What's your weather like right now?

[pepperhead212]

Last night was the coldest so far, getting down to 29° on my back thermometer. Only supposed to get to 52° for a high today, which is about 5° below average. There was still frost at 10 am - I was too lazy to go out and clean the car off, to go to Aldi, when they open, so I'll just go later; though I don't usually do that, they have the crimini for sale, @.99 for half lb, and butter @$2.49/lb, which I have to stock up on...cookie season is almost here!

[pepperhead212]

The rain has started here, and it is dark and dingy, though not supposed to rain hard until much later. Still in the high 40s, but the temperature is supposed to start going up later, when it gets dark, and that heavy rain starts! Up to 60° tomorrow, with rain leaving early, and up to 55° for Thanksgiving - about average.

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone, and stay safe, when out on the roads, or wherever you might be traveling!

[pepperhead212]

I finally got some rain - looks like just under 2", which is the most I've had all year! The most I've gotten until now was around 1.5", and that was over a couple of days. Supposed to get to 60° today, but I'm not doing anything out there today.

[paulf]

We spent Thanksgiving weekend in Maple Grove, Mn eating turkey and watching our granddaughter play hockey. Great time and drove 400 miles south to 3 inches of snow. We need the moisture badly so no complaints here. Only thing is I still need to till oak leaves into the garden. Next week will be warmer so there is a chance.

[pepperhead212]

I got well over an inch of rain yesterday, finally stopping around midnight. It kept slowing down, but then the rain would start coming down so hard, it would trigger the lights out back, and in 5 minutes or so, it would almost stop again. It was almost 50° at 9 am, when I went to Aldi, and it hasn't gone up at all by noon, and probably going down, and the wind has gone up, and next two days the coldest of the season, for this area. Hmmmm...sounds like good times for making cookie dough, and maybe baking some bread, to warm up the kitchen!

[spike]

Hit the store yesterday cause we were warned! Woke up to rainy/snowy/sleety/slop. Now it is snowing hard! WOO HOO I LOVE SNOW!!!

[Laura_in_FL]

Congrats on the SNOW, spike.

We have not had our first frost yet, but Tuesday and Wednesday nights were close - 34 and 35 degrees actual temperature, respectively. Even though I didn't see any frost, it was cold enough that it looks like most of the annuals are dying back.

Then it got warm - I am back in shorts today - and now it's raining, which should continue for most or all of the weekend.

[pepperhead212]

It got here about 8 am, and nothing heavy - first snow of the season. 39° at 10:45, and still flurries, with nothing building up anywhere. Supposed to turn to rain eventually.

[Laura_in_FL]

We got to the upper 30s again last night, but we're on a warming trend now. It's a beautiful sunny 62F with the gentlest breeze right now. More rain is coming this weekend, though.

I am happy to get the rain, but this will be three weekends in a row. That's inconvenient, since it means DH hasn't been able to do any work at the property lately. (It's almost dark by the time he gets off work.)

[pepperhead212]

It got to 54° today, and tomorrow it is supposed to get to 64°, with 1.5-3" of rain, and the entire state, and much of the surrounding areas are in a flood watch, starting tomorrow afternoon through sometime in Monday, with heavy winds and possible thunderstorms. Winter's here!

[paulf]

We seem to be yo-yoing with temps more like October or November than December. Last week we had a record high of 62 degreesF. Since that day it has been 40s for highs and 20s for lows. One snow of a couple of inches about ten days ago. since then very dry with no moisture in sight. We are going back into extreme drought; about 8 inches below average moisture for the year. With the moderate temperatures, about 15 degrees above normal and no rain or snow we have had to water all the trees, shrubs and perennials a couple of times this month so maybe they will survive. We are in the third year of a very dry cycle out of I don't know how many more before a wet cycle begins. Maybe we will never cycle back to "normal."

This normal and cyclical stuff got me investigating climate cycles. Some cycles are measured in hundreds of thousands of years, some say we are in the middle of a 77,000 year cycle. There are proven thousand and hundred and 25 year cycles and even seven and five year cycles of weather conditions. Almost all cycles are caused by the wobble of the earth on its axis and the position of the earth and sun as the earth wobbles.

Then there are the weather/climate cycles caused by the gravitational pull of Saturn and Jupiter causing more wobbles. Right now we are in the process of what is called polar switching. Every few hundreds of thousands of years the north pole and south pole switch positions. What was magnetic north has been migrating farther south at a slow but steady rate. We are late in the regular switch by about 25,000 years. All of a sudden (maybe a few thousand years) the magnetic poles will switch. All this change in magnetism is also affecting our weather cycles.

