Welcome to Meterological Winter. Notice the 'logical' in the word that doesn't seem fair - we didn't want this much winter so soon. Meteorologistsand climatologists start winter on December 1st. They want consistency - they don't want a season that varies between 88 and 94 days. That's a lot of extra work to make things comparable. Meterological seasons have been tracked since the late 1700s. The term for measuring the winter season is "meteorological reckoning".
And what happened in Niagara on our first day of winter? We had rain, that formed ice, followed by power outages, and snow. With scattered flurries predicted today, we could have more power lines felled from trees, and more power outages. So I guess the start of winter this year has begun to fulfill the prediction of the Polar Coaster.
As I looked through the news articles, an expression caught my attention: "the highway looked like a skating rink". That seems to me to be particularly Canadian. Other expressions we can expect in winter: cold snap, snowed under. And last year's term was "bombogenesis" - a powerful nor-easter affecting the East Coast that brought heavy snow to the Canadian Maritimes. And there is a soft snowflake that looks more like sleet than snow - it is called "graupel". I found The Outdoor Swimming Society website and they have 35 ways to say it's cold. There are words in the list such as brumal and hiemal.
Do you remember the expression snug as a bug? I brought a wreath inside from the front door yesterday. I wanted to put some decorations on it, and a fly few out of it, and then a walnut dropped off of it. It seems the fly was no longer snug and the squirrel's secret stash is now gone.
I took this picture of Robert Walhout, Grimsby Rotarian and actor. He was in the Lamplighter Play this year, in the role of the School System Superintendent. He came costume to the Fantasy of Trees Celebration evening.
