2020-21 Winter weather; bring it on

[Hate 20102]

The first half of this week is how I wish every Central Texas winter day would look and feel.  Near freezing in the AM, sunny and mid-50s in the afternoon.  
[mention=636]phdhorn[/mention], this is your yearly it’s-10-days-out-now-please-tell-us-it’s-not-going-to-be-hot-again-for-Christmas post.  
Can we expect dustings of snow in Bee Cave while Austin proper sees more record heat?

There are some models suggesting a pretty significant cold front around Christmas. It’s way too early for any confidence in that, but it’s within the scope of possibility.

[Underdog 28437]

Looks like I picked the wrong time to get the snow blower tuned up, shoveling it will be come Wed. night/Thurs morning in NY. 

[phdhorn 6224]

Actually, just looked at that this morning.

Great chance that Christmas Eve/Day will be as wintry as any point so far this year.   Too far out to be certain but cold weather looks to be coming 24thish.  The question is how cold?   But looking up that it won't be warm.

It's tough to prognosticate what the sky will be like from 6-9 p.m. Dec. 21, weather right now is a series of quick fronts from storms to our north.  Pattern suggests more of this but mostly sunny in between.   That convergence is gonna be pretty low in the sky by then as well, so who knows how much haze/etc. will occur near the horizon?  If you want to be sure you probably should go to Fiji that week, best chance of seeing it high in the sky.

[Nueces River Rat 5528]

When need some rain in the next two weeks down in South Texas,   The early freeze we had back after Thanksgiving killed all the grass and everything is brown in the pastures and fields.   With New Years Eve fireworks we might have some serious fire danger conditions.  

[Pato del Muerto 52322]

32 degrees with a 25 mph wind right now. 1 star would not recommend. 

[MNLonghornFUKM 8799]

Immmm dreaming of a brownnn christmas


Sucks for everyone out East tho. And to underdog. Shoveling is the worst

[Mrs Whiggins 13049]

This made me cry. I remember those moments from childhood (I grew up north of the Red River). Outside until you couldn't feel your toes. No fancy fabrics so my mittens and gloves would be a frozen shell of ice from making snowballs. Sledding and trying not to hit a tree.

 

[Guest Lobo]

^

That's really cool of them.  Especially giving the staff a full day off as well since December has been nothing but shit so far.  I mean, yeah as skeptical Lobo, anyone in a rural public school in West Virginia will probably be cognitively better off away from the school rather than inside of it.  A snow day in Chicago growing up meant that it was so bad that a few old people were probably gonna die.  But the description of their snow day in that letter is just wonderfully beautiful.  

But that letter was the most human thing you'll read from a school administrator all year.  Thanks for posting.  

Edited December 16, 2020 by Lobo

[Al_4_ISU 12408]

8 minutes ago, Mrs Whiggins said:

This made me cry. I remember those moments from childhood (I grew up north of the Red River). Outside until you couldn't feel your toes. No fancy fabrics so my mittens and gloves would be a frozen shell of ice from making snowballs. Sledding and trying not to hit a tree.

 

Oh man, that hit in the feels.

Snow days were the freaking best growing up.  My cousins lived a mile and a half down the road and had an old snowmobile.  We'd fire that fucker up and go riding out in the cornfield pulling two metal saucer sleds behind it.  The guy driving the snowmobile would try to get the guys in the sleds to fly off.  Then we'd up the ante by having the guys in the sleds try to battle each other off the sled.  Bouncing across barely snow covered plowed dirt and cornstalks at 40MPH.  Do that for a couple hours, and then go inside and play the Joe Montana football game for Sega Genesis for the rest of the afternoon.  If we were at their house, our only option for sledding was to do it in the road ditch.  At our house, there was a touch more elevation.  There was a creek behind our house (the headwaters of the mighty Wapsipinicon River) that offered about 30' of relief as opposed to the 7' in the ditch.  This was our idea of a sledding "hill".

Sometimes, they'd wait to call it until the buses were out on the road in the middle of it.  If you've ever experienced a blizzard on the Plains, you understand the totality of a white out.  There were multiple times our school bus went in the ditch in the middle of a white out, and we'd be stuck on the bus, in a snow drift until a county truck could pull us out.  Sometimes, if the wind died down enough to see, the older boys would have to walk up to the nearest farmhouse and see if we could find the farmer and get a tractor out there.  Keep in mind this was as recent as the late 90's.

