The two words that make us tremble the most have been thrown around a lot lately: POLAR VORTEX. I will admit, I tremble more with goose-bumps than with fear. However, it seems to be the talk of the town lately – and it probably is quite a bit overplayed. The theme of this blog is, “Call it what you want, the cold air of winter is inevitable this time of year.” We know it’s coming… so, bring it on! (With that said, it’s also a good idea to break out the scarves, gloves, ear-muffs and hats – and lucky us, we have a few days to prepare).
Before all of this cold comes into play, we get a nice bit of mild weather to start the work week. All things considered, even the chill of the mid-40s wasn’t all that bad for highs on Saturday. I call it the “sunshine effect,” when you can step into the bright sunlight and feel 5-10 degrees warmer than the thermometer reads. In my mind, it’s sort of the opposite of wind-chill. So, on days like today – I’d say the chilly breeze and the warm sun balance things out, and a chilly day doesn’t seem all that bad.
If you were one of those that felt like Saturday was just too cold, the mild weather builds in starting tomorrow. Average highs for this time of year should be in the mid 50s, and for the next couple of days that’s right where we’ll be. In fact, on Tuesday we could even hit the low 60s in some locations – but bottle it up if you can! That could be the end of that until spring arrives.
I do think that by Tuesday afternoon, we may even be asking ourselves, “Where is that gosh-darned POLAR VORTEX?! Maybe good ol’ Bill Belichick was right about all of these lyin’ meteorologists and it’s not comin’ in!” Well, I think that’s how my parents would assess the weather by mid-week at least… Nevertheless, the cold is coming and it arrives overnight Wednesday. On Thursday, we will be stuck in the 40s, and by Friday – struggling to reach 40 degrees. It’s even possible that we get a few snowflakes on Friday. We’ll wait and see.
So, do we keep calling it by those words that make us tremble?? “POLAR VORTEX” sounds so intense, doesn’t it (especially when it’s written in all CAPITAL LETTERS)? Good ol’ Bill Shakespeare said it best, “You can call a rose by any other name, and it would still be cold next weekend.” Well, he said something like that anyway.