On December, 3, we ponder the wonders of nature, and wonder why the people who invented central heat and the indoors they heat don't get more credit.
Why I'm from Upstate New York.

A story of sadness and depression from my weather app. I'm just getting everyone ready for the holiday season, and for winter, which doesn't start for another three weeks or so. I highlighted the really sad, depressing parts.
Three day snow totals since Saturday evening in the Albany, NY area have ranged between 18" to 28". As of 10 pm Monday night, Albany Airport had 18.3", which tied December 24th through 25th, 1966 for the sixth all-time snowstorm in the month of December. More snow has fallen since.
Here's the thing. You get that kind of snow, you want the record. You don't want to be tied for stinking sixth, for crying out loud. Top
Seasonal Futility–Local Edition

Did you know that the average-sized mature oak tree has about 200,000 leaves? Leaving aside the wonders of nature in the tree producing that number of leaves each spring, that means that now in the last fall there are 400,000 oak leaves in front of my house–in the garden, the lawn, the street, and covering the steps and the sidewalk. Especially the steps and the sidewalk. The not-interesting thing is that we don't have any oak trees in our yard. They're a gift of Mother Nature and the neighbors across the street. I try to let those who give also take away. Sometimes Ma will blow some of them away, but that's more of a redistribution effort–once the space has been vacated by the old leaves, new leaves take their place, I guess the ol' nature abhors a vacuum
thing.
Well, the city doesn't like vacuums, I guess. Leaves in the gutters clog the storm drains, leading to ponding and street flooding. If there's one thing Norfolk doesn't need, it's more flooding. So today, after the rain, they sent out the street sweepers to clear the gutters, in spite of the fact that a huge number of leaves are just waiting right next to the curb to jump into the empty space.
I'm sure the sweeping is making someone feel better. Me, I've hit that stage of life where I espouse the philosophy of let the leaves fall (and blow) where they may.
You can do that with leaves. Not so much with snow. So good luck, Albany, Upstate, New England and anyone else that's busy cranking out those picture postcards of gentle snowdrifts, and then pushing the snowdrifts out of the way. Top