So when do we here in Nebraska get out of the drought? Maybe next year...or next decade...or in a thousand or hundred thousand years. As we all know, winter is coming...and so is the next ice age but that cycle has a while until it happens. It has only been 12,000 years since the last big one, and 300 years since the last mini ice age.

[pepperhead212]

It's been raining much of the day, and after a brief lull, it has started raining harder - the radar in the area is in the yellows and oranges - looks like the reds are going east of me, but it is supposed to get worse later. It wasn't windy at all earlier, but that's coming later, too. Hope nobody here was in any of those bad areas, where this storm is coming from.

[pepperhead212]

It was still raining around 9 am today, but it finally stopped 10:00, and a little sun showed up by 11:00. It may have snowed briefly, but not while I was awake! I got about 3¼" of rain, and it might get up to 46° today, after 64° yesterday! Windy again today, though not as windy as later yesterday.

[Laura_in_FL]

In contrast to paulf, it's been on the cool and wet side here. Not record cold by any means, but consistently cool, with daytime highs mostly in the lower 60s. No frost yet, but nights have been cool also, low 40s mostly, with some nights in the mid to upper 30s. So the temperatures have been more like January than early December.

We have are now well and truly caught up on rain. It hasn't been enough rain to cause serious problems yet, but I am happy that the forecast is for only 0.25" or so of rain this weekend after the heavy rain two weeks ago and the storms this past Saturday night and early Sunday morning.

My only real complaint is that once again, the rain for the week is all forecast for the weekend. Hubby really needs some dry weekend weather to do stuff outside.

[pepperhead212]

That rain down south is coming up this way now! It is scattered rain now (though fairly heavy at times), and in early evening it looks like it will turn constant, and in late evening the orange and reds in the radar becomes solid. I'll find out if I get as much as last time. It's 57° out there now, getting up to 62° tomorrow, before crashing, when it clears.

[Laura_in_FL]

Sunny and quite cool today. It's 47 now at around 9:15 am, and a high of 54 is predicted. Last night was a near-frost with a 35F actual low, but no visible frost. Tonight's low is predicted to be 36 with considerable cloud cover. If the clouds don't build we might get colder and get a frost.

I've now had several mornings with lows of 35-37F, but we haven't had a frost yet here. There appears to have been at least one mild frost up at the new property. (Where we are living now there is a bay nearby on our north and west, which moderates the cold a bit. The new property is not near any large bodies of water, so it gets a bit colder on winter nights.)

Rain is predicted to return on Christmas Eve, and stick around through the 27th.

[pepperhead212]

We got over 3½" from that storm - the most rain I have gotten in any storm all year. It got up to 63° overnight into Monday, and it went down all day, and today there is a forecast high of 42! Also, quite windy 20 mph sustained winds, with 30 mph gusts. Fortunately, no garden work today!

[Laura_in_FL]

Cool in the mornings, mild in the afternoons for a couple of days - highs near/just at 70 forecast. I am wearing shorts for a couple of days while I can. After the rain on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, it's looking like it will be a very cool week, with several days of highs in the 50s and lows in the 30s beginning Wednesday.

There's no frost forecast yet, but a couple of the colder nights bear watching.

[pepperhead212]

At 1:30 pm, it was still 39° here today, but going back up again tomorrow, and well into the 50s by Christmas! Maybe some rain Tuesday, but not like the last two storms that came through.

[pepperhead212]

Very scattered rain overnight, and maybe this morning, too, but not enough to mention. Only got down to 40° overnight, and it might get into the 50s, but barely, since there will be no sun to help it. A little warmer tomorrow, with some sun.

[octave1]

Springtime here. Went for a walk with just a jacket.

[pepperhead212]

My mint thinks it's spring! Coming up on 12-24 by pepperhead212, on Flickr

[paulf]

From a record high temp for Dec. 22 daytime to a record high low temp for that evening, we are now getting a drizzly rain and temperatures falling from the 60's to the 40's on Christmas Eve. Snow will start this evening and continue into Christmas Day. Only an inch of snow will stick. Hopefully the weather will abate so some of the family can return home late Christmas Day. The others are not leaving until Tuesday. More rain scheduled for then. We really need the moisture but not the snow and ice.

An inch of rain Christmas Eve and a few flurries today. Getting colder but it is the end of December after all.

