Last Tuesday, I was reading a news article here in Dublin about how bad the weather was supposed to get this weekend. We’re in for a polar hurricane this weekend. It’s gonna be bad. So bad, in fact that it’s to be called the storm of the epoch. No really. I mean it. I’m not just pulling your leg…. I’m totally serious. It’s going to be travel chaos, once in a lifetime storm, and You can read the article here:
http://www.irishweatheronline.com/2010/12/severe-weather-alert-ireland-and-uk.html
The prize pieces of this article are the following:
“I can’t stress strongly enough that this will be a major winter weather onslaught and not just a drop in temperatures with a few local flurries.”
and
“When this polar hurricane develops…”
and
“All of these factors are building blocks towards what may become an epochal cold spell for Ireland and Britain in the next 20-30 day interval.”
Now, for those of you wondering, what exactly is an EPOCH?
According to the Geologic time scale – The largest defined unit of time is the supereon, composed of eons. Eons are divided into eras, which are in turn divided into periods, epochs and ages. The terms eonothem, erathem, system, series, and stage are used to refer to the layers of rock that correspond to these periods of geologic time.
An Epoch – more narrowly – is defined as tens of millions of years.
So, I am thinking “Day After Tomorrow” apocolypse type movie, and naturally planned for the worst. Made sure I had plenty of food, water, warm clothes in the house. I dug out my wool scarf, gloves, hat, and long johns (which weren’t put away very far since 2 weeks ago we had solid blocks of ice to skate to work on for a week) and put my heavy boots by the door. And I started waiting. and waiting. and waiting. and Guess what? I’m still waiting.
Wednesday night. Cold, clear, windy. -4 C.
Thursday night. Cold, a bit of mist, windy. -2C.
Friday night. Cold, flurries (didn’t even stick to most pavement), -3C.
Saturday night. Cold, clear, windy, -4C.
Sunday day. Cold, clear, sunny with blue skies and 2C (above freezing).
And the kicker? NO SNOW.
Not a bit. A hard frost – but the roads are fine, it’s not epochially cold. It’s not even a particularly memorable blizzard. Don’t believe me? Check out this picture – taken 5.minutes.ago.out.my.office.window…. by cell phone.
Uh… Overkill much on that Dublin forecast folks? Where IS Robert Frost when I need him (Fire and Ice poem)?
(Ok granted, the storm went north and south of us, and they got lots of snow in the UK, but… I still don’t think that it qualified as “epoch” cold / blizzard conditions. Epoch? Really? Um.. The Ice Age.. now that was Epoch cold.)
