Zoning Goddess
Cyburbian
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An early chill here, likely in the high 40's tonight but in the mid 70's tomorrow.
First drive in the snow this morning. It was an uneventful drive for me but it did take a bit longer and there was points where it was the large wet snowflakes and it caused reduced visibility. I have a night meeting that is expected to be of epic length and an hour drive back in the middle of the night. I hope that the simi traffic will be low and that the roads will be clear. If not, it will just take a bit longer to drive home.
My wife has started checking the weather for places in the south-east (including FL) and writing out their 10 day forecast on the bathroom mirror, next to our 10-day forecast. I wonder what she is hinting at....
Snowed a little this morning. This is that stage of the season where snow is still charmingly beautiful. Ask me how 'charming' I think this kind of weather is in late February....
My wife is contacting real estate agents and telling me about all these job openings for her in various locations.Not a week goes by that my wife is not mentioning moving "south".
My threshold for snow at my house is January 15. After that, I love the idea of going to snow (to ski or snowboard) but dealing with the cold and heating bills, shoveling the long driveway multiple times, drying off the dog after she plays, putting 10 layers on the oldest and then him telling me that he needs to go pee, and not being able to see my lawn.Snowed a little this morning. This is that stage of the season where snow is still charmingly beautiful. Ask me how 'charming' I think this kind of weather is in late February....
The thing I miss the least about West Michigan is the amount of snow.
I often think that I would enjoy a retirement on the coast of Lake Michigan. There are few things as relaxing as a summer afternoon spent on a Lake Michigan beach. But then I think about the lake effect snow and that lovely image is instantly banished from my thoughts.
There is still some haze/clouds from the morning, but it's supposed to be in the mid 70's and sunny the rest of today and will dip into the 50's tonight. It is predicted that it might get up into the 80's this weekend. :h:
See my post in the thread about what state we should live in. Jealous.
Cold and raining like heck all day and tonight, just like the Halloweens from my youth. I'll just tell Junior this is character-building weather when he goes trick-or-treating.
Yep. Pouring rain and windy on this side of the Mitten as well. My wife says that unless there are tornado sirens going off, we will be out trick-or-treating this evening (luckily our daughter is pretty young and will be happy to just make it to 10 or so houses).
The rain will not stop us. On the flip side of the age thing, my daughters are now old enough where they will just run from house to house anyways, so I can just follow along behind with my umbrella and red solo cup.
How is this for a Halloween Trick or Treat -
Tornado Watch until 1 am.
There's snow on the ground at my office this morning and I saw some cars on my way in that had quite a bit of snow piled up on their hoods and roofs. First time for that this season.
The snow definitely did not travel east to my house.
It didn't even make it the couple miles south of my office to my house. I was taking the garbage out around 9:00 p.m. last night and we just had a bit of freezing rain coming down.
It always amazes me in the colder months when I drive around on the roads that hug the larger inland lakes here like Sylvan Lake, Pine Lake, Orchard Lake, etc., how much snow can be blowing in across those lakes when you go a few blocks away and there is no snow coming down at all and often not even any rain. I can only imagine (with the help of news reports and now Facebook) how lake Michigan brutally effects the western side of the state for snow.
Super-Mega Typhoon Haiyan. Perhaps the strongest storm ever to hit land. Still Super-Mega and headed for Vietnam.
Super-Mega Typhoon Haiyan. Perhaps the strongest storm ever to hit land. Still Super-Mega and headed for Vietnam.
Snow
Precipitation in the form of ice crystals, mainly of intricately branched, hexagonal form and often agglomerated into snowflakes, formed directly from the freezing [deposition] of the water vapor in the air.
Flurries
an intermittent light snowfall of short duration (generally light snow showers) with no measurable accumulation (trace category).
Snow Shower
a short duration of moderate snowfall. Some accumulation is possible.
Snow Squall
an intense, but limited duration, period of moderate to heavy snowfall, accompanied by strong, gusty surface winds and possibly lightning (generally moderate to heavy snow showers). Snow accumulation may be significant.
Blowing Snow
wind-driven snow that reduces surface visibility. Blowing snow can be falling snow or snow that has already accumulated but is picked up and blown by strong winds. Blowing snow is usually accompanied by drifting snow.
Blizzard
means that the following conditions are expected to prevail for a period of 3 hours or longer:
- Sustained wind or frequent gusts to 35 miles an hour or greater; and
- Considerable falling and/or blowing snow (i.e., reducing visibility frequently to less than ¼ mile)
heading northeast tomorrow with an initial target of Indianapolis...
tornado warnings to the counties to the north and south but somehow we lucked out. Little damage apparent at home.
Luckily, I was spared, as was much of Chicagoland north of I-80. But only about 30 miles to my south, places like Coal City, Diamond, Manhattan, and Frankfort were hit by tornadoes, with the fromer two faring worse, with I think about 100 homes damaged or destroyed in the Coal City/Diamond area. My company actually sold a 100+ acre property in Diamond less than a year ago. The tornado went right through it and hit the subdivision to its east. It was vacant farmland that had been planned for residential development, but due to the housing market collapse, development never started. Thank God...cause that subdivision would have been devastated had it been built, and the destruction would have been twice as much.
We also do a lot of business in Manhattan and Frankfort, which had a lot of downed trees, major roof damage, and a few structural collapses, but those folks didn't see quite as much damage as places to the southwest.
This same supercell that hit Chicago's far southwest suburbs also spawned a tornado that hit the Dana area in LaSalle County's panhandle and first devastated Washington, IL.
Thank God the casualties are lower than they certainly could have been. Looking at the devastation in Washington, IL, entire neighborhoods were wiped out by EF4 damage. With it being a Sunday, I think a lot of families were together, and with the advanced forecast, they took the time to prepare an emergency plan and executed it. I think a lot of people had basements too, which was also good.
In addition, all of the Chicago news networks interrupted regular programming and were on-the-air round-the-clock from about 10:30am all the way through the afternoon
We still had considerable wind (my company's monument sign was damaged) and rain, but it's nothing compared to the areas to our south.
Is it just me, or does it seem like Chicagoland has been hit pretty hard by tornadoes that last couple of years?
Kiddie soccer tournament this weekend and the forecast is:
Saturday: high 52 with chance of rain
Sunday: high 37 winds 12 mph and sunny
Our game Sunday is at 9:15 which will make the temp to be 29 or so.
We spent Saturday shopping and running errands. We left the house knowing it was going to be colder, but on our way home from dinner the windchill was at 4 degrees. We were not prepared for that.
I now have some slight sniffles. Cue the green tea and let's hope the sniffles go away.
I was working in my garage all day Saturday with the door open and it wasn't too bad but at about 8:30 I had to go to the store and decided to walk up there and thought I was going to freeze to death. Yesterday morning I went for a walk before the sun came up and again, I was unprepared for how cold it was - my phone said that the windchill was at 2º. On this morning's run, the windchill was up to a balmy 7º.
I don't recall getting a stretch of weather this cold this early in the season for a long time.
I've come to the conclusion that I do not necessarily dislike cool weather or even snow. I can deal with 30 degrees and snow.
It's when it gets COLD, that I hate living in Michigan. This cold spell we're going through is not good.