The shift in weather is no secret. One week it’s in the negatives, and the next week the temperature changes to the forties. That’s just how it is in the Midwest, and we all have different points of views on the fluctuating weather, and I, for one, am ready for the bizarre patterns to stop.
“Well, when it’s cold I don’t like it, but when it’s warm I love it. Like, I put my top down on my convertible yesterday, even though it was only 50 degrees, but it felt nice because when it’s negative [the difference makes it feel like] 80,” said OH senior Brielle Goehring.
The warm weather is a nice break from chilling temperatures, but when the weather goes up and down so often it affects the community’s everyday lives.
“As a coach it affects me a lot,”said OH science teacher and boys tennis coach Zachary Horn. “We want to go outside for all those kinds of things or as someone trying to preserve energy. If it’s negative two [degrees] it’s going to be a lot more expensive to heat your house and gonna use a lot more energy. I personally like to get outside a lot, so the negative temperatures for a long time was a little rough.”
The cold temperatures have also affected the attendance of OH and neighboring schools. OH has already had two online schooling days this year, due to drastically cold weather. Online school isn’t the same as in person learning, the teachers had to adjust their lessons because some lessons cannot be taught online.
The real question is, what is causing these fluctuating weather conditions?
All the way up in the sky, there’s a fast or slow moving wind called a jetstream. And according to Horn, “the jetstream is the fast moving wind up, way up in the sky. So about 250 milabars, several thousand feet in the sky. It’s the fastest moving wind that we have. It can be, in the winter time, up to 200-250 miles an hour.”
The week of Feb. 9, the weather had changed to higher temperatures. This shift had been a nice break from the extreme weather from the past few weeks before. Most likely, the weather will end up going down again.
So, yeah, this is normal for the Midwest, even if we don’t like it.
Every year during the winter season, the weather “usually goes back [to cold weather]. There’s a little wave of heat in February, then in March, it drops down a bit more and it might snow again,” said OH senior Abigail Lundstrom.
Hopefully for the next few weeks, the Midwest will continue to have warmer temperatures so everyone can enjoy a nice time outside.
Hello! My name is Jessica Bellah and I'm a senior and this is my first year on 42Fifty Staff. I serve as a staff reporter and the Opinions Editor. I am also an editor for our school's yearbook, The Reflector. You can contact me by emailing 42Fifty@sd308.org and putting my name in the subject line. We welcome comments on our articles and feedback on our publication!
