Frustrating Winter Weather
 

So, today's December 28th. Everyone knows what that means; cold weather, fires, hot chocolate, and maybe a little snow if you're lucky.

Well, you would THINK that's what it means, but little do you know, it's 81 degrees. On December 28th. 81 degrees. On December 28th.

http://image.weather.com/web/maps/da...Us_440x297.jpg

All of that reddish-range should be a light blue color, grey perhaps? But no. It's record breaking weather. Weird stuff. Last year we had a really cold winter (It snowed in Houston on Christmas day) and this year we're hitting the 80's just a few days after Christmas.

Any day in December that I feel like I should be wearing shorts is a bad day in my book.

:confused:

Anyone else having weird weather occurrences?

(P.S. - that map is from the 26th, but it's still warm and fluctuating to that temperature off and on. It'll be that hot New Years day supposedly)

No. Business as usual in Northern California, maybe a little moreso than usual for this time of year: lots of rain, heavy surf, mild temps, flooding on the Russian River (well, not yet, but give it a day or two).

We got snow here in the UK. Pretty unusual to see it so close to Christmas, it often comes in at around late January/February. We're forecast for a big snowfall on Friday, which I'm actually looking forward to. Appeals to the kid in me, I suppose.

Rain, rain, and more rain. The dock is nearly under water, the Skok is flooding, and salmon are crossing the roads.

In other words...normal.

Impressive. Texas is having a pretty bad drought right now. Some lakes have lost up to 5ft of water, and it's been pretty bad to the beef industry. Supposedly beef prices are going to start creeping their way up unless it starts raining again.

I've been reading about your fires, too. Wish I could send some of this wet stuff your way.

The Skok always floods...one raindrop and that thing is over its banks.

I think it's so funny--since I moved to Oregon, every time it rains hard people talk about the bad floods they've had down here. Well, while I admit there have been some bad floods (1996 comes to mind), there are parts of Washington where it floods damn near every year, or at least there is the fear that it will flood. Growing up in the Skagit Valley I saw both the Stillaguamish and Skagit (the third largest river on the West Coast) rivers go over their banks--the Stilly flooded my entire town (fortunately the road was built on about five feet of fill above the floodplain) and the Skagit covered Fir Island (where the legendary tulip fields of the valley are) in about four feet of water. And EVERY YEAR they fear that this will happen again (sometimes it does). Heck, I got flooded out one year when a combination of high tides and record rainfall pushed Utsalady Bay over the seawall. Here they have no concept of what floods really are.

Yet it is a real worry right now--we've had record rainfall here for the last week, storm drains are still clogged with leaves from the fall, and the rivers are looking fast and high. If it floods where I am, the Willamette will flood all of the land east of town. Hopefully it will not go over the cutoff road or the highway; if that happens I will not be able to get to work. C'est la vie. It's the risk of living where it rains so much :) I just wish it were colder so we would be building up snowpack in the mountains.

Snowy, I love hearing from a native. I have family in the Skagit Valley and I hope for your sake that we are not related by that branch of the family tree. :D

Edit: I bet most folks think we are making up these names. :)

Somebody did. :)

Snowy, I remember a couple fun years in the early 70's. We were able to ride our arctic cat downtown from our home up on circle/29th. The drifts were an honest 3-4 ft up the fences & house, which was huge to me at the time, and it lasted a couple weeks. A year or two before was our 100yr flood. Canoes became popular. Nothing quite like seeing people float down your street.

We need the water but our clay soil composition doesn't handle it well. Four years ago we had a long bout of rain followed by winds (as now predicted) and I lost a 70ft cedar right next to the house. It took out my fence & gutters, but 5 degrees over and it would have been me in my bed. There's still a 5yr glut of firewood. I do not want to spend another week clearing trees. Please Mrs. Gaia, read a book or something.

The frustrating thing here in the east, is we had a very cold and snowy late November and early December, which made for great skiing and had me thinking it would be a great winter with a long ski season.

Now we're caught with the tail ends of all these Pacific storms which come in with their own supply of warm moist air and cause either rain or mixed/frozen precip that makes everything icy. I'm hoping to get back to good old cold and snow soon!

Cyrnal, I confess the rain we have been having is not as "normal" as I said in my first post. It has taken out a portion of my retaining wall and if it doesn't slow down soon, my garage might be in trouble. This is happening even though I have all roof surfaces guttered and piped down to the lake. We've not seen anything like this in recent times.

It's raining here in Toronto. And it is likely to continue raining for a few days I believe.

come to canada and see the shit weather we have..winter lasts 6 months...

I believe it. The satellite views look like we're in a precipitation turbine. I'm glad I'm not on a hill. Rain, rain, rain. Pitter, patter, pitter, patter. Rain, rain, rain, rain, rain, rain, rain, rain, freaking rain.

Free sandbag announcements on TV today. My lawn is floating. I may cable my two remaining large trees Saturday.

Stay dry.

Yeah, but at least you guys have a winter.

We have summer, late summer, cool summer, early summer, and then summer again.

