• Cyburbia is a friendly big tent, where we share our experiences and thoughts about urban planning practice, the built environment, planning adjacent topics, and anything else that comes to mind. No ads, no spam, and it's free. It's easy to join!

NEVERENDING ♾️ The NEVERENDING Weather Thread

Rain just turned over to snow here and it's due to keep coming until mid-afternoon tomorrow. I've got several online meetings today and I'm contemplating finding an hour break to head to the house but I don't want to be accused of being an over-reacting southerner.
 
For the northerners who think the problem with driving down south is that the drivers don't know what they're doing, you're only partially right. It doesn't matter how skilled you are, there is no way to overcome this. Without proper plowing and deicing there's just no way....
1643936805915.png
 
In Texas, the second day after the winter storm hits is the worst. The day of the storm, no one goes out. The first day after, a few brave souls go out because they have to. Their tires compress the snow into icy slush. Overnight it freezes to highly polished ice. The second day after the storm, people decide to get out and look around and get on the roads. Of course they follow the (icy) tire tracks from the previous day's pioneers.
1643957358401.png

When it's that shiny and in the teens Fahrenheit, you're gonna have a bad time.
 
Single digits this morning. I'm reminded of something while recently reading mskis post about the -40 temperatures. When it's -5 out it's motherin' cold. You face starts to freeze almost immediately and nerve endings go numb. Thing is, you get the same sensation when it's -30 out. Maybe the numbness hits a few seconds quicker, but It's difficult to feel that much of difference between that 25 degree differential when it gets that cold out. That same temperature differential when it's say between 45 and 70 or 65 and 90 degrees outside, is easily and instantly recognizable, but not so when the mercury dips into negative numbers.
 
In Texas, the second day after the winter storm hits is the worst. The day of the storm, no one goes out. The first day after, a few brave souls go out because they have to. Their tires compress the snow into icy slush. Overnight it freezes to highly polished ice. The second day after the storm, people decide to get out and look around and get on the roads. Of course they follow the (icy) tire tracks from the previous day's pioneers.
View attachment 56551
When it's that shiny and in the teens Fahrenheit, you're gonna have a bad time.
Move to TX, they said. It'll be be warm all the time, they said. It's never real winter, they said....
 
We had 18" of snow last weekend. It hung around until yesterday when it warmed up significantly and it rained overnight so most of it is now gone and everything is just squishy. The birds are snapping up worms like nobody's business in my front yard this morning.
 
We had 18" of snow last weekend. It hung around until yesterday when it warmed up significantly and it rained overnight so most of it is now gone and everything is just squishy. The birds are snapping up worms like nobody's business in my front yard this morning.
Our snow is going no where and it's currently 18F right now and perhaps getting up to 21F for the high.
 
In Texas, the second day after the winter storm hits is the worst. The day of the storm, no one goes out. The first day after, a few brave souls go out because they have to. Their tires compress the snow into icy slush. Overnight it freezes to highly polished ice. The second day after the storm, people decide to get out and look around and get on the roads. Of course they follow the (icy) tire tracks from the previous day's pioneers.
View attachment 56551
When it's that shiny and in the teens Fahrenheit, you're gonna have a bad time.


Put on your ice skates and skate down the road.


Oh wait in Texas. Do they know what ice skates are?
 
Just back from taking the dog out. She prefers to poop on walks, so I bundled up and took her to the "poop strip" (our name for the area she prefers).
She pooped real quick and we hustled back.

No wind = just cold but tolerable. Wind = freakin' winter weather and need to get back inside
 
Move to TX, they said. It'll be be warm all the time, they said. It's never real winter, they said....
Actually we first moved to Texas from Los Angeles, and the prospect of having some change of seasons was an attraction for us. And when I lived up north it would be "Oh! Pretty Snow!" in November, a nice framing for Christmas, then three months of gnarly slush and salt.

And this isn't real winter we're having. It's a weekend. It's winter weather for a few days and then it'll be "Texas winter" again: 40s and 50s.
 
We were expecting a dusting of snow yesterday during the day but ended up with closer to 5" of very fluffy stuff. We had white out conditions for a while in the early afternoon. It was bad enough that a long stretch of our local east/west interstate was closed because of accidents. The temperature is now close to about 0 F.

It was warm enough Friday and early Saturday that most of the remaining snow we had from the last storm had melted. Because the ground is still completely frozen, the water just pooled everywhere. Combine that with the freezing temps late Saturday and Sunday and our backyard turned into an ice rink before the snow came down. My kids and I went out to play in the snow last night and were sliding all over the place, this was after I had already taken a nasty fall and hurt my wrist on my walk earlier in the afternoon.
 
