"Under the Weather"

 

Documenting the Dreariness
   I have been feeling unwell and also assisting someone who is really unwell. For those reasons I have not posted anything for over two weeks and don't feel much like doing so even now. But, I will, since I happened upon an article which lessens the effort required to think about a subject about which to write. As well, I will likely quote from it to reduce the amount of writing I actually have to do.
   I thought that not feeling very good probably led me to think that the weather also has not been very good. That the sky was as cloudy and congested as my sinuses and lungs. An X-ray revealed that my lungs were as full of moisture as the clouds, which seem to have been hanging around for weeks. They have been.
   That my physical state was in sync with the meteorological one is proved by this article for which this is the headline: "It Was the Darkest Winter in 80 Years: Ontario Endured 'Exceptionally Low' Sunlight in January." Here is more about the gloomy picture outside our windows:

"Though Ontario had "unremarkable" levels of sunlight in December, it was in January when the province experienced "exceptionally low" amounts of solar energy, Brettschneider said. It was followed by a February season which also had lower-than-normal levels of sunlight.

Looking back at the weather in Toronto this season, the city experienced 14 consecutive days in late January without the sun appearing, according to David Phillips, senior climatologist with Environment Canada. Earlier in the season, between Dec. 30 and Jan. 13, there was only one day that was described as mainly clear."

 
   It is typical that here in Ontario it has been just 'dreary' and not as exciting and sensational as it has been elsewhere where there are "Bomb Cyclones", "Atmospheric Rivers and "Polar Vortexes." I can report, however, that we did have one evening of "Thundersnow", which means that we had both thunder and lightning while the snow was falling. It is, by the way, very dreary here again today.

The Bonus:

   There is a "Brettschneider" quoted in the article above and he has been noticed in MM before. Back in 2018 his data were used to define what it means to "Have A Nice Day." If you would like to know what 'nice days' are and where some can be found, have a look at that post.

Sources: 

   "It Was the Darkest Winter in 80 Years... was written by Joshua Chong and found in The Toronto Star, March 18, 2023.

   Only the truth is found in MM and no hyperbole encountered. Weather reporting these days does often contain a lot of hot air and that is noted in this piece:

"Bomb Cyclone? Or Just Windy With a Chance of Hyperbole?: When the Barometer Drops, the Volume of 'Hyped Words' Rises, and Many Meteorologists Are Not Happy About It," Matt Richtel, New York Times, Jan. 18, 2023. 

  Also noted on the U.S. major TV networks are the now nightly 'breaking news' meteorological horror stories involving millions of people directly in the path of something awful. That some of these stories may be more ratings-driven than weather-related is touched upon in this post: "The Human Suffering Index.