Winter Where You Are (Unless You’re On the Other Side of the Equator)
Posted on December 21, 2008 Posted by John Scalzi 114 Comments
The first day of winter here at the Scalzi Compound is bright, sunny, and about 10 degrees Fahrenheit, although with the high, blustery winds at the moment, Weather.com tell me it actually feels like -12 degrees. Well. Good excuse to stay inside all day, I suppose.
How is winter where you are? Unless, as noted, you’re on the other side of the equator, in which case, how is summer?
Powdery snow, milky sunlight, Christmas lights and the CBC.
It’s cold and snowy here in Western Canada. It’s -20C right now with a windchill of -41C (that would be -4F and -42F respectively for you)
We’ve had these temperatures and worse for the last week, but we also have a ton of snow so it will be a white Christmas for us (and the toboggan should get a workout when it warms up a bit more) Merry Yule to you!
Light snow, still technically in the middle of a winter storm warning, winds 10 to 15 mph, lots of snow on the ground.
We had a nor ‘easter that brought a foot of snow Friday to us here in Western MA. Today a second nor ‘easter is bringing us another half foot.
We’re seeing the end of the third snowstorm of the past seven days. It’s -6°C now, but supposed to get down to -9°C by this afternoon, with winds of up to 40 kph. Ah, winter.
Cold, but not as cold as where you are. Currently 36 F in Fresno.
But I’m only up and not in my nice, warm bed because I’m supposed to be driving to L.A. this morning. Of course, instead I’m sitting in my living room wasting time because there’s fog down around the Visalia/Tulare area bad enough for the Highway Patrol to be pacing traffic. But, sun should be up soon, and there’s a storm coming, so maybe the fog won’t last too much longer.
Well, Atlanta is the land of “if you don’t like the weather, wait five minutes and it will change!”
For the last week or so we’ve had unseasonably warm weather, around 70, cloudy, occasional rain. However, over night the south trailing edge of the front that’s causing all the wintry mess up north finally played nice with the jet stream.
So today, for the first day of winter, we’ve already had our high for the day at 54 around midnight, the wind is whipping around (23mph, gusting to 40-ish) and the temp will be dropping all day. By tonight we’ll be in the teens.
Wind has already wreaked havoc in several neighborhoods, knocking down trees and knocking out power. Temperature on the back porch right now is 45 and it is SUNNY for the first time in nearly two weeks. (what’s that blue stuff up there…oh, yeah…sky…)
Anyhow, tomorrow morning when I head for the bus stop, I’ll get to freeze my butt off. No wonder I can’t get rid of the last of the cold from hell I had two weeks ago!!
Besides, being a Buffalo girl by birth, if it’s this freakin’ cold I want fluffy white stuff too!!! But that freaks out the locals.
Hmph. Almost 30″ of snow (a record) on Wednesday and Thursday here in Spokane, WA. Down into the negatives last night. 4-8″ more snow predicted today.
I hate winter.
Well, on the other side of the equator it is a rather cool 20 degrees C (68 F in your peculiar and archaic system) at the moment. It is 2AM after all but still a bit cool for this time of year in Sydney.
In the Florida panhandle it is supposed to be in the mid-60s. The humidity makes it feel colder, though.
But whatever the weather is here in winter, there’s one thing that’s pretty much always true: It is warmer than Cleveland. That’s enough for me.
The snow’s not coming down anymore, but the sky is still hideous sodium-light pink. The car is in the welfare office parking lot a mile away, along with a dozen others that couldn’t get up the hill. My ankles hurt from climbing. Still, I got home, we’ve got food, and if the roads aren’t passable by Monday afternoon I get to miss a huge business meeting!
-12 F without windchill and it snowed all night. It’s beautiful. The kids are going sledding this afternoon. I have the cough/cold, so I’ll stay inside.
We’re off to sun and beaches tomorrow, so HAPPY NEW YEAR to everyone— a little early.
The sun went down at 15:12 today, but now we should be moving towards more daylight again. The weather is about 0 centigrades and it is raining or snowing or somewhere in between. In short: the traditional Oslo christmas weather has arrived.
I’m not that far from you (Columbus), so it’s much the same. The snow we got yesterday seems to have mostly melted and then the temperature dipped again, so it’s quite cold and clear.