[spike]

Our high today is supposed to be 60° WHOA!! I remember back when I was a kid, being so cold on Christmas day that I couldn't remember what it felt like ever being warm, it was so cold outside. SO MUCH SNOW.

[pepperhead212]

It is supposed to start raining early here tomorrow, 12-27, and get up to around 52-53° (44° high avg for now, which is below our lows recently!), and 57-58° Thursday and Friday. Every time I here the weather the rain they are predicting is higher - last was 2-3". After this, our yearly rainfall for the area should finally be above normal.

[Laura_in_FL]

I still have remarkably stable cool temperatures. Usually this time of year is full of swings between cold and warm. But we keep having days mostly in the 50s to low 60s and nights in the upper 30s to mid-40s. No frosts, but no warm days either. The improvement from earlier weeks is that we're getting more sunny days and fewer gloomy days.

We must be getting lots of chill hour accumulation with all of these cool days and nights, especially since we've had practically no warm days to "undo" the chill hours. Should be a good year for temperate fruit trees.

But it is strange to have so many near-frosts and no actual frosts yet. Usually in a late frost year like this the frost is late because the weather is unseasonably warm. That's not the case so far this winter.

[pepperhead212]

It looks like I only got about 1¼" of rain yesterday - seemed like more, though it only rained hard briefly. It finally stopped this morning, and didn't freeze overnight, and not supposed to tonight, either. I have to go out tomorrow, to pick up some medication from the pharmacy - 1st time in 3 months, so I had sort of forgotten about it! Except taking it 3 times a day. :LOL: I really don't need any food, but I might go to Aldis, since the weather is going downhill again Tuesday (possible thunderstorms, and getting to 57°) and Wednesday, and they are forecasting another storm Friday into Saturday - I'm lucky all this rain I'm getting is not snow!

I'm wondering what I'll have growing out there now!

[Laura_in_FL]

Still having the pretty stable cool temps - no real cold, but no real warmth, either. Just variations on cool. Also, we are expecting storms to come through this evening with sustained 30-45mph winds and gusts to about 60mph, so power outages are possible. The storms are expected to bring another 2" of rain tonight and tomorrow. We have definitely made up for the August-October drought!

Last fall I looked at the Farmer's Almanac winter forecast for my area: cool and wet. Their forecast has been dead on so far!

It's too early to trust it yet, but the 10-day forecast says I will (finally) get my first frost in just over a week: 30F is forecast for the low for the morning of the 17th.

[paulf]

The snowfall began in earnest about an hour ago. The forecast says between 10 and 12 inches total. It is very wet, heavy snow with flakes about an inch across. Almost all businesses in the eastern half of Nebraska and southwest Iowa will not be open today and virtually all schools are closed in Nebraska and Iowa. Today has become a day for finishing up my latest short story and taking care of tomato seed send outs. The snow blower is ready for operation when it quits snowing tomorrow.

[Laura_in_FL]

Well, we had a very wild morning. I was awakened by a tornado warning at 5:30 am. On the radar it looked like the tornado went right over us, but it either missed us (probably went over the bay) or the funnel skipped and wasn't touching the ground as it passed over, because our area seems okay.

However, in several other spots along the tornado's path (it started offshore and was still going strong when it passed into Georgia) it caused real damage: www.mypanhandle.com/weather/watch-live-severe-weather-in-the-panhandle/ for damage videos. I know for sure that it damaged a marina (building and some boats tossed around like toys) and destroyed several apartments across the street. It damaged some condos and ripped the roofs off some homes, took down trees and power lines, damaged a restaurant, and absolutely wrecked an RV park in one of the counties to the north. More damage reports are still coming in. I have heard that there are injuries, but no numbers yet. So far I haven't heard of any fatalities and I pray that no one was killed.

Immediately before the tornado we got some sizable hail. It was still dark so I couldn't see the hail from inside, and I sure wasn't going outside at night with a tornado just minutes away! By the sound it was a little smaller than the hail we got last spring, and the hailstorm was brief. There was a news station along the storm's path, and you could hear the hail pounding their roof as they broadcast. They sent someone outside to grab hailstones to measure - they were 1.25" in diameter. They showed a hailstone one on-air.

After the tornado was a squall line of very strong thunderstorms storms about an hour later. After that, we did a quick recon (quick because more storms were still heading our way) and didn't see any damage. Once the last rain ends and the sun comes out in an hour or so, I'll walk the house perimeter and see if we took any damage to the siding or anywhere else.

But wow - God really spared us this morning.