@pondgardener Snow of course is pretty.
Around here you can have a few red rosehips left in January, with a squirrel in the bush.
Animal tracks, that's the best part of snow ATM. And also the lack thereof...

We're out of the deep freeze! 20F above, with highs in the 30s expected! That'll melt our thin layer of new-fallen snow. Kind of a pity there, because Wisconsin is supposed to be white in January. But it's nice to be out of the deep freeze! Yay!

First hard frost last night. Nasturtiums will be done for.

two days ago six inches of snow.
yesterday, blue sky and sunny, but only 10 degrees.
today, back to snow and blow. several inches possible,
but we are also out of the deep freeze. upper 20s. the
wind is going to start blasting. makes visibility a challenge.
one day closer to spring.


keith

Tonight should be the end of our little deep freeze here, which is only fit for staying cosy inside! The week ahead, high temperatures closer to freezing... -2C looks good! Overall lows in the wee 20's F, highs in the high 20's or low 30's F. Can get out and frolic and maybe cut a few trees.

No kidding! We were joking at the food pantry that while 0F is a bit nippy, at least it's 30 degrees warmer that it was a couple of days ago! Ugh. One day closer to spring! I'll be starting seedlings in 4-6 weeks.

Got a couple of inches of dry powdery snow, which can be cleared using a leaf blower. First blue skies in a few days and temps still not above 32˚F yet, although next Sunday it may get to the mid 50's. Pond probably has at least 3 inches of ice on it and it will be awhile before that melts. Fortunately the couple of koi I have are about 24" below ground level.

surfs up dude. it got really windy here today.
30 mph sustained winds with gusts to 50 mph. even with it not snowing earlier
in the day, you couldn't see at times. i had a morning appointment, and
managed to get through a drift on my road momentarily blind. my stretch
or road runs north south. when you get into the meat of winter, the banks
build up, and when you get a strong west wind blowing, the road in certain spots
will drift in. i have been caught a few times over the years.
plow guys were kept busy. on my way home, i saw a ups truck with its back end out
in the road. i thought he was making a delivery, but there wasn't a drive way there.
he must have lost control, and went off the road. early after noon, a cold front moved
in, and dropped some snow fast and furious.
now, the sky is mostly clear, and you can see the stars brightly shining.
temps reached the 30s today.
tomorrow, several more inches of snow headed our way.


keith

About 5 inches of snow on the ground yesterday morning, the first time this winter there's been enough to shovel! Fluffy light stuff and a treat to push around. A very light warmup for what-will-surely-come-later.

Wow, talk about whipsaw weather. First we're freezing and now this coming. Not complaining though!

54°, the extra cold is gone. 62° for the high, about normal. Rain possible later in the week and then a beautiful weekend on tap.

We're supposed to hit a record high on Thursday, up to 50F. That's 50 degrees warmer than it was one week ago! Whipsaw weather, all right. The climate is changing, regardless of what one believes is the cause. Change is the one biological constant. It happened to the dinosaurs and it's happening to us. All we can do is adapt, hopefully more successfully than the dinosaurs did.

Looks like weird weather everywhere! I’ve only plowed once and that was in October very unusual since we have had record snow fall this last 2 years all of January it was either raining or just cold .. got a dusting last night but it’s raining now.. makes no sense

JayneR13 wrote: ↑Tue Jan 28, 2025 12:49 pm We're supposed to hit a record high on Thursday, up to 50F. That's 50 degrees warmer than it was one week ago! Whipsaw weather, all right. The climate is changing, regardless of what one believes is the cause. Change is the one biological constant. It happened to the dinosaurs and it's happening to us. All we can do is adapt, hopefully more successfully than the dinosaurs did.

The dinosaurs had a good run that went on for 165 million years, in one form or another.

We have two or three hundred thousand years under our belt, perhaps less or more, depending on where you draw the line between what is a human and what isn’t. I think the odds we outdo the success of the dinosaurs is slim to none. I do think it would be fun to go back in time just a mere 20,000 or 30,000 years ago, 1,000 generations ago, and see where the several hundred feet tall massive ice sheet settled over Wisconsin or see the 14’ tall Columbian mammoth roaming around the gulf coast of Texas, actually well inland with all the freshwater tied up in ice.

We are near the end of the current interglacial period if any of the rather recent interglacial periods are our guide. https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/sites/default ... 202021.pdf
Anthropogenic CO2 and other greenhouse gases might overcome and override the slow slide back into a glacial period or perhaps just delay it. Or we get a runaway greenhouse climate and the start to resemble the climate of Venus.

Adapt or die.

