Oh “Science in the Capitol”, how we should have read you more. I was just adding some words to “Up Slope” when I noticed a story posted to the Kim Stanley Robinson Facebook fan page. One of the members posted a news piece talking about the impending cold snap that is expected to move through the District and across the mid-west and east-coast.

And on twitter many are reporting that people are planning for the impending cold by bum rushing grocery stores and emptying gas stations. While I notice that there is still plenty of broccoli at Kroger’s, at least my dog will stay fed, it seems that bananas are an east-coast staple you guys cannot do without.

KSR wrote about this kind of extreme weather event in the second of his “Science in the Capital” trilogy. As usual the research for his fiction is ten times more involved and than the rest of our writing crowd. Being a bit of a climate and weather buff, and having read “Fifty”, I always just assumed it was a matter of when. Never if.

Rosby waves reaching down from the arctic have been passing overland with increasing slowness. This means that cold air carried within the troughs tends to be colder, over time, near the center of the weather vortex and the cold tends to stick around longer. It is a byproduct of climate change. Get ready folks, these sorts of weather events are going to become increasingly common in the days ahead.

Incidentally, in case you had not already seen, Tess accepted a position with a new company “providing engineering support to data analysts.” She will be leaving on contract for three to six months in little more than a week. And when she returns, we will likely be relocated somewhere near the District of Columbia.

I find it funny that our family, after this move, will sort of mimic elements of KSR’s trilogy as well. I’m a stay-at-home Dad (Charlie and Joe). Tess is a Scientist (Anna). And between our careers and hobbies we may flesh out many of the other characters in these three novels.

In the mean time, while Tess is out of the country, Aral and I will pack up our house and prepare the move. Then, after the packing is moved to storage, a road trip, seeing friends and family and attending conferences along the way. I need to spend some time really soon seeing if LonCon3 might now be in the cards.