NO WINTER YET IN SUNNY CAL - "It Ain't Normal"

(01/11/2007)
Senior weather reporter for the Herald, E. D. Weaver, says there is an upside and downside to this winter that hasn't been.

December was a Sunny Cal month, an absence of snow and freezing temperatures, even absent of those dreary, cloudy December kind of days.

"For years and years Willard Jones said signs say this may be one of the worst winters ever," Weaver said, "Now, he jokingly says February will have some pretty bad winter weather."

The recent wave of unseasonably warm weather has brought a lot of people out and about, even a few sporting shorts and t-shirts.

Health folks say that may be a good thing for battling a flu outbreak. Cold weather usually keeps folks indoors and makes them more susceptible to the flu bugs.

Prognosticator Weaver claims unless there are a series of days with sub-freezing weather the bad bugs won't get killed, therefore creating more health problems later on.

"I've even spotted some new insects crawling around last summer," she said, and I haven't even looked in my microscope.

She claims "The last 10 years have been really abnormal, except for the ice storm." She's starting to sound like Al Gore.

"To all those Herald readers who write and want snow pictures, you'll just have to wait," she said.

There has been no measurable snow on the Sunny Cal ground so far this year.

"It ain't normal," she concluded.