A matter of degree

Posted on February 14, 2006 by Gene

This morning when I perused the Mercury News, I was alerted by a red box at the top where the weather forecast lives. Severe Weather, it said. Wow… what’s going on, I wondered?
Clicking it led me to this “Special Weather Statement”:

… Much colder weather on the way for northern and central California starting Wednesday…

… Increasing rain chances with low snow levels by the end of the week into the weekend…

A strong cold front will reach northern California this afternoon… then surge southward through central California tonight. Temperatures will cool today… with breezy and cooler conditions on Wednesday. Strong north winds will accompany this change… increasing to 15 to 35 mph with gusts to 50 mph this afternoon continuing into Wednesday morning… especially along the coast and at higher elevations.

A few showers are possible Wednesday… however as skies clear by Wednesday night… low temperatures are expected to fall into the mid 20s across the North Bay valleys and into the 30s and lower 40s along the San Francisco Bay shoreline… including the cities of San Francisco and San Jose. The Mercury is also expected to fall into the 30s to lower 40s near the Monterey Bay. The recent spell of warm weather has resulted in the premature budding of some vegetation.
Frigid temperatures will make this new growth vulnerable to frost or a killing freeze… precautions should be taken to protect sensitive plants from exposure.

Okay, well… I can understand “Special Weather Statement”, but Severe Weather? Is there really such a thing as severe weather here? Back home, severe weather would be limited to heavy snow, tornado, hurricane, perhaps a particularly severe thunderstorm. Here in San Jose, severe weather means that it will be cold. But not below 0° cold, I guess.
Weather is relative, you know?