Town kids never get to really experience the craziness of it.  There were enough houses and trees in town to keep the white out related shenanigans at a minimum.  Towns were usually located along rivers, so they had something closer to a legit sledding hill, too.

[Mrs Whiggins 13049]

38 minutes ago, Lobo said:

^

Well, yeah, the adult in me can think of all sorts of other consequences but that first snow (day) was special. And after two months, when the snow by the road has the gradients of gray as if it were sedimentary rock, the wheel ruts have refrozen countless times at the end of the lane, and the harsh 'real' cold has settled in-where the snow is tiny and painful against your face, the novelty will be gone. But for children, it's as fresh as new as a blank piece of paper.

 

Oh, and who else thinks its still a little creepy when the lake ice you're walking on makes noises?

Edited December 16, 2020 by Mrs Whiggins

[Guest Lobo]

I can't remember what movie it was but some 70's or 80's dark and evil film.  But the kid makes the lake ice crack and I think it was some other adult that falls in and gets taken by the current and the evil kid follows above him staring at him as he's slowly drowning and freezing to death under the ice.  Yeah, ever since that movie, I was really uneasy about walking on frozen ponds/lakes.  We still did it, but it was never fun for me.  It was always a little unnerving.  What movie was that?  

[Pato del Muerto 52322]

Depends on the noise 

[MNLonghornFUKM 8799]

Oh man, that hit in the feels.
Snow days were the freaking best growing up.  My cousins lived a mile and a half down the road and had an old snowmobile.  We'd fire that fucker up and go riding out in the cornfield pulling two metal saucer sleds behind it.  The guy driving the snowmobile would try to get the guys in the sleds to fly off.  Then we'd up the ante by having the guys in the sleds try to battle each other off the sled.  Bouncing across barely snow covered plowed dirt and cornstalks at 40MPH.  Do that for a couple hours, and then go inside and play the Joe Montana football game for Sega Genesis for the rest of the afternoon.  If we were at their house, our only option for sledding was to do it in the road ditch.  At our house, there was a touch more elevation.  There was a creek behind our house (the headwaters of the mighty Wapsipinicon River) that offered about 30' of relief as opposed to the 7' in the ditch.  This was our idea of a sledding "hill".
Sometimes, they'd wait to call it until the buses were out on the road in the middle of it.  If you've ever experienced a blizzard on the Plains, you understand the totality of a white out.  There were multiple times our school bus went in the ditch in the middle of a white out, and we'd be stuck on the bus, in a snow drift until a county truck could pull us out.  Sometimes, if the wind died down enough to see, the older boys would have to walk up to the nearest farmhouse and see if we could find the farmer and get a tractor out there.  Keep in mind this was as recent as the late 90's.
Town kids never get to really experience the craziness of it.  There were enough houses and trees in town to keep the white out related shenanigans at a minimum.  Towns were usually located along rivers, so they had something closer to a legit sledding hill, too.

cell phones are a game changer for the stuck buses, lol. Actually while blizzards suck, at least if there isn’t drifts, it’s manageable to drive out in the country. The worst I remember was doing a country route that had snow fall just before school let out and there was zero wind...and all of the fields/ditches were full. So the roads were covered perfectly that the only thing I could go off of that I was on the road were the set of mail boxes that were a mile ahead...stay to the left of those and we were good...2mph at a time lol

[Parliament 14112]

1 hour ago, Al_4_ISU said:

Oh man, that hit in the feels.

Snow days were the freaking best growing up.  My cousins lived a mile and a half down the road and had an old snowmobile.  We'd fire that fucker up and go riding out in the cornfield pulling two metal saucer sleds behind it.  The guy driving the snowmobile would try to get the guys in the sleds to fly off.  Then we'd up the ante by having the guys in the sleds try to battle each other off the sled.  Bouncing across barely snow covered plowed dirt and cornstalks at 40MPH.  Do that for a couple hours, and then go inside and play the Joe Montana football game for Sega Genesis for the rest of the afternoon.  If we were at their house, our only option for sledding was to do it in the road ditch.  At our house, there was a touch more elevation.  There was a creek behind our house (the headwaters of the mighty Wapsipinicon River) that offered about 30' of relief as opposed to the 7' in the ditch.  This was our idea of a sledding "hill".