We here in Oklahoma are sharing Gatorade Frost's drought. I'm convinced it'll never rain here again...

Ok, it will eventually, but when oh when?

We'll try and send some down your way...seriously, we're getting way too much here.

It was warm like that for us here in Phoenix but I like it like that. I wish it could have a high around 80 all year.

Its definitely been a crazy winter here in St. Louis, MO

Usually this time of year is the only time of year you can count on a certain weather pattern, COLD. This year its gone from below 0, to 70 degrees, back to 0 again. I went to bed one day with 17 degrees and snow on the ground, could have swore it was spring when i woke up and the temp was 60.

Gotta love the Midwest :)

I'm in northwestern Canada, personally, and the winter so far really really STINKS! December 30th and it's 2 degrees celsius, and that's only because ot's cooled down from the 5-ish it's been for the last few weeks! Absolutely no snow on the ground (where there should be about a foot or two this time of year) and the ski hills aren't even open yet! So much for the Great White North!

Sheesh. It's been a cold season already here in CT. My pipes froze twice already. I'm feeling pretty much done with this area. I wish I could afford to move to the Olympic peninsula. Sequim comes to mind, or Widby Island. We had a wet Xmas, even while I was up in N. Conway, NH! The ski areas are sucking wind right now...there's still plenty of time though. I wouldn't mind the 80 degree temp so much, but it is highly unusual. Yay, fossil fuel!
On another note, our electric bills will be increasing by over 22% in the next 4 months! Time to buy some candles and batteries and put on another sweater!

We are just 50 miles inland from Brownsville and it has been in the upper 80's all this week---actually broke a couple of records...

I have had the doors and windows open every night...

of coarse, this time last year we had freezing rain and then two inces of snow for Cristmas morning---first snow in 105 years...

but I will take it just as it is....makes it easy on the scotch and water...:D

It's finally starting to get back to normal here. The high temp on Christmas was in the upper 60's, way too warm, it almost felt like early April. Unbelievable. I wouldn't mind some decent snow for a change.

We just got snow for the first time about 1 and a half weeks. Its been overly warm and wet lately.

But our winters last from Nov thru March, so we still have a lot of time left.

Martel grew up closer to the coast of NC, so he's used to not having snow at all. Me, I grew up north of Boone, NC, and am totally used to snow and sleet starting in October and sometimes lasting as late as late April. Being in Asheville, where it's cold but mostly only cold-ish, with no snow so far, and only one big icing... well, it sucks.

I could never live in Florida- when my brother calls on Christmas day talking about how he's taking his kids to his SIL's pool... too wierd.

I was lucky to escape Houston long enough to get caught up in an ice storm in South Carolina It was very pretty, but I feel for the people who lost power. An often overlooked problem with having no power is that none of the fuel pumps worked for a very long stretch. Got back just in time for a Christmas BBQ.

I'd so rather have what you do!!!!!
I love summer!!!!

We recieved 6-8" of snow in early December (opening local ski resorts), followed by a cold snap that brought us lows into the -10's, and highs in the 10's (at its worst). That lasted a few weeks, and the week before xmas a rainstorm came and brought us temp's in the 50's, melting most if not all of the snow. We're still stuck in this mild air, and they're saying that we're lacking 70-80% of our normal snowfall.

RAIN. WON'T. STOP.

There was just a big strike of lightning down the street, and it made the WHOLE HOUSE SHAKE. Fuckin' scary. Now it's hailing. WTF.

It's supposed to be heavy rain all week and more flooding. MORE flooding. They've already had to close the highway once this winter (last Friday)...let's see if it happens again. Evidently we made the Today Show with the closing, because the river didn't actually cause the closure--rather, it was caused by an impromptu river created by the rainfall that was running through the local golf course and across the highway.

I want to go somewhere warm.

Knock on wood it has been nice and mild for most of January here in Southern Ontario. Mild for us are temperatures between 0 and 8 degrees Celsius (32 to about 48 Farenheit). Today, it is going up to 6 Celsius. It might still get cold in February, but we've gotten through half of winter without serious frostiness. It's great.

no shit,same up here.




fuck off already rain...........

I'd just be happy for a little weather consistency... last saturday it was 60 degrees... monday we got dumped with 8 inches of snow... today it's supposed to be 40 ish... with another weather front moving in... Either stay cold or stay warm... enough of this up and down... How am I supposed to appreciate the miserable hot summer if it doesn't stay cold enough in the winter... Gimme 0 degrees... come on already... (and i just got my snow boots, so bring on the white crap...)

40 degrees is spring weather... it's almost bathing suit weather.. it's not winter weather...

Out on the east coast, things are much the same. Mild mild weather... really annoying for an outdoor enthusiast such as I am. I haven't even x-country skied more than once this year....frustrating...

Here's hoping the rest of the winter is cold, snowy and miserable!!!

We're getting our first rain in a long time as we speak. We've had a burn ban in effect since early December I think.

It hasn't really been below 60 degrees since early december here.