Today it is 45° here, and sunny, on and off. Supposed to get even warmer later in the week, so I'm going to wait until the small amount of snow left to melt, to uncover the rosemary. Definitely getting warmer in the area, hopefully never in the single digits again this season.

Weather warnings have popped up, wind warning for tonight gusting 100 kph from South, and it is currently raining really hard here. Really hard. It was a mild day over freezing although not everything melted, well it won't last long under this rain!
We have such a wierd climate here that nothing is really that surprising - at least sudden changes and flip flops are pretty much the norm. So the new extremes are joining with the old normals of no idea, what will it be like.
This winter so far is a lot like the last one, except less snow than ever - but we got so much record rain in November, precip averages will probably look normal. Last year we got all our snow in two huge dumps, and it was a lot. Not hoping for a repeat, but according to my dad the only certainty is, it'll be different. I'll take it...

karstopography wrote: ↑Tue Jan 28, 2025 1:22 pm

JayneR13 wrote: ↑Tue Jan 28, 2025 12:49 pm We're supposed to hit a record high on Thursday, up to 50F. That's 50 degrees warmer than it was one week ago! Whipsaw weather, all right. The climate is changing, regardless of what one believes is the cause. Change is the one biological constant. It happened to the dinosaurs and it's happening to us. All we can do is adapt, hopefully more successfully than the dinosaurs did.

The dinosaurs had a good run that went on for 165 million years, in one form or another.

We have two or three hundred thousand years under our belt, perhaps less or more, depending on where you draw the line between what is a human and what isn’t. I think the odds we outdo the success of the dinosaurs is slim to none. I do think it would be fun to go back in time just a mere 20,000 or 30,000 years ago, 1,000 generations ago, and see where the several hundred feet tall massive ice sheet settled over Wisconsin or see the 14’ tall Columbian mammoth roaming around the gulf coast of Texas, actually well inland with all the freshwater tied up in ice.

We are near the end of the current interglacial period if any of the rather recent interglacial periods are our guide. https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/sites/default ... 202021.pdf
Anthropogenic CO2 and other greenhouse gases might overcome and override the slow slide back into a glacial period or perhaps just delay it. Or we get a runaway greenhouse climate and the start to resemble the climate of Venus.

Adapt or die.

I'm terrible at remembering numbers and timelines, forewarned. But afaik we've had about 12,000 years of relative climate stability on the earth. So the befores of human existence stretching back hundreds of thousands were small scattered groups roaming around and making the most of whatever climate issues had to be faced. The first agronomic societies and city settlements date back 10,000 years. The climate stability seems to have made that possible. And all the societies that have flourished, perished, grown and been superceded, spread to new continents, etc reaching this pinnacle of the 21st century, were supported by a stable climate situation. I doubt we would be as we are without that window of opportunity.
Birds have had a nice long run compared to us - they have a higher core body temperature so they can survive hotter periods better than we can. They have a culture of spreading their habitat around, I admire it from afar. Don't think about dinasaurs much, because it's not real to me, it's an imaginary scene I can hardly grasp. Maybe south with more of their relatives, you get more of a feel about how they survived.
One really cool thing out of our 21st century science, is the microbiome in organic dirt and discovering these organisms have anti-depressant effects on humans. Honestly, you pretty much have to be an optimist to garden, and gardening/growing food is intrinsic to survival itself as well, so, you know, I swear I will die happy just knowing that the dirt made me believe I would survive.

We're still warming up. 68 today, 65 tomorrow and 70 by the weekend. Possible t-storms coming in going into the weekend. And it's still windy. I can't remember a January with this much constant wind but mostly likely there has been. It's the old "We've never had this much (fill in the blank) before." Oh yes we have. Memories are always blurry unless it was a huge memorable weather event.

I'm enjoying this winter respite, knowing that we still have February to go!

GoDawgs wrote: ↑Wed Jan 29, 2025 10:01 am We're still warming up. 68 today, 65 tomorrow and 70 by the weekend. Possible t-storms coming in going into the weekend. And it's still windy. I can't remember a January with this much constant wind but mostly likely there has been. It's the old "We've never had this much (fill in the blank) before." Oh yes we have. Memories are always blurry unless it was a huge memorable weather event.

I'm enjoying this winter respite, knowing that we still have February to go!

Augusta, GA is one of the least windy cities on average in the US (I looked it up). My area is about 50% windier than Augusta on average. Cloudy here today, 67° wind 13mph out of the east. Higher wind speeds tomorrow with a chance of thunderstorms. Beautiful weekend on tap, low winds, sunny skies, mild temperatures.

Gloomy foggy vampire weather.