In Brooklyn, it’s currently 35º and raining on the snow that fell over the last two days. I would take advantage of the fact that you can have practically anything you want delivered if it weren’t for the fact that they haven’t come up with an ATM that delivers.
Crap!
The Chicago area gets a white, wind-whipped, blisteringly frigid Xmas this year. At least it’s that cold now, it could be different in a few days, but Hanukkah at least will be white.
Western Washington has seen low temperatures (mid 20’s) and snow off and on for the last week. This is highly unusual here, most of our snow comes and quickly goes. Last night it snowed pretty much all night and, Tacoma at least, is completely covered in the stuff. Our temps are finally supposed to rise…I suspect we’ll miss a white Christmas yet again.
Winter here in Hawaii isn’t at all horrible: windy, occasionally rainy, not as humid as the summer, but with temps still in the 80’s.
Upstate South Carolina – We had a thunderstorm early this morning, and now it’s sunny and 60 degrees. Birds are singing. My neighbor mowed his lawn yesterday. I’m dreaming of a green Christmas….
I’m only an hour south of you, in Cincinnati, so it’s much the same. It’ll get worse for me tomorrow, though, when I head up to my sister’s place in the UP of Michigan for Christmas (why yes, I am crazy).
Here in MN, it’s a balmy -6F. With the wind gusting at 20 MPH, around 20-25 below wind-chill. Woo. And hoo.
Bunches o snow on the ground, 3+ inches or so here in the Twin Cities metro just last night.
Definitely a white, frozen Christmas!
Also, the bacon? Just in the way. Maybe as a sidebar…
We rung in the solstice watching the New York Dolls and X, and now the California winter has broken sunny and headed for the 60s.
Don’t hate me, it’s going to rain like mad starting tomorrow.
It’s currently 74° with a very light wind and some clouds… unfortunately I see that we will be dropping down to 36° overnight. brrrrrrrrr! Tomorrow promises 60° with a 35°low, but then climbing back up into the 70°’s over the next couple of days culminating in 80° on Christmas Day. Gotta love December in Florida!
Here in the suburbs of Chicago it is -4F with a wind chill of at least -25F. And about 6 inches of snow on the ground. I’m not leaving the house unless it is on fire. Even then I might give it a second thought.
Here in Winnipeg, it’s currently sunny, -26 Celsius, with a wind from the Northwest that makes it feel like -39. Yesterday it was around -17, and after a week and a half of days like today it felt positively tropical!
This is my first winter in Chicago (having previously lived in Austin most of my life), so waking up to -6 degrees with a -40 wind chill was interesting. I’m glad I got my errands done yesterday because today I am going to stay inside my warm hovel…
We got 4 inches of sleet on Friday, and it promptly froze into a solid mass. I just finished chipping the car out.
The sun is out now, though, so I can relax – it didn’t get eaten, and the days will get longer. It’s well above freezing, and we’re supposed to have rain for Christmas eve. In Pennsylvania. Bleargh.
-36C when I woke up this morning, and it looks like the wind is there a bit, with ice crystals sailing past the window. Since I don’t write full time and have to work another job, I get to be outside in that from Monday to Friday. The low was about where Kathleen @ 2 said, -42 or so with wind chill. The dog, who we believe frost bit her feet when she was a pup, needs booties to go outside and do her business, and is not terribly impressed with this weather.
D
Here in Denmark it’s about 5 degrees Celsius. The sun went down before 4 pm and before that it has been grey and raining on and off. Bleh! Thankfully, we’ve got the darkest day of the year tomorrow and then we’ll start to get more daylight – soon.
Former midwesterner now living in near Portland, and I’ve 29″ of snow in my front yard & will shortly be xc-skiing to the grocery. In the city (where it never gets more then a dusting), they’ve 8 inches of snow and the town is paralyzed. I’m amused at the reaction, but it’s a real problem since they’ve built streets at angles that ice-familiar folks consider insane and the whole city (the size of Milwaukee) has 27 snowplows. Oh, and the “arctic blasts” are really 50mph winds in the gorge, but the temp here is 13 above and I’m happy to not be in Winnipeg with Bryan @25
Here in NE Iowa, it’s -7 (feels like -32 according to weather.com).
