Nor’easter for you, gloat storm for us
South Floridians practice fine art of rubbing it in.
As the Northeast endures its fourth winter storm in a month, South Florida basks in its climatological sweet spot — a seasonal boon where snow bombs hurled at New York send magnificent cold-front care packages here.
The crisp, dry skies that follow are tourism gold for the Sunshine State, and fodder for good-natured taunts of latitudinally disadvantaged friends and family up North.
This year especially, as a conveyor belt of frozen storms steamrolled the Northeast, even federal forecasters pointed to Florida as the place to be for spring break — a small beacon of orange on the U.S. temperature map in
a sea of chilly blues and purples.
For Lantana resident Seth Behn, this week’s nor’easter was another opportunity to tease a Boston-based friend with photos of sandy beaches and sunshine.
“I don’t feel guilty at all, there’s zero guilt,” Behn said. “The exchanges can be somewhat politically tinged. He gets me over our political system and my comeback is, ‘Yeah, but the weather is pleasant.’”
Weather-related memes are another favorite of South Floridians who endure the state’s searing summers and hurricane seasons for the top-down winter months. Images of palm trees juxtaposed against slushy streets, and photos of men in puffy coats clearing sidewalks next to bikini-clad beauty queens zip through the ether assaulting the snowbound on Facebook.
Shari Laben Crispino’s favorite meme is one of Kermit the Frog noting the snow up north,
but because he’s in Florida, he says the snow is none of his business.
“I really rub it in,” said the Rochester, N.Y., native who lives in Boynton Beach. “I text them photos of my car thermometer, or whatever weather meme I find. It’s bad, but it’s all in jest. It’s funny.”
Mid-Atlantic buried
Wednesday’s nor’easter, nicknamed the “four’easter,” left as much as 3.5 inches of snow in areas near Boston as of Thursday morning, but it was New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Connecticut that saw some of the deepest amounts.
Plainview, on Long Island, measured 16 inches, with Greenwich, Conn., getting 7.4 and Englewood, N.J., racking up 8.6 inches, according to the National Weather Service.
Harrisburg, Pa., picked up 14.2 inches.
“We have lived in cold climates in Maine and eastern Pennsylvania and Chicago,” Behn said about he and his wife. “But after a few years, we came back to Florida and said we will never live somewhere cold again.”
Tourism leaders said this year’s brutal winter of nor’easters will likely boost visits from winter-weary northerners.
While Palm Beach County’s tourism tax collections have yet to be tallied for February and March, January’s were up nearly 14 percent over the previous year. Some of the increase, which includes a jump of 15 percent since October, is from more people diverting vacations from hurricane-damaged areas, such as Puerto Rico, to South Florida.
But anecdotal reports from hoteliers are that some are escaping the back-to-back icy onslaughts with spontaneous trips south.
Rick Netzel, director of sales and marketing at the Best Western, Palm Beach Lakes, said his occupancy rate this month is at 98 percent. He sees many northern license plates in the parking lot.
“The baseball spring training has helped, but I speak to a lot of people at breakfast and they are just tired of the snow and cold,” Netzel said.
“I spoke with someone who said they’d gone through three storms and they’re tired and not going through a fourth,” he said.
Netzel said people have also extended their stay after learning the next nor’easter was just around the corner.
The Greenland block
This year, the nor’easters have hit near March 1, March 6, March 12 and March 20.
The so-called “Greenland block” is partially to blame for the train of winter storms. It’s an area of high pressure in the upper levels of the atmosphere near Greenland that diverts the jet stream to take a deep southward plunge over the southeast U.S. and keeps areas of low pressure hugging the northeastern coast.
If the Greenland block weren’t there, the storms would likely sail through.
“The block kind of holds MARCH MADNESS
The northeast has been hit by four March storms called nor’easters. Nor’easters form when the jet stream pulls Arctic air into the southeast U.S. and moisture from the Gulf Coast is drawn into the swirling wind mass.
March 1-3: Hurricane-force wind gusts hit coastal New England, while flooding inundated coastal areas and up to 2 feet of snow fell. Nearly 2 million people lost power. Biggest impact: Upstate New York.
March 6-8: This storm formed near the Outer
Banks before tracing up the mid-Atlantic coast. It brought up to 3 feet of snow and canceled hundreds of flights. Biggest impact: Pennsylvania, New Jersey and New York City.
March 12-14: Blizzard conditions hit New England with some areas getting more than 2 feet of snow. Wind gusts were reported at 77 mph on Nantucket Island and 79 mph in Hyannis. Biggest impact: Rhode
Island, Massachusetts. March 20-22: Dubbed the “four’easter,”it originated from a surface low over the Rocky Mountains and tracked east, producing tornadoes in the south. Hundreds of flights were canceled and heavy snow hit the northeast again. Biggest impact: Mid-Atlantic states.
them in place, instead of letting them move off the East Coast harmlessly,” said Jon Erdman, senior digital meteorologist for Weather.com.
“With March, you are thinking spring, but it’s just a tease. March is still very much a winter month,” Erdman added.
Netzel said he uses the snow to his advantage, posting playful memes on the hotel’s Facebook page to remind frozen northerners of Florida’s sunshine.
Glenn Jergensen, head of the Palm Beach County Tourist Development Council, avoids taunting.
“We want to be courteous and not rub it in,” he said. “You want to let people know that we are a friendly destination and not make fun of them for being ankle-deep in snow.”
But technology makes rubbing it in so easy, said David Winker, a Miami resident who owns a home on Singer Island.
Winker is a native of Edmonton, Alberta, and has friends there whom he enjoys tormenting with beach pics.
“Sometimes they’ll retaliate, like sending a picture from Glacier Lake in August or the changing leaves in the fall,” Winker said.
Phil Gianficaro, who lives northwest of Philadelphia, pulled no punches with his friends Wednesday. He posted on Facebook that if he gets any photos of orange sunsets and warm ocean waters “I will find you and destroy you.”
More cool days ahead
Retaliatory hurricane season memes are used with discretion, but some friends from the north aren’t above taking a jab at South Florida storm angst.
“There is zero chance of malaria up here this time of year,” said Boston resident Bill Nemser, reciting a favorite one-liner used against his Lantana friend Seth Behn during summer months.
“I’m bombarded by these jokey pics all day long in the winter, but I could easily get back at them when the hurricanes start creeping in,” Nemser said.
Nemser may have a few more weeks to endure goofy winter-themed memes.
The Climate Prediction Center, which pointed to Florida as the best spring break destination this year, is forecasting below-normal temperatures and above-normal precipitation for the next two weeks in a swath of the country from Texas to Maine.
Florida is expecting warmer than normal temperatures and less rain.
“There has been a lot of material to poke fun at already, and looking at our extended forecast models, I don’t see this cooler-than-average regime ending soon,” said Erdman, who lives in Wisconsin. “We’re getting a little itchy up here for spring.”