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Post by prairiegardens on Dec 17, 2016 20:36:36 GMT -5
It's been frigid here with very little snow and lots of sun, sporadically windy. I'm not sure exactly how cold but three full 5 gallon water jugs froze solid and burst in an unheated room in the house, had them +/- freeze but never had any burst before, they weren't even entirely full. One of them just cracked all around the bottom, so managed to save most of the water, brought it into a warm room and turned it upside down in a gallon container, it thawed fine and now I have a bottle I could use for drip irrigation, the bottom on that one still attached like a lid. The other two the plastic just shattered, they are both sitting in a feed tub waiting for a spring thaw. One of them the bottom might make a bird feeder maybe, now the neighborhood feral cat took out the squirrel. Somehow I doubt I'll get my deposit back.
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Post by richardw on Dec 18, 2016 12:51:41 GMT -5
Man thats cold toomanyirons thankfully it never get anywhere as cold as that here. Just an average run of the mill summer day coming up here, low 20'sC, the summer heat doesn't normally kick in till after Xmas.
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Post by reed on Dec 18, 2016 18:35:06 GMT -5
Got up this morning to -32F degrees outside. Ya know, when the thermometer only reads down to -40 it kind of puts things in perspective. I will have to see if this is in record cold territory for my area, I do not remember it ever getting this cold in December in my lifetime. Beautiful calm, crisp sunny morning after yesterday's snow and wind. I like to experience weather extremes like this first hand so I bundled up and went out for a nature walk. I walked rather quickly... Hopefully I am old enough now that I will not have to worry about the next bad thing that comes around and wipes out another species of tree, but who knows. -32 F, that is spooky cold and colder than it is at the north pole. I'm convinced that the northern jet stream has destabilized and from now on we are going to have all kinds of new and exciting weather phenomena to experience. We went from 64 F Friday to 19 F Saturday. The prior Wednesday and Thursday were highs in the low twenties. The shift from 20 to 60 was just warm breeze, the shift back down was interesting. I guess having been cold the warm moist air condensed on everything, even the dog's fur. Later as it started to cool again dense fog and then lightening way high up without thunder, I guess it was too far up. No wind or storm just a light show through the fog. Then it rained four inches and froze, my cheap plastic gauge didn't survive. I'm waiting for the TV talkers to give the weird lightening a name so we think they've seen it before. To your last point, don't count on it.
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Post by philagardener on Dec 18, 2016 19:18:12 GMT -5
We had thunder last night too, as the warm air finally rolled through. Temps started heading the other way this afternoon with some strong, gusty winds. Very strange weather . . .
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Post by steev on Dec 18, 2016 19:23:21 GMT -5
No snow to be seen on the western peaks, but the air is clear enough to see the snow-capped Sierra on the far side of the Central Valley; snow-lines looks pretty high; yesterday afternoon I dumped ice off a bucket; today it didn't seem to have melted much by noon, not in shade, either.
Knocked off at 1:30, due to a hard, cold North wind.
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Post by jocelyn on Dec 19, 2016 7:10:20 GMT -5
We had lightening Friday too. Although they call it thunder snow, you can't hear the thunder if it's snowing heavy. Sure lights up the sky though, all diffused by the snow, sort of a glow, not a strike.
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Post by reed on Dec 19, 2016 8:11:10 GMT -5
I'v experienced thunder snow,it's pretty cool but just like a regular storm you only don't don't hear it if the lightening is too far away, although I suppose snow could reduce the needed distance. The other night it wasn't snowing or raining either one and the lightening was directly above, not miles away in the distance. It wasn't storming, the wind wasn't blowing. It was just dense fog lighted up from above, it lasted about 1/2 hour or a little less. It was very interesting to see. It must have been miles away vertically not horizontally is the only thing I can figure.
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Post by richardw on Dec 20, 2016 2:34:44 GMT -5
reed Sounds like it might have been CC lightning that can happen over head while the earthing CG strike can be some great distant away.
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Post by steev on Dec 20, 2016 2:55:49 GMT -5
In Guatemala, in the dry season, there was nightly cloud-to-cloud lightning; never could hear anything, just a great show.
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Post by richardw on Dec 20, 2016 13:38:31 GMT -5
Yes those CC lightning events can be amazing light shows alright. Where i am on the dry side eastern side of the South Island on rare occasions we can get CC lightning that spreads out through the high wave from storms on the other side of the island 100kms away. These events only happen when hot air from the central Australian interior blows across the Tasman sea, ash partials from bush fires seems to also enhance these electrical discharges.
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Post by reed on Dec 20, 2016 14:04:33 GMT -5
C to C and C to G are both common here, I always enjoyed a good light show. Either kind can be bright even though it is too far away to hear the thunder but still I never it saw directly above me without hearing the thunder. Lightening directly above is generally so close that you see it and hear the thunder at the same time. Or sometimes you hear the air fry then a split second later hear the thunder.
Maybe it wasn't directly above but off in the distance and just appeared that way cause of the dense fog. I bet that's it, it was far away and the light just got bounced around in the fog.
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Post by steev on Dec 22, 2016 3:00:04 GMT -5
The local fish-wrap predicts heavy rain on Friday; accuweather says no such thing; I'm behind on work to complete for the year (kissed off a week of vacation), having no helper; people want their yards good for the holidays; think I'll live with what comes.
Cold in the mornings, by Cali standards, so it's a bit rigorous, but the grass/weeds/Oxalis is growing like Topsy, given the rain.
Starting to look like the low-point of our camel-hump rainy season may be coming a tad early.
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Post by richardw on Dec 22, 2016 12:28:30 GMT -5
Had a heavy shower overnight that dumped 47mm, great timing to get such rain in mid summer.
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Post by walt on Dec 22, 2016 13:40:23 GMT -5
It's very nice today in Kansas. Sun's out. It is supposed to get above freezing. But as my grandfather used to say, "As the days begin to lengthen, the storms begin to strengthen." Feb. is usually our worst month.
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Post by mskrieger on Dec 22, 2016 14:33:53 GMT -5
Yep. Day lengthen-->cold strengthen is true in New England too. According to meteorological records, January is always the worst...but February is psychologically the hardest We'll see how it goes this year. I kinda liked this fall-winter transition. Warm lovely weather until BAM! it's December and winter is here. Snow and wind and everything. It's emotionally satisfying to have a real winter. And we skipped right over the awful dark windy cold wet November run-up.
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