We’ve got over 14 inches of snow on the ground. Of course, I do walk to work so I get to enjoy the cold weather in all its glory. Not many people shovel their sidewalks by the time I get to work at 7:30am. My wife, on the other hand, drives our little Prius so we have to shovel the driveway. Did it four times on Friday (f’iing snowplows).
My dog loves this weather, but its too cold on his little paws. So he scratches to go out, spends three minutes outside, comes in. Ten minutes later, he’s warmed up so it’s scratch again, go outside, come inside, warm up, repeat.
Here in the San Francisco Bay Area it has been much colder than usual for the past week or so. We’re talking highs of 45 degrees F and lows around freezing at night. The snow level is down to about 2000 feet meaning the surrounding hills have a dusting of snow on them.
Okay, so 45 degrees may not sound cold where *you* are, but this is California! We don’t *do* seasons… =)
-Buxley
Here in Minneapolis, it’s -4F with a windchill of -25F. When I get downtown today to walk to the Metrodome for the Vikings-Falcons game, I suspect it’ll be even colder when the wind blasts through the metal canyons.
Yesterday, we got about five inches of snow, and the roads south of here were so sketchy that it took me more than three hours to do a 150-mile trip in which I retrieved a friend from Owatonna, after his Subaru got into an argument with a pickup truck last night. Down there, I’d estimate that the windchill was approaching -50F.
Fifties and sixties during the day, mid-to-high thirties at night. Life near the desert…gotta love it. (The differences in temperature are much more pronounced during the summer).
Of course, Southern California actually got rain last week for about three days, and most drivers promptly lost their minds, so it’s not all joy.
It’s 24F here in eastern New Mexico, with an expected high of 44F. The rest of the week we’re supposed to be in the low 60s — this “winter” has been more like “early autumn” so far. Not that I’m complaining, mind you; our heating bill has been about $75 lower than it was at this time last year and my kid can still play outside in the afternoon.
I’m very much looking forward to watching the days get longer, inch by brightening inch. This dark at 4:30 PM nonsense is for the birds. (Speaking of birds, most of them have yet to migrate, which is a different pain altogether — the sun comes up around 6:30 and so does the entire household, because those birds are NOISY. Feh.)
Here in Portland Proper (which is to say the one in the northwest) ARTIC BLAST 08 enters day 8 of insane over-coverage by the local news folks. 6 inches of snow yesterday has all the retailers crying to the media outlets about lack of profits. Going for a walk is like entering a life sized christmas diorama. And I have icecicles, honest to goodness icecicles! Hooray for the wonders of frosty mother nature.
It blows. Literally. Winds from the west (the side of my house my desk is on) at 29mph, with gusts up to 35 mph (given the difference in volume the gusts make, I’d bet they’re going higher than 35mph.)
The temp? -5. Feels like -33. Yeowich!
6″ of dusty snow on the ground, which now is getting whipped hither and yon. Oh the joys of a Chicago suburban winter. I want out already.
Like Kathleen and Derryl, I’m in western Canada, where we have a continuing “extreme windchill warning” that our balmy -34 C feels like -40 (-40 C is -40 F, just plain nasty). My intrepid Treeman is heading for the bush to cut down a Christmas tree, but the dog and I plan to wisely stay inside where it’s warm.
We’ve heard from Spokane and Tacoma so here is the report from Everett WA, (north of the Emerald city) I’m looking out my window and I see.
26 F, 8 inches of snow on the ground, not a snow plow in sight and it just started snowing again.
Seattle is paralyzed like Portland when it gets like this except for those who have snow tires with studs and chains so they can get to the Ski runs up by the pass.
Last Friday, folks on the East side of Lake Washington, (Redmond, Kirkland and Bothell), got as many as 15 inches from a lake effect like they have in upstate New York.
I’m on call to go into Seattle Childrens if needed. I’m pretty sure this old Nebraska boy would be able to get out and down there. but it would be a tough trip. A large number of folks aren’t dealing with driving in this stuff well. If you’ve never had any experience with this kind of driving and you lived on Queen Anne or First hill, you would be petrified to get in your car at all, let alone try to drive it anywhere.
All you folks in Whatever land stay safe and warm no matter what the weather is doing at your locale.
Jeff S.
