Feels like snow

I'm one of those nuts (and some would say the sentence could end right here) who insist on knowing about as many weather forecasts as I can read, hear, or see on television, because a) I'm always looking for a reason to plan to wear shorts  and b) I would hate to be the one standing in line at the Giant as a torrential downpour soaks our town, saying, "Gee! Were they calling for rain? I hadn't heard anything about it!"

So it's July, and a perfect time to begin planning for this winter's weather.

Are you sitting down?

Some projections are calling for a lot of snow this winter!

And you didn't even get a chance to turn your pajamas inside out!*

You see, they take the weather seriously in Washington, D.C. because an accurate forecast enables the president of the United States to plan all of his 496 annual golf outings without causing disappointment to his wife and son.  The newspaper down there, the Washington POST, has a weather team called the Capital Weather Gang, and they share three reasons for getting the snowblower in good working order by Thanksgiving.

1. The National Weather Service has posted an El Niño watch, calling for Señor Niño to be "weak to moderate" this winter. Doesn't sound like much, but 2/3 of the time when El Niño is weak to moderate, meteorologists around here are reaching for their yardsticks.
2. The Pacific Ocean is warming, which gives an extra boost to the jet stream, bringing in that delicious cold Canadian air that's a key ingredient to snowmaking. Even if we place a tariff on cold Canadian air on the grounds of national security...
3. The sun - that big old yellow skylight - is entering into a quiet period with reduced sunspots, and that means more high pressure zones in the high latitudes, which means colder air than normal in the Eastern US and Western Europe.

We've already had the longest day of the year, and soon the sun will set earlier, leaves will change to golden hues and fall in gentle piles, the air will turn crisp and even a bit chilly, and with any luck the snow will cover up all those unraked leaves, and pile up a foot or so and there will STILL be people running to Home Depot or the Lowe's to buy snow shovels, driveway salt** and windshield antifreeze.

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*Note to foreign readers: American schoolchildren hoping for snow (which will close schools!) go to bed at night with their pajamas on inside out, a superstition which is supposed to make it snow. Accuracy rate varies.
**Note to foreign readers: So avid are we to get in our cars and go during massive snowfalls that we treat our driveways to a coating of rock salt, so we can get in our cars, drive a block, and sit in a mammoth traffic jam because the roads are not nearly as well-plowed as our driveway.