58 degrees at sunrise this morning, headed up to the low 70s. Combine that with a full moon overnight and the cats are in a mood this morning...
 
58 degrees at sunrise this morning, headed up to the low 70s....

We're on the opposite trajectory here. It was rainy with temps in the low 50s when I went for my run this morning. The temperature has been falling steadily since then and we're now just below freezing at around 31º. The rain continues and it's supposed to switch over to snow any time now and leave us with 4" to 8" of the white stuff.
 
It was raining and 60 here at 6:45. In the past 30 minutes, fog off the river has intensified and visibility is <1/4 mile. (How do I know that? The I-64 bridge is 1/4 mi west of me and I can't see it.):omg:
 
What is up with this -

30 degrees outside & on a window in the sun there is a insect with wings.
 
it's been in the upper 40's/low 50's the last two days. Quite a thaw. A great time to tap and harvest maple because the sap will be running big time with multiple warm days following months of below freezing temps. I have fond childhood memories of 'maple sugaring'. All that sap has to be boiled down. It takes about 40 quarts of sap to make a single quart of syrup. The best memories, though, are of all the free samples they handed out at the sugar shack!

1645543918129.png
 
Its freezing rain day here in E. Iowa. Had Thunderstorms this morning with rapidly falling temps. It rained hard not long ago, temps getting down to 10 tonight. Slick conditions everywhere. Joy.
 
it's been in the upper 40's/low 50's the last two days. Quite a thaw. A great time to tap and harvest maple because the sap will be running big time with multiple warm days following months of below freezing temps. I have fond childhood memories of 'maple sugaring'. All that sap has to be boiled down. It takes about 40 quarts of sap to make a single quart of syrup. The best memories, though, are of all the free samples they handed out at the sugar shack!

View attachment 56631

My dad bales hay and straw and one of his regular customers is a retired designer from GM or Ford with a small farm with some sheep and goats. The real highlight though is that he makes his own syrup and honey and he usually pays for the straw that he gets with his products.

A couple seasons ago we took our daughters over to his house while he was in peak syrup making mode. You could smell the sugar in the air as you walked up to his sugar shack. That was a pretty fun trip.
 
Sunday morning I ran around the golf course that had the big fire here last week. As I stated before, I'm not a golfer but it's still sad to see such a stately and historic building burn down. I learned in a couple of the newspaper articles that the building was one of the largest wood structures in the state of Michigan and was also modeled after Mt. Vernon. From the news today, it sounds like they are planning to rebuild it as close to the original version as possible.

As of Sunday morning, nearly 72 hours after the fire broke out, the still had hoses set up dousing hot spots:

0321d77b-d5ad-4a49-8009-3acb5690d8d8-jpeg.1757409


67ccced8-32e3-497e-b090-27815eafc2a8-jpeg.1757410


Some photos from Golf Week: https://golfweek.usatoday.com/gallery/photos-fire-oakland-hill-country-club-bloomfield-hills-michigan/ (Photos: Fire at Oakland Hill Country Club in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan)
 
Mini-freeze-apocalypse 2022 Part II is arriving tonight and tomorrow. Here's hoping the forecast is overblowing it.
1645585412961.png
 
Mini-freeze-apocalypse 2022 Part II is arriving tonight and tomorrow.
Meanwhile, raining and low 60s in the ATL, headed up to 70 this afternoon, then mid-70s tomorrow. I'm still confident we'll get back to freezing temps at some point in March and/or early April - that's just how it goes around here.
 
It got up to 51 here yesterday. Today back down to 22 with flurries. Not unexpected. The temps can still get quite cold in February but the overall trend throughout the month in climate terms is one of warming temps.
 
^ We hit 55º at our house on this side of the state yesterday. I wanted to go out for a run late last night to enjoy the temps but I already had a long run in the morning and then it had gotten very windy late so I didn't bother. It was about 20º when I went on my run this morning.

This is my least favorite time of year, weather wise. From now until mid-April the temps swing wildly from day-to-day, everything is brown and muddy, we still don't get much sun for a few more weeks. At least we've got a couple inches of snow in the forecast for tomorrow or Friday that will cover up all the dirtiness for a few more days.
 
This is my least favorite time of year, weather wise. From now until mid-April the temps swing wildly from day-to-day, everything is brown and muddy, we still don't get much sun for a few more weeks. At least we've got a couple inches of snow in the forecast for tomorrow or Friday that will cover up all the dirtiness for a few more days.
There are parts of winter that are enjoyable, but the tail end of it? No. The natural beauty is diminished by the mud and freeze-thaw cycles, and the snow isn't there dependably enough to do certain outdoor activities. You seldom see kids making snowmen this time of the year - used that fun up already.
 
Back
Top