As WaywardScooterGirl said, Seattle got snowed in last night in what everyone is calling SNOWPOCALYPSE ’08. Seriously, this is the kind of snow that people in the Upper Midwest get about once a week during winter, but here it completely destroys the city.
It’s very pretty, though!
High yesterday was 73. Today is supposed to be 45. Tomorrow is supposed to be 35. Then by Wednesday is supposed to be 70 again. Ah…. winter in the deep south.
North Florida is presently experiencing some precipitation. In that it’s barely 12:30 and it has yet to get truly light out, it’s just kinda early morning before the sun gets up or after the sun’s gone down but the light has yet to fade. We will be experiencing a giant temperature swing from 23 degrees Celsius to 0 degrees Celsius as the day progresses so please, make sure you bring a coat even if it IS quite warm out there now–if the rain doesn’t get you, the night chill will.
Winter? What winter?
Blizzard. But I am warm and contemplating Half-Life.
7 F and sunny in Boulder CO, calm now after lots of wind yesterday and last night. There’s a little snow on the ground from a few days ago, but most of the snow in Colorado has been happening in the mountains.
Dry November and a snowy December is backwards for us, but at least we may have water for the summer, which would be a nice change after this year’s drought.
It was about 12°c (== 52°f?) on the Riviera today. Sunny. Nice. Got snow up above 600-700m (2000ft) though. And avalanches and fun stuff like that.
There’s a foot of snow on the ground here just a stones throw north of Detroit. I am doing my best to stay in the house for as long as possible.
75F here in sunny Orlando, with a light variable breeze. A cold front is headed this way sometime tonight, but we’ll be back up near 80 by Christmas Eve.
It’s snowing here on the East Coast.
I live near the Proper Portland Proper, Portalnd Maine. (Rick @#36, Portland Oregon was named after Portland Maine. So we came first!)
Fortunately, I have nothing else to do but to sit in front of the tv and watch movies, good and bad! A good day to stay home.
-5F here in Chicago…with a wind chill of -31F. Lovely! Lots of snow and ice on the ground, too.
Here in the UK, winter is about 10°C at the moment, and a bit rainy.
The “warmth” helps everyone I know to catch the damn cold hiding everywhere in the country! I do wish for some temperatures in the minus something to kill those germs :p.
Well, no one has yet shouted out Maryland, so I’ll chip in. We woke up to black and grey ice (I’d much rather have snow) and the temperature is struggling up to 38 deg F. The wind is gusting W-NW at 15 knots so it feels colder.
My mind is boggling that we’ve basically got the same temp. as northern CA.
This is only the second time this season I’ve had to salt down the sidewalk in front of the bookstore so I’m thankful…we ARE indeed getting book-buying holiday shoppers, for which I am even MORE thankful.
Happy Solstice everybody!
Lauretta
It was -10F and snow on the ground in northern South Dakota last night. Glad I was just checking with family and lived in the south. Highs yesterday above 60F (but constant rain for the last week), today the sun has broken out. It was 53F this morning when I got up, but is now down to 40F and predicted to keep falling into the 20’s tonight!
Too bad we can’t get the cold and moisture together; white Christmas’ are few and far between.
It hasn’t stopped snowing since Friday. It looks gorgeous, but it’s kind of interfering with plans at this point.
Here in eastern Iowa, it’s currently -6F with a windchill of -36F. We have a blizzard warning and a wind chill warning on right now. I try to be tough about winter, but this is all a little much for me. I have increased respect for hardy Canadians–you deal with weeks on end of this? WOW! I wouldn’t mind a little more snow and a little less “Holy God is that the temperature?!”
Central Maine, been snowing for a little over two hours and looks like maybe 2-3 inches of new snow so far. Forecast is for a foot to foot and a half before it’s all over – we are getting the storm that the Western MA poster upthread had last night. (This on top of maybe 3 inches from the fringe of the storm that slammed them Friday.) It was about 2F when I went to church this morning and up to a balmy 3F (everybody go run outside in your shorts!) at 2:00 in the afternoon. (I somehow thing we aren’t going to make it up to the double digits Farehneit today, despite the NWS forecast.)
I think it’s time to go have some egg nog. Warmed in the microwave and with a respectable shot of “nog” in it.
In Scranton (PA) area, first day of winter=second half of the first big snowfall of the season :-) We’ve got a comfy 28 F outside right now… perfect for skiing, sledding, or shopping!!! We got about 8 inches friday and another 6 inches this morning!
