Ragnarok 'n roll!

It's the end of the world tonight -- which sucks, because I have a deadline Wednesday.

The weather report says we're to expect a Nor'easter, which has always sounded to me like a Yankee slur. "Yep, them durn nor'easters always comin' in here with their citified ways, their indoor plumbin' and 'lectric lights..."

But it's a weather phenomenon, and it means Ragnarok, Armageddon, and the End of the World.

Meteorological map. Everything is a cold front.

Nor'easters head toward the northeast (thus the name), bringing high winds and lots of misery. Wikipedia describes it as "a macro-scale cyclone," the kind of phrase that makes you drop what you're doing and rush out for toilet paper, milk, water, bread, and plywood. Normally at this time of the year a nor'easter means a huge snow dump for us in the Hudson Valley, north of Manhattan. Sometimes it goes easier on us than on the city and Long Island, as the nor'easter wants to get out to the ocean and will race along below us. This time too; Long Island is expecting some hurricane-force winds, but we may get no more than gusts up to 40 mph. On the other hand, we may get snow, ice, and sleet, whereas a little further south it could be just lots and lots of rain. Also coastal flooding.

Why do I bring this up? Well, being the end of the world and all, I may not be alive to report in after today. That would also compromise my ability to turn in the book I'm editing on time. But also because if the power goes out I may not be able to post tomorrow. Our power lines are buried, which is nice, but they haven't gotten around to burying them on the next block over, and in our experience here, when ice and wind conspire to break a line over there, it take our juice with it. Unfortunately our gas furnace can't start without electricity, so we may either freeze to death or have to spend Tuesday morning buried under blankets and dogs.

So that's the state of play as we look at what could be the first really miserable storm here of the winter. Or the whole thing could be a bust. The South Pacific seems to have escaped a tsunami, thank God, so maybe we'll be lucky too.

Or just lucky to have warm, fuzzy dogs.