Baby it's cold outside

nativemainer:  same here in Albany, NY.  I LOVE Fall, especially with the hot flashes      Yes, fresh apples, apple pie, cider, pretty leaves...dread what comes after, but still Fall is my fave time of year.  60's today, rain (we are in a drought) much needed.  Yes, weather is a good thing to talk about!   ~juli

Just got the power back on after about 5 hours off - electricity is just the best!!!!!  Had to cook dinner by candle light over a one ring portable gas cooker when DH said the BBQ was out of gas - so much for having that as a backup cook station!!  The worst of the Giant storm passed last night with minimal rain and wind damage for us but the power outage today was caused by a tree falling on power lines - the storm has passed now.  There has been storm damage in other areas though. 

No warmer for us but the days are getting a lot longer - daylight saving starts 26 Sept for us so summer is definitely on the way - yay!!!

I love autumn too - it is the season when our weather is generally the most settled.  We don't get a fantastic autumn colour show where I live, like some of you ladies in USA must get, but it is still nice to see the few trees that do turn heralding winter.

Meece - don't know about the USA but our daylight saving has been getting longer and longer over the years.  When I was younger it was the end of Oct until the beginning of March and now it is end of Sept until the 3rd April (27 weeks - more than half the year).  Dairy farmers don't like it as it means lots of dark morning starts but everyone else loves it  - it certainly blows away the winter cobwebs when daylight saving starts. 

Back in Virginia and it's simply beautiful here!

I so agree re: "fake"time (the daylight stuff) as opposed to the real time (standard); pick one or the other & stay there or else move back to Hawaii since they don't switch.  I too am under the impression that the whole thing originated as a "help" to farmers, but if they don't like it, then to heck with it.  I'm just saying.... 

Isn't there another state that doesn't do the time switch?  Arizona, maybe?  I remember one year we didn't swich--to save energy during the energy crunch of the 70's, I think--and getting on the school bus in the dark.  As I recall it didn't work, we just turned on lights in the morning instead of the evening.  Of course, here in Maine on the eastern edge of the time zone, in the winter the sun comes up around 8 and it's dark by 4 pm, so it's going to be dark go to or coming home from work no matter what time scheme we're on. 

NM and Joni - over here daylight saving is in place so we can make more use of sunlight hours in the afternoon in the summery months.  The farmers don't like it because just when the early mornings starts begin to get lighter, we change to daylight saving and their mornings become dark again until the longer days really come.  Same at the other end of summer now that it is extended - they go into dark mornings again quicker than if we were on standard time.

All of NZ has daylight saving - we are not big enough to have different states.  3 states in Australia don't have daylight saving but the other 5 do.  I believe it is of most benefit to people who live in the temperate zones of the world.  Those near the Equator have long daylight hours anyway and people near the poles certainly wouldn't gain anything as they have light nearly all day in summer.  Coincidentally my friends went to Norway in June this year and they said it was very strange having only 2 hours of dark a night.

The Giant storm has caused quite a bit of damage in the far south of NZ.  Building roofs have collapsed under the weight of unprecidented snowfalls and there have been power outages, schools closed because people can't get around - and there is more to come apparently.  Fortunately Christchurch has been spared - they are still trying to tidy up after the quake so bad weather would not be welcome.  We have had some high winds but that is about it so far.  It is still quite warm here - 45 -60 range.

juli - apparently 80% of the buildings in Christchurch and the surrounding areas are undamaged so fingers crossed your aunt and uncle's home is ok. The worst affected were buildings built before 1931 which had not been retrofitted to earthquake building standards (there was a huge earthquake in Napier that pretty much flattened the whole city and since then building codes have required new buildings to be earthquake proofed to I withstand, I think, a 7.5 quake) or those that were directly on or near the fault.  There were about 2 weeks of significant aftershocks though and most of the people down there were very nervous and stressed for many days even if their homes had not sustained any damage.  Here is a link to an interesting website that details the time and strength of the big quake and the following aftershocks http://www.christchurchquakemap.co.nz/ - easy to see why they would have been stressed! The state of emergency was lifted late last week though so hopefully things are more settled for them now. 

Chch is a very flat city and yes it is very windy especially in the summer when the Norwester rushes over the Canterbury plains having dropped its moisture on the Southern Alp mountain range.  The wind fries Chch some days in the summer.  

I am like you Meece in Sunny CA, just glad to have it cooler and somewhat "FALL" like for Weds when fall actually arrives.  What part of CA are you in?