tjspiel

Yes, I know that technically it's only about a week old but there's only one week left of what's been a pretty anemic December, the days are getting longer, and I'm at CES the first week of January.

So after this week, I have only 5 weeks of commuting left until mid February, by which time I'm riding home in partial daylight and the roads start to thaw. Of course wintery weather can drag on for quite a few more weeks after that, but often the worst is over.

yankeefan

Here in the Northeast winter doesn't usually start till January.

AlmostTrick

It's good to hear that winter is almost over. The way I figure there was at least one day in November where I wore shorts on the commute, so December was actually the end of summer. Put our reasoning together and it's quite a short winter this year!

Ultimately it just depends on what the ground hog says this year.

CharlyAlfaRomeo

Only four more months here. It's been pretty mild so far though.

TransitBiker

Winter is just starting here..........

- Andy

Fizzaly

Boise foothills disagree!

loky1179

I was just thinking what an easy winter it has been - two weeks of 30-40° F and rain melting all the snow. But we get at least two sub-zero °F days this week to remind us it really IS still winter.

Those December rains are not going to bring January flowers. I better find the new long underwear I got for Xmas.

ThermionicScott 

I dunno. Here in eastern Iowa, it seems like the harshest parts of winter come during January, even though the days are getting longer. The coldest and hottest parts of the year seem to lag between the shortest and longest days, respectively. It hasn't dipped below 0°F here yet, but it's in the forecast next week...

wolfchild

In my experience, January and February can have some nasty surprises in store. It's not really over until late March.

JohnJ80

You must live in a different part of the Twin Cities than I do. Winter (in our part) tends to hang on pretty much until the end of March and can have a surprise re-emergence or two through April.

J.

ItsJustMe

Winter doesn't even get a toehold here most years until January. Feb is generally the worst, March can be widely varied, and we've had significant snow in April.

I used to live farther north where I twice saw snow in late June.

rumrunn6

"only 5 weeks" could wind up being 5 weeks of hell :-)

Steely Dan

december in chicago is so hit and miss that i don't consider it a part of "real winter". "real winter" is the exclusive domain of january and february, almost always the 2 nastiest months of the calendar. so like others have mentioned, winter is just beginning in my opinion.

this year, decemeber was quite mild for the most part. mostly daily highs in the upper 30s & 40s, even a 50 here and there. that's not winter by my measuring stick.

tjspiel

Fine. Call me an optimist but you all are just plain wrong.

For me winter riding has 3 defining characteristics:

1. Dark
2. Cold
3. Bad Roads

Whatever the actual weather may be doing, the darkness starts to fade by mid February. And call it a feeling, but I just don't think we're going to get the ice build up that lasted so late into the year last year.

Anybody who uses the outdoor skating rinks in Minneapolis knows that they quit maintaining them by the second or 3rd week of February. That's not an arbitrary decision. It's because we start to get more frequent thaws. When you combine that with the higher angle of the sun, it's hard to keep the ice. Yes, we can get snow well into April and yes, below 0 weather can happen into March but typically the grind starts to ease in mid to late February. In my mind February is the best winter month.

And like I said: I only have a few days commuting this week and I'll be in Las Vegas next week. So that leaves about 5 weeks.

Almost nothing.

AlmostTrick

I'm thinking some of you took the OP, and especially the thread title, a bit too seriously. For me it's just a positive way of looking at things.

Robert C

People here keep saying, "you aren't going to be able to ride a bicycle when winter gets here." . . . Its December . . .

rumrunn6

haha yes, of course it is. but you know, on BF everyone grabs hold of anything anyone ever says and always tries to turn things around and find a flaw. just a happy go lucky bunch, here

PatrickGSR94

Ah yes, only a few more weeks until DST begins again. Then I will have darkness in the morning but light for the afternoon commutes, until sometime mid-Spring.

I thought it odd that even after the solstice on 12/21, the sunrise time for our area continued to get a few minutes later until this week where it sticks at 7:08 for several days, then starts getting earlier again around 1/3. Weird.

ItsJustMe

After 10 years, people still say this to me. They either weren't paying attention for years or they forgot.

I'm still riding the road bike. When we get real winter, I'll just have to grab the other bike from the garage, and the commute will take an extra 10 minutes.

Steely Dan

by virtue of my location on the extreme eastern edge of a time-zone and an 8:30am start time at my office, i never have to ride to work in the dark. i have full daylight for my morning commutes 365 days a year, so i place much greater emphasis on the cold and snow. and january & february are chicago's coldest & snowiest months, so from my perspective, winter is just beginning.

icyj

I'll share your optimism! I am starting to feel spoiled riding a road bike, in Minnesota, in December. Below zero today, but it has been mild enough so far.

ThermionicScott 

It's very possible. I don't mind the warmer-than-usual temps so far (even got in some rides on my road bike recently), but I'm actually kind of bummed that I haven't had more snow to play in!

Or has this really been an excuse for tjspiel to brag that he gets to go on a trip to Vegas the whole time?

bikemig 

+ 1. He's more of a snowbird than an optimist,

tjspiel

We did get some snow over the weekend, so it looks nice and wintery but the roads and trails are still good.

I've actually got mixed feelings about being in Vegas next week. It's going to be in the low 50's so not exactly tropical. I'm going to spend most of the time sitting through various presentations on the "Internet of Things" and the like. It will be a change of pace so I welcome that.

Unfortunately, I'm going to miss our first broomball game which has been delayed a couple of weeks by lack of ice.

TransitBiker

I like winter, and cold riding.

- Andy