A new record today!

[jackb]

Near seventy this afternoon, near freezing tonight, today's fluctuation of about forty degrees, you have to love it.

 

[Smart Red]

Yup. That's what happened here yesterday. Cold tonight, but within good nearly normal but a bit high temps for tomorrow which will be nice enough if it isn't too windy.

 

[buckabucka]

Our cold weather is scheduled for next weekend. Not frigid, but more normal for a spell.

 

[digitS']

I was in a waiting room last week. A local station was on the teevee and my only companion there had just arrived and was busy thumbing through a magazine.

There was an announcement from a longtime, on-air weather man, an event probably hosted by a local civic group for an "End of Winter ... Something or Other." You should have seen the waiting guy clutch his magazine and focus intently on the screen, trying to understand immediately what the "End of ..." was all about!

It's 28°f at 5am and in the morning darkness, snow has begun to fall. It will continue with 100% & 80% forecast for today and tonight. Afternoon temperatures yesterday was just above freezing and there was some sunshine but 15mph winds put the "feels like" in the teens. I had been so warm and comfortable sitting in the pickup but got out and spent 30 minutes walking in sand littered parking lots, between piles of old snow, in that wind! My heaviest jacket on with a vest beneath, cap pulled down and I should have brought my scarf!

This is winter, and it may not end soon but I remember several years ago, @Ridgerunner was relating the struggles his garden environment was having there in the center of the continent with heat and drought. What year was that?

While so many places on the other side of the Rockies were taxed by heat that year, locally - it just would not warm up! Day after day, week after week of clouds and wind during that spring and early summer. We were burdened with cold Pacific air that moved on into Canada, unable to cross the continental divide because of a HUGE air mass of high pressure on the other side of the mountains!

February is ending. Winter can linger. But, if we can't catch some pleasantly warm weather over the next 3 or 4 months, I am gonna know who to blame! Yeah, that guy in the waiting room wants it to end, too.

Steve

 

[Ridgerunner]

I can't remember which years Steve. It was over two summers, maybe around 2012 and 2013, I remember @baymule was having the same issues. She's younger than I am, maybe she can remember which years.

We had extreme heat for us, above 110 for several days on end and no rain, much of this central area was in pretty severe drought. I remember I had a huge grasshopper problem because I was the only person watering the garden or orchard so every grasshopper in this valley came to my garden and fruit trees to get something green. The guy that reads my water meter stopped to make sure I didn't have a water leak, my usage was so high. Those were two rough summers.

Last year was totally different. Our rainfall was below normal by more than 10", but it rained often enough grass pretty much stayed green all summer. The temperatures weren't that hot, low 90's for highs most of the summer. I don't think we ever hit 100. That means the ground did not bake as dry, what rain we got did some good.

This year is starting out dry but warm so far, I'm waiting to see how the summer turns out.

Since we like photos I'll show what those grasshoppers did to my pole beans and apple tree. These were taken in August 2012. Obviously one of those years was 2012.

 

[lcertuche]

We had a mild (not too hot) summer with enough rain to keep everything green. Very unusual for Arkansas. I'm hoping for another summer like that but not likely. Winter has been very mild with all that global warming (is that really a thing?) every winter being moderate. I'm beginning to think Arkansas really is the south!

 

[digitS']

I am not gonna "like" those Arkansas pictures!

I'd like having an "over 10"" loss of rainfall, EVEN LESS, if'n it happens locally! Wouldn't that be an extreme weather swing?!

We don't have 20" of precipitation through an entire year ... Can we say "Mojave?"

My grandfather was born in Arkansas, near Fort Smith. His father was supposed to have been born in Hardin County, Arkansas. That was "officially" noted but it didn't take all that much effort to learn that there is no such Arkansas county! He was born in southern Illinois .

Steve

 

[Ridgerunner]

I didn't like them much either Steve.

 

[Nyboy]

Wow at least the apples look untouched.

 

[Smart Red]

I'm glad someone besides me remembers 2012. I was beginning to fear I'd imagined it when listening to TV telling me we have never gotten this warm during the winter before. I remember temps in the 80s and all the fruit trees budding out before March brought closer to normal temps and frosted every fruit tree in South-est, central-est Wisconsin.

Then came the drought of summer. Quarter inch of rain in early April and another on Memorial Day. That's about the most measurable precip we received all summer and well into the fall. I'm still replacing some of the many perennials I lost that year.