Sometimes, they'd wait to call it until the buses were out on the road in the middle of it.  If you've ever experienced a blizzard on the Plains, you understand the totality of a white out.  There were multiple times our school bus went in the ditch in the middle of a white out, and we'd be stuck on the bus, in a snow drift until a county truck could pull us out.  Sometimes, if the wind died down enough to see, the older boys would have to walk up to the nearest farmhouse and see if we could find the farmer and get a tractor out there.  Keep in mind this was as recent as the late 90's.

Town kids never get to really experience the craziness of it.  There were enough houses and trees in town to keep the white out related shenanigans at a minimum.  Towns were usually located along rivers, so they had something closer to a legit sledding hill, too.

Get you a car hood, 50' or so of rope, and a 4wd pickup.  L.I.V.I.N.

[PittsburghTiger 6136]

It's snowing pretty good here right now. Started about an hour ago. I think we are supposed to get a few inches. About 60-miles east, in the Appalachian Range, they will get upwards of a foot. I like being close to the deep stuff, but not too close. It does look pretty nice outside.

[PittsburghTiger 6136]

It's moving pretty quickly through here. 

[Wally Pryor 5240]

On 12/15/2020 at 9:04 AM, phdhorn said:

Great chance that Christmas Eve/Day will be as wintry as any point so far this year.   Too far out to be certain but cold weather looks to be coming 24thish.  The question is how cold?   But looking up that it won't be warm.
 

You still down w/ this?  J Spence mentioned 7-day warmup but no heavy nip in the air down the line.   (No racist)

[PenelopeWitherspoon 19074]

Snow in NYC

[MoJames 8241]

Snowed in SW Colorado a couple nights ago.

[phdhorn 6224]

4 hours ago, Wally Pryor said:

You still down w/ this?  J Spence mentioned 7-day warmup but no heavy nip in the air down the line.   (No racist)

Yes. It's going to get cold. Probably not record breaking or anything, mostly like today. But definitely cold after a warm-up.

Edited December 17, 2020 by phdhorn

[Hate 20102]

Is it spring time yet? 

[Underdog 28437]

LOL...  

[MNLonghornFUKM 8799]

[Underdog 28437]

We're up to 28" of snow and expecting more until it supposedly stops around noon.  Neighbor across the street tried to leave his driveway but got stuck in the street due to the snowplows haven't even made their runs yet.  This is the most snow we've seen in our 10yrs up here. 

Edited December 17, 2020 by Underdog

[Guest Lobo]

3 hours ago, Underdog said:

LOL...  

There's a South Austin's mom joke somewhere in that 1' mark.  I just don't have it yet.  Dammit, I had something for this! 

[MNLonghornFUKM 8799]

We're up to 28" of snow and expecting more until it supposedly stops around noon.  Neighbor across the street tried to leave his driveway but got stuck in the street due to the snowplows haven't even made their runs yet.  This is the most snow we've seen in our 10yrs up here. 

Did you get your snowblower back?? Your neighbor is a moron lol, how’s he doing

[Underdog 28437]

No.  Shoveled a bit early this morning but it's fruitless at this point.  Neighbor is still home. 

Latest pic, gauge is unofficial of course...

Snow is stuck in street behind us. 

[Pato del Muerto 52322]

Do you get lake effect snow, or is that how the entire northeast looks now?

[Underdog 28437]

Not sure about Lake effect, believe it's just a huge system going through area.  Haven't paid attention to the NE area, I think NYC hasn't been hit as hard as us, those poster that live down there may say differently.  Local news saying this storm is Top5 ever for area.  Someone is coming later this afternoon to plow our driveway, they've just now plowed the streets around us. 

[miguelito 11204]

We should send South Austin's mom up there to invigorate the plowing.

[PittsburghTiger 6136]

This came from the southwest. We got, outside of Pittsburgh, a foot. The roads were really bad last night but the crews did a great job and everything is open today. My Christmas lights in the backyard looked great last night.  

[Al_4_ISU 12408]

Those northeast snow storms are nothing to fuck with.

They don't get the unfettered wind that we do, but a foot of snow in a single shot is damn near unheard of here.  Let alone 2.

