Your Weather, 2025

[flowerbug]

Interesting. I never would have imagined that there would be such great disparity in the timing of the coldest day of the year.

around here the Great Lakes act as a buffer which can delay cooler events.

 

[digitS']

I would imagine that so much water would buffer temperatures in the early Winter, @flowerbug .

As large parts of the fresh water freezes later, during an especially cold Winter — protection would be lost and temperatures may plunge. That would skew averages when a time period of 3 decades is in the accounting.

DW has family in Wisconsin, @Zeedman 's neighbors. They are experiencing some severe cold right now.

digitS'

 

[flowerbug]

yes, the upper midwest to the left of the ponds is quite chipper this time of the year. having lived in the UP for 15 years plus our public radio station was fed most news and weather from the Minnesota Public Radio network so we got all the news about the cold from that direction.

 

[Zeedman]

I would imagine that so much water would buffer temperatures in the early Winter, @flowerbug .

As large parts of the fresh water freezes later, during an especially cold Winter — protection would be lost and temperatures may plunge. That would skew averages when a time period of 3 decades is in the accounting.

DW has family in Wisconsin, @Zeedman 's neighbors. They are experiencing some severe cold right now.

digitS'

Yup. Another 'polar vortex' (what we used to just call 'winter'). A really strong one; supposed to get down to -14F or so tonight. Now I know why they put the 'br' in February.

We've had over a foot of snow this week too - and I had to dig out my trailer for a church project. As I was doing so, I was ruminating about winter. It occurred to me (as my fingers were freezing) that I only get one birthday every year... but about a weeks worth of Brrrrr days. Tried to lol when I thought of that, but my lips were frozen. My tears too.

 

[ducks4you]

We are at the southern tip of this polar vortex. Temperatures at night all of this week are hovering at 0 degrees F at night with a wind that feels like it's coming off of a deep freezer, but going up to mid teens during the day. Tbe wind is just as bitter during the day.
Therefore, my heated hose will still work late afternoon.
The sun has come back to the same angle as in October. Any snow on the sidewalk has melted just from the sunshine.
I drew 2 buckets of water last night to put in the barn last night for this morning, when the hose probably Wansn't going to work. Ponies had emptied their water buckets last night, so they appreciated it.
Lack of water brings on colic, Very serious mid winter.
IGNORE the newbie horse owners who think you should warm up their water. It's unrealistic and unneccessary when my horses are in their warm and dry stalls.
By the weekend, the highs will be upper 30's-mid 40's.
We probably won't dip down this low again this winter.
Also, light snow. Untreated sidewalks/parking lots are Slick.
There is a LOT of black ice and walking is hazardous, so, if there is grass, it's a good idea to walk on the snow on the grass in this kind of weather.

 

[Zeedman]

We probably won't dip down this low again this winter.

That's my hope as well. Milder temps above freezing forecast next week. I'm looking forward to giving the car a bath... it looks like a mobile salt lick.

 

[flowerbug]

yes, warm up now in the forecast so i'm not shovelling any more snow the next few days. tonight is the last night in the next week that will be about 11F. then we get up into the 20sF-40sF for the rest of the daytime highs and lows around 29F most of them.

 

[digitS']

Warm up! Yeah.

It nearly hit 50⁰f (10⁰C) yesterday and we still have a chance at that milestone. I read and appreciate @ducks4you 's comment that we have as much daylight as in October but what a weather contrast with February. If we continue in this final week with several more days with that 50⁰f, the similarities for temperatures will grow but not the precipitation.

Rain. We have had nearly 2" of precipitation this month and it may hit 3". Might not seem like much but it's above average and way different from 0 in October. Until this week, it all fell as snow. Over 1/2" of rain fell yesterday and there went our 10" of snow cover. It only exists where I piled it in the yard and that should be gone over the next 24 hours. The frozen ground finally melted and the puddles in the yard disappeared. Some of the lower elevation creeks must be raging.

Windy outdoors right now but the airports are reporting clear skies all night. The stars are bright at the moment and nothing is freezing out there at this elevation. Precipitation was snow only on the highest, nearby mountains and that may continue. I suppose that the northslopes are protected from too rapid of run-off. Hope so. Big change but there is plenty of water/snow up there and it needs to stay there .

digitS'

 

[ducks4you]

Rain. We have had nearly 2" of precipitation this month and it may hit 3". Might not seem like much but it's above average and way different from 0 in October...

digitS'

My great apologies to digitS' for this rant.
THIS is precisely why I ask new members to put their general location!!
We, in Illinois get much more rain than @digitS' gets in Idaho AND our soils are different. Neither is Better than the other, JUST different. When WE have a drought it might affect the growth of field corn, and some trees, but we HAVE the means to water our trees without governmental intrusion.
I look at the mountains west of Denver. They get summer rain pretty much every day, similar soil, Different climate.
When Denver has a wet year it looks like somebody took a green sharpie to the landscape!
Never lived there...DH's grandmother grew up there, his father spent some formative years there, we have Visited there some 30 odd x and he knows the roads into/out of the front range and western suburbs like the back of his hand. We have a working familiarity, to so speak.
If you ask a general question I will give you an answer for my solution in the Eastern Center of Illinois, a place one hour north of where the glaciers stopped and left a lot of very rich soil, SOME depleted by 150 years of constant farming, btw, ANOTHER factor, but bad soil to raise a succulent, unless it is a tough one, like sedum, which seems to be to survive anything...like a roach.
I really cannot remember most of our members locations, except for two of them:
@Marie2020 and @Phaedra
Probably bc we talk a lot here.
Rant.over.