I can’t believe the Scalzi house doesn’t have snow!!!
First day of Winter?
hahahahahahaha
@57 – for you, Jim Wright In Alaska, it’s “Halfway Until Daylight Again Celebration”
Winter officially started here a few weeks ago, when the pool froze over.
Jim Wright: yeah. Someone screwed up somewhere along the lines, and a load of people now think winter *starts* on 21 Dec. By my reckoning, it’s been winter for a month & a half already (here’s a hint: we used to call this day “midwinter day”, to correspond to “midsummer day” on 21 Jun).
It makes a lot more sense to consider seasons as running from the midpoint between solstice and equinox. A lot more.
shaddup Jim…we KNOW where you are!! You get your first snow the first day of fall…
And Emily @ 54 (in Iowa) – I think I can amuse you a little.
On the noon news today, the weather guy created a graphic showing where the storms are and where they’re going, so people trying to travel could somewhat plan for delays, etc.
His graphic shows a band of ice blue across most of the northern half of the country, with a snowman right smack in the middle. My first thought on seeing the snowman was – eesh, Iowa is getting clobbered. It very much looked like the snowman’s butt was squarely over Iowa!!
So, blame the giant snowman that’s sitting on your state!
Snow, snow, snow. Lots of shoveling behind me, lots of shoveling ahead of me. At least I’m getting some exercise.
Here in The O.C. we’re in-between rain storms, which washed away most of the smog, leaving beautiful views of snow-capped mountains. It’s 59 degrees Farenheit and sunny.
Please don’t hate me.
17°C, also known as 62°F …
but you know, when summer is 130 F, it still feels cold, and everyone actually has a cold.
and drafty doesn’t even begin to describe a house that’s built around the “move the air around as much as possible” principle of air conditioning.
Oh well, i’ll still probably throw a barbeque for christmas
12°F (wind chill sez -7)…Bright and painful. Snowish.
Seabrook, Texas (Galveston Bay):
50 F, 30% humidity, wind@23 mph
Clear and low-30s, here in NE Delaware, with the remnants of an ice shower from last evening slicking the pavements.
Yes! Now is the first glorious day of my winter’s content!
Which reminds me that I have to leave soon for a celebration in observance of this momentous day.
:>)
May all of you have a day as enjoyable and fine as mine!
JJB
About 15 degrees Fahrenheit and a foot of snow on the ground here in New Hampshire, with the snow still falling. Not much wind, just plenty of flakes. It was fine out yesterday, in between the two snow storms, but I’m very happy I bought snow tires last week!
Here in New Orleans, the high is supposed to get to 56F today with a low of 35F(!!), although it is nice and sunny now. Yesterday was in the 70s and I walked to the store in my sandals and tank top (and jeans, too). Tomorrow is supposed to get to 46F with a low of 41F, but Tuesday is looking good: high of 70F, low of 64F. Of course, it’s also supposed to rain, but as a former Wisconsin resident I’ll take warm rain over snow any day of the week. Oh, but it did snow last week! For a few hours in the morning and by afternoon it was all gone, all except for the few slowly deliquescing snowmen. They closed the schools and everything.
I love looking out my window even in the deep midwinter and seeing tropical vines climbing the live oak and huge ginger plants overgrowing the driveway. This is my kind of winter.
san francisco is wet and miserable, 46F
Here in Montreal, the city was just getting over scraping the remnants of the last snowfall from the streets and now they’ll have to do it all over again. It’s
-10°C, they’re planning for about a foot of snow in the next 24hrs, and I’m leaving tomorrow morning for a 5hrs car trip Northwards. Wish me luck.
Jules@59: I was brought up to think of 24th June as Midsummer. Hence the old English saying:
21st June. first day of summer.
24th June, Midsummer’s Day.
27th June…..
(Wouldn’t work in the same way for winter, of course.)
Cold. Wet. Both Mild. Nothern California weather. We can use more rain. Only had frost on the ground three times so far.
Interestingly, here in Oz we mark our seasons differently to you. Winter starts on 1st June, summer starts 1st Dec. So summer has been going for a while now. Here in Brisbane, Australia, so far it has been sticky and stormy, although things have become a bit more mild this week.
