This seems to be a winter that goes on and on and on….. and most of us are thoroughly sick of it. After all it is the middle of April already – and yet this morning we were greeted with thick heavy damp snow. The trees were smothered and cheeky early spring shrubs were promptly told off by Old Man Winter.
The answer it seems is to get away from it all …. To somewhere warm and tropical.
Well, be careful with your choice – sometimes Mother Nature can have a nasty sense of humour. Like the time it snowed in Hawaii – (last year). Hah that’ll teach them!
So I was curious – where in the world can we go on vacation where we are guaranteed it will never snow? How about Antarctica?
WHAT? You scream.
It’s true –
Snow requires two specific weather conditions: low temperatures and moisture in the atmosphere. In warm, humid places, such as Florida, there is significant moisture in the air, but temperatures are rarely low enough to produce snow. And while many deserts get quite cold in the winter, there is often not enough moisture in the atmosphere to produce snow. Even Antarctica, the coldest and iciest continent, contains a region called the Dry Valleys, where it is extremely cold, but so dry that snow never falls. (courtesy of the National Snow and Ice Data Centre).
OK – we don’t want to go all the way down to the Dry Valleys – not right now. Surely there must be somewhere else where it never snows.
Bahamas? Pretty safe bet – you think? Freeport had snow back in 1977. What?
Guadeloupe in the Caribbean? Snowed 31 March this year. Yes – this is not an April fool’s prank. It really did – or did it?
Carib Buzz reports –
The title of this article has even us scratching our heads in disbelief! And no, this is no April Fools Day joke. According to reports, snowflakes actually fell in the hills of the French island of Guadeloupe.
The light snow fall took place on March 31, in the hills of St. Claude and has stunned meteorologist both locally and internationally.
French meteorologist, Alain Museleque, explained the extraordinary phenomenon on Guadeloupe Premiere TV.
“We had a mass of clouds that arrived over St. Claude,” he said in French and translated by McCathie Marie. “Accompanying this mass of clouds was some very cold air. In this very cold air, in the mass of clouds, we had the creation of some snowflakes which fell to the ground. This has never before been seen in Guadeloupe. This is an exceptional event that we will never forget.”
BUT – others say no way – Roy Spencer, a NASA scientist said –
“On April Fools day (April 1), there was a report of snow on the tropical island of Guadeloupe on the night of March 31, 2016. Guadeloupe is an island in the northern Lesser Antilles. The news report even mentions a light dusting on the ground.
I’m calling BS on this report.” …… (I think he was wearing this t-shirt).
Well …. you be the judge.
On the flip side there are people who love the snow – granted, they are people who don’t generally live in a snowy place and for them it is a total novelty. I recently had a visitor from South Africa who stood outside my office in the snow with his arms spread out to the heavens and the fluttering snowflakes. “This is fantastic, guys” he said.
“yeah…right!”
But there must be some good about winter – it inspired some beautiful prose –
“I wonder if the snow loves the trees and fields, that it kisses them so gently? And then it covers them up snug, you know, with a white quilt; and perhaps it says, “Go to sleep, darlings, till the summer comes again.”
― Lewis Carroll,
“What good is the warmth of summer, without the cold of winter to give it sweetness.”
― John Steinbeck,
“My old grandmother always used to say, Summer friends will melt away like summer snows, but winter friends are friends forever.”
― George R.R. Martin,
So let’s not despair – Spring cannot be far away. I only have now question – does anybody know what the heck is snow mould?
