You folks in the upper midwest, northeast, and most of Canada are no doubt used to the kind of weather that can crack your skin, chap your lips in minutes, give you nosebleeds, and turn you into a spark generator. (I remember it all too well from living in Minnesota.)
Not so in this mild, soggy corner of the nation. At least not so until today. We’ve been having unusually cold, dry weather for days. Temps have barely squeaked above freezing during their daytime highs. Now, with a rising gale out of the east, we’re expecting outside humidity below 40% and inside humidity as low as 10%.
Local weather mavens have warned (humorously? I’m not sure) against being around flammable gasses lest we set them off with our personal electric charges.
We’re used to El Nino and La Nina causing their standard varieties of havoc. El Arido — “the dry one” — is totally new.
And may I say unwelcome.
S’posed to be like this for most of the next three days.
At which point it may warm all the way up to 39. And start raining. Heavily.
How many months of winter have we already had? Isn’t it about time for it to end now?
I was ready for spring before the end of October! 🙂 Was snowed in four days over the end of December, and it may snow again today. I maintain a humidity level of at least 25% in the main rooms, with 60% the target for the upstairs bathroom with the orchids. Lots of different ways to increase room humidity, and lots of large green plants is a place to start. Keep them well watered, making sure they have excellent drainage. There are a great many plants that require very little sunshine or hands on care.
Another way to increase indoor humidity is to fill pans or kettles with water and set them on the stove. Low heat on gas or electric, and not in the hottest spot on the wood stove. Check the containers periodically and replenish water as needed. You’ve all probably done that at some point.
I have what is known as a quilt rack. Don’t use it for quilts, but it makes a handy place to hang a wet towel or two in order to increase the humidity. Any indoor dryer rack is as good or better.
And I also installed a bypass thing on the dryer vent, which directs the heat and moisture from the dryer into the downstairs bedroom. I purposely leave any load of laundry until late evening to start drying, and the humidity remains good for the rest of the night. Hint: Just don’t use any of those super-powered perfumed dryer sheets.
Claire add to that 50 mph gusts where I am, makes that wind chill factor even more fun.
Also makes you realize the importance of that generator if the power goes out, hopefully you have some good heaters to plug into it if needed.
Coming back from cleaning up my mom’s place in eastern Washington, first time I can remember leaving the east side of the Cascades into bright sunshine on this side. Again today, sunshine and cold… the world really has shifted…
FishOrMan, yeah, rare experience isn’t it? Usually Snoqualmie Pass (assuming you came that way) is usually something like a wall. Sun (or snow) on the east; gloom and rain the moment you start down.
I’m so sorry about your mom. When I asked that question about 2016 the other day I almost didn’t ask it because I knew you might see it and nobody needed to ask how your 2016 was.
Comrade X — 50 mph winds with this cold (shudder). Our wind so far is only about 20 mph. Bad enough. I waited until the sun was well up before walking to town this morning. But into town is also into the wind. Even though I was bundled in layers, plus earmuffs, plus one of my woolly cowls, plus wool puttees (leg warmers, but military ones, a much-appreciated gift from friend TSO, who specializes in keeping me warm), it was bitter.
Got to town and found dust clouds swirling in the streets. Heck, even in summer it rarely gets dry enough for dust here, let alone clouds of it so high they swept over the roofs of low buildings. Ugh.
The walk home with the wind at my back was better, but even then I was aware of the cold beating against every spot that wasn’t covered by multiple layers.
I’m almost embarrassed. I’m normally the one who bitches about winter because it’s cold and windy and wet and my house was perennially undone and cold and drafty. Now I’m complaining about winter because it’s so mild.
My house is nice and warm, the shell finally being complete. But I was invited to spend the – traditionally very cold – first week in January in the low desert where it’s much warmer. And the usual cold snap totally didn’t happen. Looking at the weather report back home it may as well be early Spring.
I totally filled my woodshed this year for the very first time ever, and at this rate it’ll be more than half-full when I put the woodstove to bed in March or April.
Conversations of this sort call to mind the comparison between primitive Comanches and modern, sophisticated White-eyes.
Comanches migrated to where it was cool in summer and to where it was warm in winter. White-eyes don’t, generally.
Is it sadistic to mumble something about common sense?
Gigglesnort…
“Is it sadistic to mumble something about common sense?”
But then, Comanches never invented and never would have invented, things like central heat, air conditioning, and sophisticated modern fabrics.
It’s no wonder that northern Europeans and their descendants here in North America have been among the most creative and inventive ever on the planet. Being stuck in lousy weather will do that do you.
[lecture]
As I remember (From history, not personally) the Comanche didn’t migrate because of the weather, they followed the animal herds and wild plants that served as their pantry.
Agriculture and the permanent settlements it required are right among fire, archery and the wheel as a discovery that made human prosperity possible.
[/lecture]
Oh Claire, one thing that has stuck with me about the weather is that it’s mostly too hot, too cold to wet or too dry. As for the dry I put a cheap humidifier on the furnace that does the trick.
BTW since Tuesday we have gotten six inches of snow each night. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not bitching about it. My bro-in-law, who lives a little north of me, has gotten two and a half feet of the white stuff since Tuesday with more on the way tonight.
I’m glad we have our weather, not yours, M Ryan. Snow — ugh. Deep snow? Ugh-er.
I’m on record as disapproving of the outdoors in general, weather included. But some parts are less bad than others. And you’re right; a simple pan or kettle of water on top of a stove or fireplace does nicely do the trick for the indoor weather. It’s actually not too awful right now. Sunny and no wind, so the 37F doesn’t feel like 37F. Still, I’m looking forward to the weekend when we are promised 39F and rain.
Some guys really have fun when it’s cold.
http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=54a_1482801904
The remains of the old Comanche winter trail can be seen in southern Brewster County, Texas. Never was a whole heckuva lot of game down in that country. Not where the annual rainfall is around 9″. But they went on through what’s now Big Bend National Park and on somewhat south.
The most northwestern limit of the summer trek was at what’s now Dinosaur National Monument. Wouldn’t have been following herds, from the Great Plains on across the Rockies.