the early start to the winter like weather. We seem to have skipped my favorite season and headed right into the long, long winter like weather. There are temps below freezing & snow in our forecast for the weekend. The snow may not come, but the cold certainly will. It's just too early...
Boy oh boy, have we been have some hot, hazy, humid weather around her the last few days. Today was supposed to be a bit cooler so I decided to mow the lawn. B.I.G. mistake! It was so humid that I had to take breaks. Some thing I never have to do otherwise.
One year ago today, we spent the afternoon in the basement. We did so again today -- tornado warnings -- sirens blaring! Thankfully, there was not a tornado here.
That afternoon one year ago was our last day of rain that left much of southeastern Wisconsin under water & canceled school for Olivia. Thankfully again, this storm caused no flooding.
“Whether the weather be fine, Whether the weather be not, Whether the weather be cold, Whether the weather be hot, We'll weather the weather, Whatever the whether, Whether we like it or not”
Hope everyone is safe & warm as much of the country has below normal temps.
Today's high: -2 with wind chills of -25 to -35 all day. There was no school and will be no school again tomorrow. The cold spell will break on Saturday when we will welcome 20+ degress and more SNOW! Woohoo! You don't have to shovel cold, but I would still much rather have snow than this subzero weather any day
It is 6 degrees out at the moment -- heading down to TWENTY BELOW tonight with wind chills approaching 40 below! Tomorrow we will not break 0, and it will be even colder tomorrow night. Over 550 schools have already canceled classes for tomorrow & Olivia's school is one of those! Woohoo! I think I might be more excited about that than she is.
Both Bob & Olivia have snow days today! The snow started falling after midnight last night & by 5AM there was over 5 inches on the ground with more than that still to fall. The official total at the airport was 11.4, but we are about 10 miles southeast of there where totals are higher. We ended up with about 13 or 13.5.
Other than some light flurries that won't amount to much the snow is over. Our driveway and "porch" are all cleaned up & we're ready for he next round Saturday night into Sunday - another 4-7! Woohoo!
Should the 4-7 be right, that will move us to the second snowiest December on record. I'm hoping we smash the record of 49.5! Which is possible since we have snow in the forecast every few days & it doesn't look like that pattern will change any time soon.
Olivia and I had to head to the basement again this afternoon because of a tornado warning. In my 38 years, I don't think we have ever had to head to the basement more than once in a season let alone three times in a less than a week. That threat has passed without incident here, but it is going to be a rough evening with a long line of severe weather moving this way and the unstable atmosphere. This is certainly the last thing we need with the swollen lakes and rivers, weakened dams, saturated ground, and nearly full sewer systems.
I am sure you are sick of reading about our weather, but there is really nothing else happening or being talked about here. Local stations have had weather coverage constantly since about 2PM.
This is the last week of school for Olivia. Today, tomorrow, and Wednesday were to be exam days and the last day of school is Thursday. School today had to be canceled due to flood waters from our weekend storms.
Entrance to school parking lot.
The parking lot!We had a pretty exciting weekend here in Southeastern Wisconsin.
I spent about 40 minutes down in the basement Friday afternoon due to the possibility of a tornado moving into our area. Of course, right as the warning sirens sounded Olivia called to be picked up from school. She stayed after school for some much needed algebra help, the doors lock behind students when they leave after the end of the day so she wasn't able to get back in. Fortunately, she was with a friend who lived right across the street. She & her friend ran to the friend's house and headed straight to her basement. It worked out perfectly, I think. We were all safe in a basement and had Olivia not been with her friend she would have been home alone and might have been a little freaked out. After the all clear sounded I picked her up. We were home about 10 minutes when more severe thunderstorms moved in to the area. Thankfully, those did not bring the tornado warnings.
Tornado warning sirens sent us to the basement again yesterday afternoon for about an hour and a half. This time we were all home.
Thankfully, there were no tornadoes in our immediate area, but the rates at which the rain fell were down right incredible. We had more storms with heavy rain this morning and more are moving in as I type. I think most of the state is under some sort of flash flood and/or flood watch or warning tonight.
We don't live in a low lying area or near any of the rivers or creeks that are flooding in our area so the high water we have around here is minimal. We did get a bit of water in the basement. It was just coming down so fast and the ground is so saturated that it had now where to go other than into the window well and then into our basement. Most of it was soaked up by a rug I had on the floor nearby and nothing was ruined. So while it was a scary, wet weekend so far things are OK here.
Here are a couple pictures taken Friday afternoon. Believe it or not, these were taken within seconds of one another. I was standing in the middle of our deck, and to the east was the ominous, stormy sky while to the west was the beautiful blue sky with the sun shining brightly. VERY strange afternoon indeed!
Yesterday's high 83! Today's high 53! Grrr! I want warm weather to stick around. It is June after all!
This morning just after 4:30, 5.2 magnitude earthquake shook the Midwest. It was centered six miles from West Salem, IL. The quake was felt hundreds of miles away in places like Chicago, Milwaukee, Cincinatti, Des Moines, Indianapolis and others. I know it happens occasionally, but one that large doesn't. The furthest north in WI I have seen it reported as being felt is Peshtigo. That's a long way from West Salem, IL -- according to Google Maps that's 521 miles from West Salem. Wowzers!
No one in our house felt it. We were sound asleep at that time and it probably wasn't enough of a shake to wake people this far away from the epicenter. This earth science geek still finds it pretty interesting. :)
One year ago today it was 80 degrees in my area. Today we are talking about yet another winter storm. This one is only supposed to be 2-3 inches, but earlier in the week it was looking like it would be another big one. Thank goodness it didn't follow that track! :) I love winter & snow, but we have had enough (more than enough) for this season. I am SO ready for spring!
14.2 inches and counting...
We'll be moving to the second snowiest winter on record...
1885-1886: 109.8 inchesI say let's shatter that all time record. :)
1897-1898: 94.2 inches
1959-1960: 93.3 inches
2007-2008: 84.5 inches (doesn't include snowfall from today which from what I last heard was just over 10 inches at the official location, Mitchell International Airport)
The first full day of spring has brought us what will most likely be our largest snowfall of the year. We are expecting up to 18 inches. The totals keep going up -- YIKES!! It's been snowing since around 6AM, and by noon totals were already near six inches!
My mom left with Olivia & my niece, Samantha, last night for Mississippi. She was planning on leaving this morning, but decided to get out of town before the snow. It's a good thing they did.
Our friend, Kevin, was supposed to fly back from Kansas City this afternoon, but since the airport has been closed since around 9AM he is stuck in KC for the night. (Hope you make it home in time for the Bucks' game tomorrow night, Kev. It's going to be a blast even if they stink! LOL!)
Updating at 6:20 PM: We are up to 12.6 inches with at least 4 more hours of snowfall to come.
We are inching closer to that record -- another 3-6 of lake effect snow is supposed to fall tonight & tomorrow morning. Top 3 or 4 here we come...LOL!!
We have gotten 77.7 inches of snow so far this season. An average year will bring us around 50. It doesn't look like we will break the season record of 100+ set in 1884, but even if the next two months are below average, we will break into the top three.
Tonight is supposed to bring us another 2-3 inches of the cold white stuff! :)
