low_delta

Friday we had wind. The wind speed was 30 to 40 mph for much of the day. The weather station across the street says the wind speed hit 50 once, and gusted to more than 60 a couple of times - 68 mph it says. I don't remember it ever being like this. There are trees down here and there.



We were working from home, and my connection was slow all day. We went out for dinner, and when we got home the internet was out. There were reports of power outages, and there were more of them today, for some reason. This morning was perfectly calm.

Everyone has been watching the forecast all week because it was calling for over a foot of snow this weekend. We were on the 8 inch line, with up to two feet in northern Wisconsin. But now the forecast for our neighborhood says we'll get a couple inches of snow overnight, then a couple inches of rain tomorrow, and over an inch of snow on Monday. And it will be windy.

It's a little annoying to have to go back to winter after some springlike weather last weekend, but I didn't really get a chance to be out in it, so it still doesn't really feel like Spring was happening.

We had Thanksgiving at my nephew's newish apartment. Nice place in a really old building above a restaurant. A friend of my sister is giving him a good deal on it. He made one dish, and my sister and mom made the rest, like they always do.

Saturday we were supposed to go to a surprise birthday party, but it was kind of a long way away, and there was supposed to be a snowstorm. We were to get more than eight inches of snow. Early in the day there were reports of accidents, so we decided to stay home. It turns out the total snow forecast was for a full 24 hours of snow, and by the time we would have been coming home, there would have been less than three inches on the ground. But even by the time I went to bed after midnight, there were probably only four inches. So I was surprised to see around ten inches in the morning. It was heavy snow and all the trees and plants were weighed down. A tree had knocked out our power sometime overnight. Fortunately I wasn't relying on an alarm to wake up me.

So I had to shovel the driveway. It took me five session at 20 to 30 minutes each. I had forgotten that I never got a good shovel after last winter, but I used the snow scoop for most of it. They widened our road this summer, which shortened our driveway. I'm not happy to have the road closer to the house, but at least that's eight less feet of driveway to clear. The unfortunate part is that the last section is now steeper. I had to back up the hill pulling the heavy snow scoop, trying to keep my feet. Not sure what I'm going to do about that. I might have to figure out how to get a snowblower in the garage.

I did wear my new winter coat, and it is very warm. I had to unzip it some of the times that I was shoveling, since I was starting to sweat.

There was no wind, so the snow fell straight down and piled up on everything. Notice the mourning doves are about eight inches above the actual back of the bench.

That record rain I've been mentioning, our average rainfall for the summer is 14 inches. Some areas got that much in a day. Fortunately, we didn't get any rain after Sunday morning, until this morning, when we got half an inch in fifteen minutes. 0.8" total. Some areas got more rain Sunday night, and other areas got more rain tonight.

I know people whose basements were flooded (deep). I was talking with a photographer acquaintance tonight who said a friend of his had their basement flooded, and lost 60 years of photography.

We've gone all the way to the middle of February before getting any appreciable snow. They said we had 3" in January, but I'm not sure. I think it snowed three times, and we might have gotten an inch each time.

We got about four inches yesterday, maybe less. It was the light fluffy stuff floating down all day. The wind finally picked up a little bit around the time I went out to shovel, around 10 pm. It was very light, but since I lost my good shovel, I'm unhappy about shoveling it.

I got most of it done last night, but left the front walk and the turnaround, and some of the end. I planned on finishing it tonight, but it's 10°F right now. Tomorrow it's supposed to be near 30, so I'll do it then.

I was a little surprised about how accurate the forecast was. They didn't even change it in the couple of days before the snowfall. Tonight it will hit zero, and tomorrow will be in the 20's in the afternoon. Saturday will get up to freezing, and we'll get a couple more inches.

It got up to 75°F today. Everyone is like, "isn't this great?!" I'm like, "this is fucked up!"

It snowed yesterday, for the third time this year. Everyone was panicking about a big snowstorm, but I didn't get it because my forecast said 1 to 3 inches. Finally, I realized that this was for areas near the lake, and five miles inland or more was supposed to get 5 to 8 inches. This was important because we had to decide whether to cancel the CoPA meeting. We did, mainly because if half of our group comes from where the snow is, we'd only have half as many people as usual, which is not fair to our speaker.

It turned out the snowfall forecast was correct for both areas. The only difference was about three degrees, which put us closer to freezing, and we didn't get the high winds they told us about.

Today, i had to shovel the driveway, but didn't get to it until after it had been driven over a few times. Then I did half of it. I didn't have a chance to do the other half until after the temps dropped, so now there are frozen ruts of ice all over it.

We're supposed to get another one on Friday. Forecast says ten inches, with wind. That's a lot! Then the temps will drop. Daily highs for Sun, Mon and Tue are predicted to be 5, 2 and 4°F.

So... we'll see what happens. Should be fun.

It was really hot today. The weather stations near me were all reporting 97 and 98 degrees, even the ones by the lake. Yesterday's high was 86, and that was the previous high temp for the month. July's high was 87, and June's high was 86. This was the first time we hit 90. But I'm sure everyone is going to be complaining about how hot this summer was, just because of this one extreme day.

On the other hand, it has been a lot warmer inland, all summer. So I think most people in the area have the right to say it's been a hot summer. But I'm damn well gonna correct the locals if they say it!

As hot as it was outside, the air conditioning was running all day, and I was cold. Of course. It was only three degrees above what we keep it at in the winter, which is when I wear three layers around the house. Right now I'm wearing a long-sleeved shirt. I should open the windows to keep the a/c from running, because it's about 70 out there. Around 7pm the wind switched, and the temp dropped 15 degrees in fifteen minutes.

It was warmer outside than inside for the first time this year. The temp got up to 75°, so we opened all the windows. Yesterday it was 54° by the lake, and 74° two miles inland, but today the wind was in the west, so it was warm everywhere. It will be in the upper 70's (daytime) for the rest of the week. Next week will be back in the 40's.

The forecast had been for seven inches of snow. Two or three days before it was supposed to arrive, they downgraded it to about three inches. I think we might have gotten an inch and a half. It's hard to tell because the wind blew most of it away. I was hoping for more, since the temperature dropped after the snow fell. It's always nice to have that insulation on the ground when it's this cold.

It was down to -10°F overnight. It's not supposed to get above zero until the late afternoon. The winds have been between 20 and 30 mph. Tomorrow, it will be in the single digits all day, with winds up to 30 mph. Not fun.

This is January weather. We seldom see it this cold in December. Of course the forecast for next Thursday through Sunday is 40's and raining.

Cindy put the trash bin out this morning, and the wind blew it over almost immediately. After noon, the truck came by and the driver actually got out of his cab to set the bin upright so the truck could grab it. Shortly afterward, the bin was blow over again, and sliding across the snowy lawn. I went out to retrieve it, and the cold was painful!

It got up to 50°F today. Remember that picture of the snow at the back of our house, that I posted eleven days ago? The drift was over three feet high. That snow is now gone. There aren't many bare spots in the yard, but the snow has retreated six or eight feet from sunny south side of the house.

They're saying March will be warmer than average.