Somewhere in the 70’s down here in Tampa, FL. I think I’ll go for a bike ride :)
Kezza @ 73
That’s amazing! I never heard of that prior to your post?
Is this some Australian government fiat related to schools or some official scheduling akin to that?
Because the inclination of the Earth’s rotational axis to the orbital plane has nothing to do with parliamentary ukase any more than tidal function heeded King Knut’s courtiers’ desires.
We sort of have the same thing in the US where “informal summer” runs between the Friday before Memorial Day weekend until the Tuesday after Labor Day.
JJB
Wow! Kezza, you taught me something new!
I found this:
http://www.usatoday.com/weather/resources/askjack/2003-12-21-answers-seasons_x.htm
I never realized, being trained in physics [including astronomy], that there was another scientific reckoning of seasons, other than celestial:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Season
Thanks!
JJB
Stormy here in southwestern Norway (Rogaland county). Mild, but quite windy. Planes delayed, ferries delayed (when running at all).
But inland they’ve got stormy and snowy, so most mountain passes are either closed or having heavy delays. Not a good few days if you have to travel somewhere for Yule.
Here in Portland Oregon, it’s not just the snow. It’s the hills and the ice. It’s raining sleet on top of the already ice-crusted snow, 26 degrees. Tree-breaking stuff. We have this much snow only once every several years–of course we don’t have many snowplows.
I have an Anna’s hummingbird who has spent the last two days perched on the trouble light I’m using to keep the feeder thawed. Heated hummingbird perch! Anyplace that has wintering hummingbirds can’t be too good at dealing with this kind of weather. Just saying–it’s not just Farkworthy overreaction.
Everybody enjoy your solstice. Time for a hot rum toddy.
Here in beautiful Canberra it’s a glorious but not very warm summer’s day. Christmas will be getting a little toasty, though – about 30 Celsius. Eschewing the traditions of my parents, who still do the full-on Northern Hemisphere roast beast lunch every year, regardless of the weather, I will be celebrating the day with an even barbecue on the balcony: seafood, salads, cold meats, cheeses and dips.
Blessings and peace and warm thoughts to all.
Over here in Charlottesville, VA, it’s been running about 40°F and rainy. I still have wild garlic (albeit mowed) in my lawn, which is still mostly green.
Jena, I’m disappointed you’re not going out with Treeman to cut down that tree! And how come it’s so late, anyhow? Jo and the kids would have heart attacks if they had to wait that long for something to decorate.
D
It’s colder than a witch’s bootie down here, 90 minutes south of the Scalzi Compound.
And I once dated a witch [many years, two spouses, and a whole city ago], so I’m somewhat of an authority on the subject.
Pretty much any day when it’s not in the nineties is colder than a witch’s anything, so colder than that is not necessarily a bad thing.
Except in Arizona, ‘cuz at least it’s a dry heat.
Here in Arizona, winter is the nice part of the year. As a transplant from Minnesota who never learned to enjoy the snow, I love it. Like Guise in #79, we do a lot of our cooking and eating outdoors and may even have Christmas dinner in the back yard.
However, it’s not all rosy down here. This morning there was frost on my windshield! (Yes, I know. Mock away.) I felt like Arizona has let me down. But then I found the four foot long ice-scraper/snow brush combo that I packed away when I left Minnesota. It was leaning against the wall with the snow shovel and the trio of hundred-pound masonry blocks that I carried every winter in the back of my pickup. Now, I’m even happier that I live in a place with warm winters.
I’m in Seattle’s Capitol Hill, where just Friday, we had a pretty freaky bus accident that I accidentally predicted. One day before, I said, you wouldn’t want to go careening down our hill because at the end of it is the I-5. Lo, one day later, two buses go careening down the hill, four blocks down, and go through the barrier, fortunately stopping before they could go ALL the way over, and are suspended above I-5 for several hours.
http://www.komonews.com/news/36458659.html#idc-container
Snowboarders and people on inner tubes and skiers have been using our hill all last night and this afternoon.
http://www.utterli.com/u/utt/u-ODA4NzkzNQ#utt-ODA4NzkzNQ
http://www.utterli.com/u/utt/u-ODA4Nzk0Ng#utt-ODA4Nzk0Ng
Anyway, the snow is STILL coming down, and Seattle is a winter wonderland. Which would be fine, except I had moved to Seattle hoping to AVOID winter. My friends in Boston are all experiencing a deep and abiding schadenfreude, although they have yet to make the accompanying pie.
