La Nina Gives Michigan the Cold Shoulder

Remember the El Nino storm system? El Nino is the nickname for a system of unusually warm ocean temperatures in the Equatorial Pacific. El Nino has a nasty big sister. Her name is La Nina. Where El Nino brings us super warm weather, La Nina brings cold. El Nino has been blamed for tsunamis and vice versa. La Nina is getting credit for the unseasonably cold weather and blizzard-like bouts of snow, ice, wind and cold weather this winter, 2011.

On February 2, La Nina blew into town and dumped a foot or more of snow overnight on many regions of the country. Not satisfied with her work, she's making her way across the Rockies, Eastern seaboard and plains states. We weren't supposed to feel too much of the storm's wrath here in Michigan, but it seems we aren't to be left out of the fun. While we haven't got too much new snow, La Nina has gifted Michigan with some of the coldest weather we've had in the decade.

Normally in winter, we keep our thermostat at 65 degrees during the night and 68 during the day. With temperatures at -5 degrees and wind chill factor at -15 to -25, we don't dare to set our thermostat so low. If the house gets too cold, it we'll burn even more gas trying to get it warm. The heavy snow falls have left us with five foot drifts and snowbanks around the house and heavy icicles that constantly form, no matter how often we knock them down. All this built up snow chills the house like an ice box.

Also, we're concerned that the water pipes may freeze (not to mention us!). Since the arctic blast blew in, we haven't been able to set our thermostat below 72 degrees. We have rugs in front of all the doors, towels between the window panes and everything sealed up tight. Even at 72 degrees we are all bundled up and shivering.

Bad for us, good for the power company. Good in several ways, in fact. First, obviously setting the thermostat higher means we are using more natural gas. Thinking of what our gas bill is going to look like makes me shiver even more than I already am. We had already heard back in the fall, that the cost of natural gas was on the rise. All this cold winter weather forcing people to crank the heat up means the law of supply and demand kicks in. More people using more fuel will likely drive the cost even higher.

Fortunately, however, we are told that on Groundhog Day, February 2, 2011, amidst La Nina's first blast, Punxsutawney Phil saw no shadow and hence predicted an early spring. Thank you, Phil. Take that, La Nina.