at 9:21 PM by Pierce Larkin

Why Winter Needs To End

I said it. I said what likely about 90% of you are thinking. Funny thing is, I like winter. I do. I love snow and cold, but this winter seems to have dragged on and on…..and then on again. Ironically, I actually tried to write this post a week in advance of the biggest snowstorm in over a decade for the state. Wisely, I chose not to.

Yeah....that coulda backfired.
Yeah….that coulda backfired.

Either way, this winter is getting tiring. Especially after last week. Last week was the craziest and most exhausting weather week that has occurred since the dawn of time, and it felt like last week was 5 years long on some days and 30 seconds on others. I really just am here to tell you why winter needs to end.

To give some background as to how much I love winter: I get excited about -20ºF temperatures because its just cool. I get excited about snowstorms and the dynamics associated with them, etc, etc. Last Saturday, I got incredibly anxious about the impending winter storm, and I managed to get so anxious that I ran on 3 hours of sleep from 6 am Saturday until noon on that Monday.

h/t mashable.com
h/t mashable.com

This winter has not only been mentally exhausting for most meteorologists across the region, but it has been emotionally exhausting for many. How, you may ask? Well, the 3 H’s had their way like 5 times this winter, and then they blew up a couple times. Winter just tugs at our hearts, and despite our bets efforts to avoid bias, we all like snow to an extent. It felt like the entire state was too hype last Sunday evening!

I feel like had this winter been normal and a bit snowy, with some sunny and warm days here and there, last week would have still been enough to make me write this. WKU cancelled classes all week, and I will be trying to get into a normal routine until its broken up again by spring break (no complaints). We went from having the largest snow event since 1998, to 1-4″ of snow Tuesday night, to -32ºF in the state Friday night and then less than 24 hours after that low, we were in the mid 30s with heavy rainfall and flooding. This tweet from Landon has last week down in a nutshell.

That would be enough to satisfy any winter need, and it did. But the rest of winter before last Monday was rather unbearable weather wise. I would bet a sizable amount of money that the time period between November 16th and January 16th was the cloudiest 2 month time on record for this area. Guarantee it. This winter has featured so many cloudy days that I lost count.

 

Me after the 17 billionth cloudy day in a row. h/t giphy.com
Me after the 17 billionth cloudy day in a row. h/t giphy.com

There was a week that was so monotonous that Landon did a forecast post using GIFs. Seriously. Go look. We had like 4 weeks this winter where that was applicable. There is a point where forecasting clouds can only be written in so many different ways. I mean, I have never felt so excited in my life to forecast 28ºF and sunny as I would this winter.

The WxOrNot writers when the sun would come out... h/t giphy.com
The Wx Or Not writers when the sun comes out… h/t giphy.com

I think the clouds are the real issue at hand. Yeah, we had boring weather, but so did the west coast. At least it was sunny and way above average out there. Here, it was cloudy and normal (our friends at @NashSevereWx refer to this as a “blerg”). At least until last week. Here are the “high points” of this winter (thus far; we have 5 days left of meteorological winter):

Now, while that seems like a packed list, all of that happened within a 3 week timespan. The rest of this winter has been monotonous and lame. Very lame. And you know what? That over-glorified rodent (groundhog) can move for all I care. Long term forecasts (and short term) aren’t super promising for warmer temps anytime soon. Can this winter just end?

Tired of being cold....h/t giphy.com
Tired of being cold….h/t giphy.com