Occasionally Wright

Wacky Weather

On this date last year temperatures in Ontario and Quebec shot up to 12.3 degrees Celsius (it only hit 4.7 in Ottawa). At least that's what it says on my new 2005 Weather Trivia calendar which has random bits of info like this for every single day of the year. And yes, I'll be sharing them with you. Blame Meg for spotting the calendar in Chapters.

Auroras

If you like to see crazy stuff in the sky you might want to take a look outside tonight as soon as it's dark wherever you live. According to Spaceweather.com there should be incredible auroras (northern and southern lights) pretty much everywhere thanks to two massive solar flares. Don't say I didn't warn you.

Close Encounters of a Watery Kind

Back in the day when a whole lot of Islanders were opposed to the building of the 'fixed link' one of the common arguments against building a bridge to connect Canada to PEI was that it would be closed more often than the ferries were.

Fast forward to today when the Confederation Bridge was briefly closed for just the fourth time since opening in June of 1997. Oddly enough three of those four times have been within the last 12 months with the other two being February 19 when PEI got 95 cm of snow in about 12 hours and last fall during Hurricane Juan.

The culprit today? A waterspout. Strait Crossing occasionally posts video on their site so if they put one up of the waterspout I'll be sure to mention it. In the meantime they just have the picture I've posted which Typepad won't let me place where I want it.

Back in Ottawa

After two weeks of so-so weather in New Brunswick and PEI I arrived back in Ottawa today and was greeted by clear skies and a noon-time temperature of 26 degrees. Now it's up to 29 and I'm enjoying it by sitting in my cool basement apartment. At some point I need to unpack and sleep since I only slept for about 3 hours on the train last night. I also have some mix cds to listen to from the 'June 2004 Rock and Roll Education Experiment' started by Dennis at Speakergeek (1.5 down, 2.5 to go). So far I'd say the experiment is a resounding success.

Can someone turn on a fan?

In case you were wondering it's sunny and 25 degrees Celsius in Athens, Georgia right now. Much better than whatever Ottawa is getting I'm sure but it might be a bit early for this kind of heat for me.

Spacial and seasonal confusion

You know how certain weather reminds you of certain times of year, regardless of the calendar? For example, a warm day in late February can remind you of the spring, a cool, crisp day in the summer can be fall-like and some fall days can be downright wintery.

Well late this afternoon was a late fall/early winter day for me. In Winston-Salem. You see, not only do some days remind me of other seasons, they remind me of other places due to the fact that I've moved so much. Late this afternoon was on par with an early December evening walk across campus in North Carolina. Yesterday there was a fleeting moment when I thought I was in Halifax. Do any other frequent movers/travellers experience this?

Spring?

While PEI and Cape Breton are having snow dunped on them again it's hovering around the freezing mark here in Ottawa. The winter lining has come out of my coat and if the forecast hold true I may not need to put it back in until next winter. Here's hoping. The Rideau Canal is still open but there hasn't been good ice in over a week, another sign that spring could be on its way.