Working From Home Helps Battle Climate Change

Working from home instead of commuting to work
can help combat climate change, but
you have to do it right. 

 Your boss might not like you working from home. But you might, since you don't have to hassle with the annoying commute every day.  

If you want to press your case to work remotely instead in the office, try this really good argument, courtesy of the Washington Post: 

"Fully remote workers could produce less than half the climate-warming emissions of people who spend their days in offices according to a new study published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences."

Switching from working onsite to working from home full time could reduce a person's emissions by 50 percent. Hybrid schedules, where people work from home two to four days a week can cut emissions buy 11 to 29 percent. 

It does seem like a large proportion of employers are gravitating toward the hybrid model, but that won't  reduce fossil fuel consumption as much as working exclusively from home could. 

Many employers have really gravitated to a hybrid model, but that might have that much effect in battling climate change.

The climate benefits of working from home only work if you do it right. Which can get complicated. 

As Scientific American reports, the analysis regarding the environmental effects of working at home looked at five factors: Commuting, non-commute travel, information technology devices and residential energy use. 

If at least part of  your motivation for working at home is to fight climate change, you still have to be smart about it. Sure, eliminating your commute will prevent fossil fuel emissions. But the analysis indicates some people who work from home end up taking several short car trips during the work day, which cancels out the positive effects of avoiding a commute.  

Working from  home might also tempt you to crank up the air conditioning in your home on hot summer days, or blasting the heat in the winter. That also offsets the climate change fighting power of working at your home office instead of commuting in to the cubicle farm.

(OK, as I write this from home, I just now realized an unnecessary light was on.  This story inspired a tiny, tiny bit of good: I just shut off the light. Perfectly bright enough in here).

If your boss insists on making you come to the office, you can greatly offset your carbon footprint by taking public transportation or riding your bike.  In many places, including here in Vermont, public transportation is woefully inadequate in getting people to and from their jobs with a decent level of efficiency.  

 

  

Vermont Thursday Evening Storm Update: Still Icky Tonight, Still Few Question Marks

The National Weather Service in South Burlington has 
increased snow totals with this storm in northwestern
New York. Will they also need to upgrade expected
snowfall a little in northwestern Vermont for Friday?
Good question, and as of Thursday night, nobody
really has a good answer. 

 After an initial burst of snow earlier today, the weather settled into the mild-ish, gloomy and dark conditions we've become so accustomed to so far this month in Vermont. 

The snow didn't amount to much, but the real slug of precipitation is now on our doorstep. It's going to be an unpleasant night and Friday in the Green Mountain State.

Although the overall forecast hasn't changed much since this morning, I'm on the alert for some potential surprises Friday, especially in northwestern Vermont. 

Before we get to tomorrow morning, we need to deal with tonight.

 The main bulk of precipitation was just starting to enter southwestern Vermont as of 5 p.m. and will spread northeastward across the state pretty quickly this evening. This will be mostly rain and freezing rain in Vermont overnight. 

For the majority of us, this will be mainly a drenching, really cold but not quite freezing rain. Temperatures will stay in the mid 30s for most of us during most of the rain.  It won't be a nice night to be outdoors, that's for sure. 

Some areas are also due for a fair amount of freezing rain as well. It will be spotty, and mostly along and east of the Green Mountains. Like I said this morning, it will be a tricky night for driving. There will be random patches of freezing rain just about anywhere in the eastern half of Vermont, and you won't know exactly where they are when you're driving until you encounter them. 

The southeastern half of Vermont still looks like you might see a quick spike in temperatures well up into the 40s before dawn, and continuing into the first part of daylight. Enjoy the warmth, it won't last. 

The rain will come down fairly hard, and we're still expecting an inch or so of rain and/or melted ice. I don't see any real flooding to worry about, but hydroplaning on the highways, deep puddles on streets and other drainage issues might crop up. Main rivers will turn higher and faster, but won't actually flood.

FRIDAY

Here's where things get tricky, with a huge forecast bust potential

The one big change the National Weather Service office in South Burlington made was to upgrade the winter weather advisory to a winter storm warning in New York's St. Lawrence Valley. It looks like things will go over to snow pretty quickly there, and they'll probably end up with six to eight inches of snow out of this.

For those of you in Vermont are saying who cares about the St. Lawrence Valley, this upgrade raises questions for northwestern parts of the state. Will the cold air flood in earlier on Friday than expected? Will that mean more snow than the paltry one to three inches in the forecast.

I'm really not sure. The NWS South Burlington suggested in their forecast discussion that they might have to extend their winter storm warning further east in northern New York, but how far east, if they do? 

It's already looking like the changeover from a cold rain to snow will come earlier Friday than originally thought. The thinking earlier was we'd start getting into sleet and snow in the Champlain Valley during Friday afternoon.  It's beginning to look like it might come earlier, perhaps mid morning. If trends continue, it might even be earlier than that. If that happens, we'd have an unpleasant surprise for the morning commute.

We're not sure on that yet, but the further south and east you go in Vermont, the less chance of big snow and ice problems on Friday. My best guess is anything north and west of roughly a Middlebury to St. Johnsbury line could have a challenging Friday, especially from mid-morning to evening.

It's not like there's going to be tons of snow, but with wet roads freezing, and snow falling, it won't be great. It's still safe to say the northwest will see one to four inches, with less and less the further southeast you go in Vermont. 

