And Now, The Cold
We ended up with 9 inches of snow this morning. We were forecast for 2-3. But a band of lake effect snow came in from the north-east and hit us. And when I say us, I mean Kenosha along the lake shore. That’s it. Inland Kenosha got 4 inches. Milwaukee got only an inch. It snowed as hard this morning as I’ve seen it snow since moving to Wisconsin. That 9 inches fell in about 2-3 hours. I thought I was in Mammoth.
Now comes the cold. -15 tonight, -6 for a high tomorrow, -16 tomorrow night, 8 on Friday and then -15 again Friday night. All of this with winds blowing out of the north-east at 20-25 mph. That puts the wind chill in the -40s. These will be the coldest temps and wind chills since I’ve lived here. In fact, they are saying this will be the coldest temps in 10 years.
Now I don’t need to hear about the 80′s and 90′s in Southern California. I heard enough from my brother last night. He informed me that he was in shorts and a tee shirt. So you So-Cal folks just enjoy your Santa Anna Winds and try not to burn down everything. That same high pressure that’s giving you the warm temps is giving us this artic blast.
I know you don’t want to hear about the warm temps here, but remember that this means we don’t have rain and water to take care of our beloved Sierra snowpack, wildflowers, etc. I would much rather we have a real winter (at least real for us in terms of getting rain and colder temps and snow where much needed and appropriate.) They say there’s a “La Nina” condition (opposite of El Nino) and that means a very dry year. I hope they’re wrong, because these years of drought are really tough on the natural areas we so love to celebrate.
Please be sure to let us know how your brother’s surgery goes. Hope you and Lynne stay warm. (Visualize warm tropical breezes, Jimmy Buffet, etc.)
P.S. I had to run the air conditioner yesterday because it was almost 80 inside the house. So much for economizing on power during the winter… (Hey, is that cynical booing and hissing I hear coming from the Mid-West???)
I agree with you about the rain and snow Kahlee. Hopefully California will have a snowy February and March.
Got fingers, toes, legs and eyes crossed, hoping for precipitation SOON…
I’m wondering something. If you were to take a picture in that position, would it come out 3D, 4D, reversed, upsidedown, downsideup, backwards, crosswards, slantways or zigzag? Maybe all of the above?
Hhmmmm…… Makes ya think doesn’t it.
Actually, Lucille Ball did that very thing in an episode of “I Love Lucy.” Even tried to walk while tangled up in such a pretzel pose, hoping to garner good luck for Ricky in an audition. Pretty funny looking! But hey, I think Ricky got the job, so maybe we’ll get rain! ;-)
It’s really cold here in Big Bear. Barely getting into the 60s… =)
Course at night it’s in the mid 20′s.
I sympathize with your wish not to hear about the warm temps out here. My family members who live in so cal often “rub it in” with me by sending me screen captures of the weather satellite that show the central valley fogged-in – while they bask in warm temps down south. I say, they can have their traffic, smog, earthquakes and riots. Hah!
By the way, the Weather Channel website has a really cool continuously updated national temperatures map that I enjoy looking at:
http://www.weather.com/maps/maptype/currentweatherusnational/uscurrenttemperatures_large.html
Where most temperature maps seem to generalize and not show detail, this one strikingly shows the temperature differences across the nation – you can even discern the shape of the Sierra Nevadas – contrasted with adjoining warmer areas. In the midwest it’s often interesting to see the cold northern states contrasted with warmer temperatures to the south – realizing that there’s no mountain ranges causing that difference – just distance and different air masses.