Although far from tropical, a storm created by bombogenesis can have hurricane-force winds and precipitation, which this time of year means snow. Having lived through five of Boston’s previous ten largest snowstorms, I have been feeling a lot of empathy with my East Coast friends and relatives this week. But bombogenesis is new to me.

There are a few other new things in recent weather reports.

Falling iguanas is one. Reptiles are immobilized by cold, and cold has come in a somewhat unprecedented way to the South, including Florida, so immobilized tree iguanas are falling to the ground. Sea turtles are also immobilized. These animals may appear dead, but as the air warms, they will revive, so this is not an opportunity to cook an exotic stew!

Pictures of snow-covered palm trees are new. I have seen this in person, but not with this much snow.

Winter is usually peak tourist season in Florida, but new this year, at least two Florida parks, Disney’s Typhoon Lagoon and SeaWorld, have closed. At other parks, lines are short! I hope everyone packed at least one pair of jeans.

People often ask us why we didn’t move to the South to retire, since living there is so much more economical. This week my husband is happy to point out, The South is too cold. 

New news from New Jersey: the January 1 Polar Plunge has been cancelled in at least two towns. Inexplicably to a southerner, people in cold states regularly sign up in droves to leap into the ocean at inappropriate times. Apparently the inappropriate level has risen from Crazy to Life-Threatening this year. Except in Atlantic City, where the event is a Go.

I definitely fell for the new clickbait headline, Colder Than Mars, referencing New England. Though new, it is not exactly true. The low temperature at the top of Mount Washington in NH may hit negative 35. The high temperature on Mars is negative 2. So sure, some parts of New England may be colder than some parts of Mars. Lows on Mars can reach negative 225, though, and lows in New England below negative 2 are not unheard of. So some may wish to tack this onto their list of mainstream media fake news.

Another interesting story talked about record high and low temperatures simultaneously. Alaska, Colorado, and southern California have had record high temperatures recently, for this time of year. If you vacationed there seeking winter weather, bummer. Here on Central Coast we seem to be about the same as last year: roughly 45-65 low to high this winter so far.

We had an earthquake on the Hayward fault yesterday, which we felt in Santa Cruz. It was 4.5 on the Richter scale. My final new-to-me story is about the Hayward fault, which parallels the San Andreas fault through East Bay. It is within its due date, though the target period spans decades. It could generate a quake of 7 or more, which would cause  devastation. We are going to Berkeley on Sunday so I thought about cancelling, but this is illogical, given a) geological time scales and b) temporal proximity to a stress-relieving event.

Is you are in a cold zone, stay indoors and snuggle! It’s a great time to be a mammal.