Everything will basically be over Friday night. 

The weekend forecast continues to be on the quiet side, but there are hints of minor surprises toward Sunday as well. Mostly in eastern Vermont. I'll get into that more in Friday morning's update. 

Ugly Weather To Grace Vermont Today, Tomorrow

The National Weather Service in South Burlington 
released this prediction map of ice accumulation
from the upcoming storm. It definitely looks patchy
with some areas of the Green Mountains looking
nasty, while other areas escape the ice. 

 This is not the kind of winter storm most of us enjoy. 

An ugly mix of snow, sleet, freezing rain and rain will slop its way through Vermont today and tomorrow, leaving us with precious little snow accumulation but plenty of ice to keep you slip sliding away. 

This is in some respects a tricky forecast, especially during Friday, so there might be a few surprises with this. 

This won't by any means be a destructive storm, at least not in Vermont, but it will be annoying. Things were just starting to go downhill in the weather department after 8 a.m. this morning, but won't really get too bad until later this afternoon and/or evening.  

A winter weather advisory is up for all of Vermont except the Champlain Valley, western Rutland County and a tiny sliver of far southeastern parts of the state.  Freezing rain is expected in the advisory area this afternoon into early Friday.  

That freezing rain will of course make roads really nasty. In a few spots, there might be enough ice to bring down a few branches and power lines.  But the power outages won't be nearly as extensive as they were during those two giant storms in December. 

Although there's no winter weather advisory in the Champlain Valley, things could still be kind of ugly, especially from roughly Burlington north. 

Patchy snow was increasing a little this morning, but it won't amount to too much before noon. It could mix with or change to sleet, freezing rain or rain later this morning and afternoon, but won't come down heavily. It probably will be enough to create slick spots on the roads, but there's also suggestions in the data that there might be a lull in the precipitation during the first half of the afternoon.

Also, temperatures were also sneaking above freezing in some areas of the Champlain Valley by 9 a.m. today, so the effects in the Banana Belt won't be all that bad during the day today. 

TONIGHT

The real burst of ickiness comes in as noted, this evening and lasts overnight. At this point, it looks like it will warm up just enough in the Champlain Valley to give us mostly a cold, miserable, soaking rain overnight. Temperatures would only be in the mid-30s during the bulk of this. 

Along and east of the Green Mountains, the "warmer" air looks like it might have trouble breaking through. It will be balmy a few thousand feet overhead, so this will come down as rain, not snow. Temperatures on the ground will spend much of the night at or a little below freezing, so ice will build up.

But not everywhere east of the Greens. That's what makes this dangerous on the roads. You're cruising along, and in some spots the temperature will be above freezing. But in random spots as you go along, it'll be below freezing and the ice will take you by surprise.

Even in places where it's above freezing, untreated surfaces could be tricky, too. This includes the allegedly warmer Champlain Valley. It might be raining, and say, 34 degrees, but the pavement or concrete under foot might still be below freezing. So the rain would freeze on contact. 

FRIDAY

This is where the forecast gets a little tricky. The center of the storm looks like it will track right over northwestern sections of the area. But a slight shift in the track could either cause more ice and snow, or less.

A brief squirt of warm air will rush northward east of the storm, bringing temperatures into the 40s or even near 50 for a short time to melt the ice.

But with the track of the storm close to, or over northwestern Vermont, how far north will that warm squirt of air get.  And how fast will a cold front arrive to either reinforce or flush out the warm air?

The best guess this morning is the warm air will get as far north as a Middlebury to Island Pond line, but that is JUST a guess. Could be further north, could be a little further south. 

In places like Burlington and probably Newport, if this scenario plays out as expected, it will probably be above freezing with rain as we start the day Friday. But temperatures would only be in the 30s, so they won't have far to drop before trouble arrives. 

As the storm passes by and the cold front comes in, sleet and snow will arrive during the afternoon, and make a mess of the afternoon and evening commute. Depending upon how this shakes out, the National Weather Service in South Burlington might issue a new winter weather advisory for northwestern Vermont tomorrow afternoon for that sleet and snow. 

Accumulations won't be all that exciting, maybe a couple inches, but wet roads that will freeze and become glazed with sleet and snow isn't exactly a recipe for smooth sailing driving home from school or work. 

The further south and east you go, the longer it will take for the cold air to arrive, and the moisture will be diminishing during that time. So I imagine there will be less sleet and snow in the southeastern half of Vermont. 

There is quite a bit of precipitation with this.  Most of us will receive a good inch of rain and melted ice and snow.  That won't be enough to cause flooding, really, especially since there's mixed precipitation involved. But I do expect to see areas of ponding on roads, minor flooding in poor drainage spots, and rises on rivers. The rivers won't flood, but will run rather high and fast. 

After this mess goes by, it looks like we'll have a quiet and somewhat cold weekend. By cold, I mean normal by January standards. That means highs in the 20s, lows 5 to 12.  Sunday looks like the sunnier of the two days

STORM ELSEWHERE 

The same ugly storm here is sweeping a cold front through the Southeast, causing another severe storm outbreak from Mississippi to Georgia. There have already been a few tornado warnings and Mississippi this morning. Those storms will spread and probably intensify as the move across Alabama and much of Georgia today.