Mostly sunny and 60F here in San Diego. X-mas day will drop to a bone-chilling 57F. (Yes, most of us out here are pretty wussy when it comes to the weather.) I grew up in Germany, so I can at relate to the snow-bound folk, but I certainly don’t envy them (other than having a white x-mas!)
Winter here is quite cold. We’ve got between 1.5 and 2 feet of snow on the ground, the wind is above 25mph, gusting to over 30. Earlier in the day, temperature was -5F and the wind chill was -34F; now though, its “only” -23F with the wind chill.
We just got upgraded from a Winter Storm Warning through Monday at 10am to a Blizzard Warning for the same times. Also just canceled our plane reservations to my folks in North Carolina. Sigh. Pictures here.
Dr. Phil
First day of winter in SE Michigan (usually more the land of slush than of ski-worthy snow):
One foot of snow on the ground, with windchills running below zero (F) all day. The night will be rough :(
Buxley @ 32:
No seasons? Nonsense!
“There were outlanders, of course, who continued to insist that San Francisco was a city without seasons, but Mrs. Madrigal paid no heed to them.” – Further Tales of the City, Armistead Maupin
It’s definitely winter here in San Francisco, with grey skies and wet drizzle, occasionally turning into actual rain, sometimes subsiding into fog.
It’s perfectly lovely (sorry, Sam @ 69), and like John’s 12 below wind chill, it’s a perfect excuse for staying in all day … only here, we get the bonus of raindrops softly plinking on the windows.
We’ve had ~22″ of snow in the last three days here in greater Boston, making up for our December snow deficit. I shot this on the back deck about 3″ ago, using an IR digital camera.
Here in Adelaide, Australia summers been quite mild so far its 27C here today the hottest day weve had since winter was 37C in early November. We’ve actually had a decent amount of rain which is really rare for December, last week i was in the Flinders Ranges and went to a place that had water flowing through a gorge which hasn’t happened since 2001 so it was quite a special thing to see. Thanks to the power of the internet you can too :P http://www.flickr.com/photos/25172068@N07/3126660536/
Looks like were in for a warm Christmas day the forecast is for 31C (88F)
Reporting in: 80 degrees today in Florida. Nice and sunny, with the radio blaring blue, blue Christmas under the blue, blue sky. A roofer’s dream, really.
Wishing you and yours a Merry Christmas/Happy Holidays, John.
In Masterton, New Zealand it is currently 24 degrees C, with a light NW breeze. The sky is a beautiful sapphire blue, with not a cloud to be seen.
This is very pleasant indeed, not cold, but not too hot, perfect shopping weather.
Have a very merry Xmas folks, and a happy new year.
Another report from beautiful snowy Seattle! This is, for hereabouts, a monster snowstorm, and it doesn’t seem to be done yet. At least 8 inches at my place. We had ample advance warning, and yesterday afternoon I joined what seemed to be most everyone else stocking up on food (at Ballard Market, where the cashier lines went up the aisles almost to the back of the store) and movies (also long lines at Scarecrow).
The 2 newest additions to my family, Jean Grey and Oscar, are mother-and-son kitties, both with very thick, very long fur. They *adore* the snow, and stay out playing in it for hours before deigning to come in for a snack and a nap. This is Oscar’s first winter, and he’s so cute to watch it’s almost criminal. He leaps around, grabs pawfuls of snow to fling, grabs clumps of snow and kills them dead.
Now they’re both in for the night, and totally passed out.
Meanwhile, Ariel – who loved the snow just as much in her youth but who is now over 18 – took one look outside this morning, literally shuddered, and went back to her fleece blanket on the sofa.
What is bacon cat getting for Christmas?
As with Seattle & Portland south of us and on the other side of the border, Victoria is covered in an excess of strange frozen white stuff.
We’re the tropics of Canada, dammit, the Banana Belt of the Great White North. Snow is supposed to be the Rest of Canada’s problem!
Alas, the current weather missed that memo, and we’ve had snow, wind and more snow for the past week solid. At least no freezing rain/sleet/hail as points south are apparently getting. Just damn snow!
