Buffy Season 1...I think the librarian dude had it right (talking about Southern CA) when he said "How can you stand it here...the weather is always the same".

I figure it's the jetstream, bringing us cold Canadian air, instead of hot Southern US Air.


Besides, in the Wintertime, you can always put on more clothing to get warm. There's a certain limit to the amount of clothing you can take off to get cool...

 

[NickSo]

wow weird... we had a freak rainshower yesterday and last night... it was literally like, SHOWERING for a brief period of time last night, woke me up. just 2 or 3 days ago we were having upper 20's (Celsius ) temperatures