[PittsburghTiger 6136]

[BradInATX 9208]

Three types of people I don't trust:

- People who don't like dogs

- People who don't drink (excluding people in recovery)

- People who like cold weather

[Underdog 28437]

I find it amazing how many people don't put their cars in the garage around here. 

[Underdog 28437]

3 minutes ago, BradInATX said:

Three types of people I don't trust:

- People who don't like dogs

- People who don't drink (excluding people in recovery)

- People who like cold weather

Wife's a Texan and surprisingly to me, she loves the snow and cold she can handle.  

[Al_4_ISU 12408]

11 minutes ago, BradInATX said:

Three types of people I don't trust:

- People who don't like dogs

- People who don't drink (excluding people in recovery)

- People who like cold weather

This is how we sort out the weak.

[PittsburghTiger 6136]

9 minutes ago, Underdog said:

I find it amazing how many people don't put their cars in the garage around here. 

My two oldies are in the garage.  They ain’t going in the snow

[PittsburghTiger 6136]

50 minutes ago, Al_4_ISU said:

Those northeast snow storms are nothing to fuck with.

They don't get the unfettered wind that we do, but a foot of snow in a single shot is damn near unheard of here.  Let alone 2.

Please, keep your relentless wind

[washparkhorn 9931]

On 12/16/2020 at 7:15 AM, Lobo said:

I mean, yeah as skeptical Lobo, anyone in a rural public school in West Virginia will probably be cognitively better off away from the school rather than inside of it.  A snow day in Chicago growing up meant that it was so bad that a few old people were probably gonna die.  But the description of their snow day in that letter is just wonderfully beautiful.  

 

Tone: Surly

 

[washparkhorn 9931]

40 minutes ago, BradInATX said:

People who like cold weather

 

[PittsburghTiger 6136]

5 hours ago, Underdog said:

We're up to 28" of snow and expecting more until it supposedly stops around noon.  Neighbor across the street tried to leave his driveway but got stuck in the street due to the snowplows haven't even made their runs yet.  This is the most snow we've seen in our 10yrs up here. 

Are you around Albany? Or over towards Buffalo?

[Al_4_ISU 12408]

16 minutes ago, PittsburghTiger said:

Please, keep your relentless wind

I had a buddy move back here from Bloomington, IN a couple years ago and he just bitches endlessly about the wind.  It's like he had blanked out his childhood altogether.

[Underdog 28437]

17 minutes ago, PittsburghTiger said:

Are you around Albany? Or over towards Buffalo?

Live between Saratoga Springs & Schenectady. 

[washparkhorn 9931]

2 minutes ago, Al_4_ISU said:

I had a buddy move back here from Bloomington, IN a couple years ago and he just bitches endlessly about the wind.  It's like he had blanked out his childhood altogether.

Outside the mountains, the wind in the Midwest makes it the worst place to spend a winter if you hate the cold. From the panhandle to the Dakotas. those winds are brutal. 

[Orange&White 5516]

My son moved to Brooklyn about 6 weeks ago. He sent me this today. It looks so nice when it first lands in the city but turns to shit in a few hours.

[PittsburghTiger 6136]

15 minutes ago, Underdog said:

Live between Saratoga Springs & Schenectady. 

Gotcha, thanks. Did it finally stop?

[washparkhorn 9931]

4 minutes ago, Orange&White said:

My son moved to Brooklyn about 6 weeks ago. He sent me this today. It looks so nice when it first lands in the city but turns to shit in a few hours.

Snow dresses up any city street. Cool pic.

[Underdog 28437]

1 hour ago, PittsburghTiger said:

We just finished hanging our lights on the house yesterday before the storm hit, afraid to rake the roof in fear it'll knock the lights off.  Thank God it's light snow. 

[Al_4_ISU 12408]

4 minutes ago, washparkhorn said:

Outside the mountains, the wind in the Midwest makes it the worst place to spend a winter if you hate the cold. From the panhandle to the Dakotas. those winds are brutal. 

Apparently the eastern Midwest is less prone to the winds than the more open plains.  I would have thought this was an issue in Indiana, but apparently not.

A couple years ago, I was outside helping in an ice fishing contest, and it was a sunny, windless 0 degree day.  It was honestly more pleasant than a 35 degree rain with driving winds.