Pixelfish @84
You wouldn’t be getting Schadenfreuded because you happened to brag about how great the weather was out here to your friends back East did you? I wouldn’t worry about it much. The balance will tip back our way by summer when it’s 95 in Boston and we’re at a balmy 73 with the breeze off the Sound to keep us company.
Capitol Hill huh? That’s what I was talking about upthread and what our buddies in Portland were saying.
This really doesn’t happen around here that much so the folks around here don’t have a lot of experience with this stuff but when you add in the steep hills and curvy streets it’s bloody awful. I’m heading to work tomorrow and starting out an hour ahead of time in my Van Pool(with chains on) just in case I need the extra time.
By the way, I’d rather live here in the Seattle area than any where else, no matter what the current conditions are.
No offense to any other locale or anything like that. This part of the country just fits me and my family better than anywhere else we’ve lived.
Ice Storm in the mid Willamette Valley (Oregon for those of you…). A remarkable ice storm, in both that we don’t often get these, and that my girlfriend is stranded at my house. Both are good, I think.
As an update, it’s 1 degree here, and we’re getting a light dusting of snow.
Here in the Tri-Cities, Washington, in the southeastern portion of the state, in a loop of the Columbia River, it’s been in the teens to zero degrees F for the past week or so, along with about 6 inches of snow. Big surprise to me. We left the snow shovel behind when we moved from Dayton (we’re moving to the desert, right?). Everything winter-like was gone from the shelves, de-icer stuff, snow shovels, winter boots.
It’s an artic 3 degrees here in Eastlake Oh. Winter Haven Florida where I will be in two weeks is in the high 70s’. Not a bad place to be. If anyone out there is looking to vacation there my wife and I have a condo available. You can visit our web site at http://www.flcondos4rent.com.
Sunshine and warm weather in a great condo!
Cold, cold, cold. -2 right now, not including wind chill. Supposed to warm up into the 20s tomorrow and more snow. We’ve gotten about 10 inches total since Friday.
Update from MA: all the snow (1 to 1.5 feet) that fell over the weekend (yes, the WHOLE weekend) has now frozen. Temperatures in low teens if you’re a thermometer, near 0 if you are affected by wind chill.
Bright, sunny and *Cold* in north NJ. 10 degrees, not accounting for wind chill. About 8 inches with the last two snowstorms that went through.
36 degrees F and falling. About 10″ of snow in the valley and waiting for the third snowstorm in seven days to come rolling through here in Utah. There’s supposed to be another coming through on Christmas Day as well.
Woot!! White Christmas is assured!!!
It only snowed here for about 24 hours on the first day of Winter.
Here’s the result.
Hot’lanta woke up this morning to 19º F, with a windchill down to 4º-5º. Loverly on the bus stop…NOT!!
Buses and trains seemed to be lacking in heat as well.
And we get a more of the tomorrow morning, high today is only supposed to hit maybe 35º. BUT by Christmas Day will have a repeat of last week’s balmy weather and temperatures with rain in the forcast.
Merry Christmas y’all.
Monday now. I actually saw the sun today! The morning was grey and cloudy as usual, but it disappeared during the afternoon, reminding us that the round yellow thing is still up there and not just a mythical thing, as we might otherwise be tempted to think it to be around this time of year.
Winter’s here. Six inches of snow on the driveway yesterday morning, -11.2° F, wind ~ 20 knots from the NW, wind chill ~ -40° F/C. Snowblower is down, use the manual shovels, three spells of work to clear it without frostbite.
Today is -8.9° F, still, no snow since yesterday. Beautiful double sunbow this morning, but my finger aches from the cold yesterday (old injury damage, it does that when the air pressure changes quickly, too.)
Damned cold in Philadelphia, but not quite as cold as you have. The definition of “cold comfort”?
The winds last night were howling, and they are still hanging around today. It is nice when the wind stops momentarily and you can feel the sun.
Frank @107:
Congratulations to your daughter for Sunday!
It was my half-century.
One down, two to go…
JJB
PS: Nice pictures.
Lots of snow at my house. In SE Wisconsin we are having an all-time record breaking December for snow. Nearly 30″ so far. More snow coming on Tues & Wed.
My brother suggested I might like this blog. He was entirely right.
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