Feels like Singapore

It is a warm night in Pune. The tempareture is around 33 degress centigrade, which is not bad. What is making the night so uncomfortable is total absence of wind. That is making the weather miserable. It is like being in Singapore. Not too hot. But lot of humidity and absolutely no wind at all. Which is very uncomfortable weather.

Cold weather in Seattle

A cold wave has swept Seattle last few days. This is what I woke up to on Thursday.

So it was work from home on Thu. On Friday the temperature was sub-zero throughout the day. Cleaning the ice off the car was grueling, because the snow from previous day had turned into hard ice! I saw some interesting icicles hanging from cars.

By evening this is how the surroundings looked like:

Sub-zero tempretures

For the past two days, we have been having sub-zero temperatures 24 hours. Yesterday night mercury dipped to -8 degrees centigrade! Temperature is expected to remain below zero for a couple of days more. Later in the week, it is expected to rise above the freezing point.

The consequence of this has been that any water fallen on road has turned into ice. This has made roads slippery. Today, I slipped over ice while cleaning my car's windshield with water. I hurt myself in the fall :-(. Curiously, the ice had been formed due the water I had poured yesterday to clean the the windshield of my car! That reminds me of the banana story - a person throws a banana peal on road and himself slips over it!

Look, it's going ot rain ... no, no, it is raining

I have never known any job easier than being the weatherman of Seattle. From October to June, the forecast for Seattle is one of the two possibilities - overcast or rain. And more often than not, it's the latter. For instance, here's the forecast for the next ten days. This is a bit better than the forecast we had ten days ago - this time there is one day when it's not going to rain!

I love DST

A couple of weeks ago when I left office at around 5:30 p.m. there was still some natural light. Until a few weeks ago it would be pitch dark long before 5 p.m. I noticed how the days are getting longer and was glad to see the change.

This Sunday the clock was moved ahead by 1 hour. At 2 a.m. on Sunday the clock skipped an hour and moved to 3 a.m. We moved from Pacific Standard Time (PST = GMT - 8 hrs) to Pacific Date Time (PDT = GMT - 7 hrs). This means that we have natural light for one more hour in the evening. This is such a welcome change after cold and dark winter. Today there was natural light even at 7:30 p.m.

A few months ago I had met someone from Phoenix, Arizona, who said that DST was useless (Arizona is the only state in the US that does not observe DST). I didn't think so, but I didn't argue with him, because then I wasn't so sure about myself. But next time some says it, I will surely support Daylight Savings. It's such a useful concept. Why waste an hour of natural light at wee hours of the morning when we are fast asleep (or trying not to wake up despite the light), when we can use it to light our evenings. I love Daylight Savings Time.

saang saang bholaanaath, barfa paDel kaay...

...office bhovati barfa saaThun suTTee miLel kaay?


Well, someone's prayers have been answered with a vangence! It's the second day Seattle is at home. The entire city and its neighbourhoods are drowned in snow. Not an inch of ground in sight. The entire landscape is covered with snow. Tons and tons of snow. Bored of brown and green, nature wanted some change of colour, and it chosen white. Ground, trees, houses, cars, roads - everything has been whitewashed! It's so beautiful all around!

I will upload some photographs.

First snow of the season!

As forecasted, it snowed yesterday evening. I love snow. Everything is so beautiful when covered with snow. It started snowing at around 6 p.m. At 7 p.m. we drove to Boeing Museum Flight, where had an office party. The drive to Boeing was exiting. While returning it was snowing heavily, which was very thrilling! At midnight we went for a drive in the snow.

The tempreture this week is expected to remain sub-zero (do they call it sub-thirty two over here?). That's quite cold by Seattle standards.

Happy Diwali!!

This year Diwali has been much better than last year. The weather has been much more pleasant. There has been a lot of sunshine until recently. Even in first week of November we can go out without having to wear thermals. We can even keep our windows open! This gentle weather has made Diwali more pleasant. It is only after coming to this western world and experiencing the harsh weather here that one realizes the obsession of the people here about weather. When so much of your joy is linked to the whims of weather, it is no wonder that the people here become obsessed with it and discuss it so frequently. Here, in Seattle, no day passes without mention of weather. We discuss weather with every other person we meet. It's either a great day or a lousy day depending on whether the weather is sunny or not.

It rained!

It rained here this weekend. The sky was overcast for most of the two days, with sun peeking in through the clouds a few times on Sunday afternoon. This rainy weekend marks then end of the short summer and marks the begining of long depressing cold and wet season that will last till June next year! :-(

Weather not so nice anymore

Carrying on from where I left last time - We have moved to a rented house and it's quite pleasant at home. However the weather is no longer so pleasant. It's getting cold and it has been raining since yesterday, and we haven't seen the sun.