The Great Blizzard of 2010
<p>This is a bulletin for those of my regulars who know that I live smack-dab in the middle of the mid-Atlantic-coast region of the U.S. that&#8217;s just been hit by epic snowfall.  We&#8217;re OK.  It&#8217;s dangerous outside and we&#8217;re not planning on stirring out of sight of the house until the blizzard is over, but we&#8217;re OK.</p>
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<p>Yes, it&#8217;s bad out there. The mid-Atlantic region is snowed in from central Virginia north <s>to just past</s> not quite to New York City. Over much of that area weather conditions are extremely dangerous and authorities are recommending that nobody try to travel unless it&#8217;s an emergency.</p>
<p>It was certainly full blizzard conditions here in southeastern Pennsylvania overnight; snow is roughly 30 inches (76 cm) deep with a lot of blowing and drifting.  It&#8217;s still falling lightly and might reach the neighborhood of 3 feet (1m) by the time it&#8217;s expected to stop, around 1800 tonight.  </p>
<p>We&#8217;re near an edge of the peak-snowfall zone, about 50 miles north of the worst-hit areas in northern Maryland and the Delmarva peninsula. Washington DC, about 100 miles (roughly 160 km) southwest of us and close to the southern edge of the peak-snowfall zone, also has 30 inches on the ground and still rising.  Life-threatening blizzard conditions extend east into most of PA and northern West Virginia, and there&#8217;s deep snow reported all the way east into Ohio and Indiana. </p>
<p>For here and pretty much all points north of DC this is the most intense snow since the blizzard of 1978 shut down the northeast seaboard from southern PA north to Boston.  For DC it&#8217;s all-time record accumulation &mdash; which may be timed just right to have a significant impact on U.S. politics.  In a recession, and after the AGW fraud scandals that have been breaking continuously since November, carbon-cap legislation was always going to be a tough sell; this blizzard may be timed exactly right to put the last nail in its coffin.</p>
<p>Yay!  I know, weather not climate &mdash; still, anything that helps keep the AGW fraudsters from recovering their political clout in the U.S. is good news for all of us.  Thank you, Gaia.</p>
<p>Our power hasn&#8217;t been interrupted, and probably won&#8217;t be; if there were going to be downed lines it would have happened last night.  Our gas lines are likewise OK, not that a blizzard would be likely to damage those.  </p>
<p>So all is well here.  Cathy and I had a warm lazy intimate morning, the fridge is full of food, and the cat is fuzzy.  I made a ginormous pancakes-and-bacon breakfast for both of us and we&#8217;ve been working it off by shoveling our way to the street. When I finish typing I&#8217;ll go tackle the huge sill of snow between our sidewalk and the road, and then Cathy has proposed that we reward ourselves with pumpkin pie and hot cocoa.  Winter has its compensations.</p>
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