January's Daily Weather # V, Wet, wacky and almost gone.

Blooms, mmm, that orange sounds good; hopefully, there'll be more to come. Looks like a good day there; sun for now/ storm later..
Still warm here, in the mid-30's, so it's going to be a mess as the snow softens and gets slick...but, lunch on the deck could become a reality:)
MySharona - what a cute little otter - surprise as well, thought they stayed in the ocean.
Kiska

First I'll post the reply from Julie

Different kind of otter, Kiska. We had them in the Adirondack mountains too. They are playful critters, just like the ocean ones. I've seen them slide down the bank into the water one after the other, just to climb out and slide in again. Only saw that once, but never forgot. It was so obvious they were playing.

Sidney, thanks so much. I never even thought of D-mailing her. How good it is to know she is doing fine. And I hadn't even realized she was preggers. Thanks again. ~Blooms

Sharon, I hope the freeze didn't harm your plants, but remember that wind chill is only a "feels like" thing. A wind chill below freezing can't make plants freeze if the temperature is above freezing.

We got a trace of rain or heavy dew overnight. They have changed the forecast and are not calling for wind in the near future. (Knock on wood.)

Current Conditions
Updated: 9:51 AM PST on January 30, 2007
Observed at: Van Nuys, California
Elevation: 797 ft / 243 m
54 °F / 12 °C
Mostly Cloudy
Humidity: 69%
Dew Point: 44 °F / 7 °C
Wind: 5 mph / 7 km/h / 2.1 m/s from the ESE

Let's see - picture for today.... Nothing too exciting around here. No dogs, cats, babies, or otters, so here at the fish, all of them - Amezaga, Fat Elvis, Figgins, Mister Yu, Jose, Smoochie, Silky, and Tiger.

The sky got dark and yellowish around 11:30.

Soon there was a downpour.

The dove on the left is taking a shower. (I really should have a tripod for zoom photos.)

53.2°(F) shed & porch partly cloudy.

Yayy for rain at Kelli's house!!!

I just wish it weren't raining here, too! LOL This is more like our normal winter patterns, though.. High's in the 50s, lows in the 30s, lots of rain. Occasional days popping up into the 60s or 70s.. We'll be back up to the 80s by the end of February and summer more or less starts in March. Hopefully we're done for the year with freezing weather, anyway!

Observation for Houston, TX (KSGR) as of 1:53pm CST (40 min ago)
Temperature 50 °F 10 °C
Dew Point 46 °F 8 °C
Humidity 86%
Pressure 30.21 in 1022.9 mb
Wind Speed 13 MPH 11 kts
Wind Dir NE 50°
Ceiling 1400 ft 427 m
Visibility 10 mi 16.1 km
Current Conditions Cloudy
Remarks No remarks this hour.6 hour min temperature ending 11:53am CST : 46.9°F / 8.3°C

Observed at: Muscatine, Iowa
Elevation: 548 ft / 167 m

14 °F / -10 °C
Scattered Clouds
Humidity: 67%
Dew Point: 5 °F / -15 °C
Wind: 16 mph / 26 km/h / 7.2 m/s from the WNW
Wind Gust: 22 mph / 35 km/h / 9.8 m/s
Pressure: 30.28 in / 1025 hPa
Windchill: -2 °F / -19 °C
Visibility: 10.0 miles / 16.1 kilometers
UV: 2 out of 16
Clouds: Scattered Clouds 9000 ft / 2743 m
(Above Ground Level)

Sharon, I love the shy otter! Beautiful sky too. Frost, I loaded up on the frozen orange juice last week. I'll drink my orange!

Kiska, another beautiful sky!

Aww Blooms, that orange sounds delicious!!!!

Hi Julie, she's beautiful!!!

Sugar, hope you're doing ok. I had F.P. once and thought my insides were going to rip out. I won't talk about the trips to the bathroom.

Kelli, love your fish. A downpour! What a sky! You couldn't miss having something.

Marylyn, it sounds perfect to me right now. Especially the rain.

My SIL sent me pictures of the hoarfrost we had the other day. She lives a few miles out of Nichols.

Pretty, pretty, pretty; from hoar-frost to fish to babies and sky; love it all. Kelli, I really like seeing the doves; I can recall hearing them in Calif;, so soothing.
Rain for you, too, Marylyn_TX; but sounds as if summer isn't too far off..
Blooms - bet the otters were entertaining to watch. I've only seen sea-otters, but you jogged my memory of river otters...thanks.
billyporter it's looking like winter temps there...
A morning drive a few miles from home -
Kiska

Marilyn: Your weather sounds like ours is normally this time of year but for some reason there's this big chill thing happening! Yech! Low tonight is to be mid 20s for the 3rd night running. Didn't get out of the 40s today. On Sunday the weatherman said it's be more normal by Tuesday. He lied.
I'm really 'over it'. And there's an ice storm warning for late Wed. Come on spring!!!

(I know, I know, that's my thin southern blood talkin'.)

Sharon: Amazing. You must've been quick on the shutter to catch that lil otter.

Kelli: That yellow sky looks so ominous. But it brought you rain! Yahoo! Did you do a dance? :)
Deb

Interesting hoarfrost picture. I don't think I've ever seen that in real life. What conditions are required? Surely they it has occurred in PA when I lived there, but sometimes I think I went through my childhood with blinders on.

When the sky looks yellow, I think of tornadoes, though I have never seen one or been all that close to where one occurred, so I don't know what the sky would really look like. They're pretty rare around here so I don't worry about tornadoes, but I think of them.

We got 0.3 inches of rain in about 30 minutes. That's more like our winter storm weather, but in abbreviated form.

Kiska – gorgeous sky picture!! What mountain is that in the background of the 2nd beautiful picture?!
Blooms – I absolutely love riding my bike in the greenway. I was telling Deb that everyone who is there whispers. You just never know what you are going to see around the next corner. Also, Sidney is right, we are as north as you can get and still be in Florida. I now have to go to the store to get an orange…you’re killin’ me! I’ll bet that was fun watching the otters play!
Kelli – yeah – wind chill does add the dramatic!! It was cooooold!! I love the names of your fish – hysterical – fat elvis! LOL!!! Isn’t it amazing when everything turns all yellows and golds?! Great pictures!
Ohhhh, Kelli – you got rain!!!!!!!!! YAY!!! The doves are awesome! Great picture! (I need to get a tripod too!)
Billy – I always wondered what hoarfrost looked like – pretty picture!
Julie’s baby is a sweetie!

Wednesday...Partly cloudy. Highs in the mid 50s. Northeast winds 5 to 10 mph. Wind chills 28 to 33 in the morning.

Heading into the norm or us as well. Like Marylin's and Deb's. 50's tomorrow - low 70's next 2 days then cold again!

Live Oak at the end of the greenway. They don't grow very tall...they get very wide, amazingly pretty trees.


This message was edited Jan 30, 2007 7:31 PM

Current temps 31 degrees. We just had a snow sower that left 1-1/2 in of snow! Goody. Temps are predicted to go down to 5-5 degrees this weekend. More snow could be on the way. I'll take it!

Sugar - thanks for the update for Julie. She thought things were busy with twins - now she has another beautiful challenge.

Stay warm all - we are heading towards spring - at least the calendar says so.

Regarding more precipitation, we have received quite a bit of rain this winter so far. It reminds me of my hometown Seattle.
Currently 52F
I have been hearing bits and pieces about an artic blast?! Reports from OK, AR and some rumors in TX. Anyone else hear anything on this. I JUST folded up my frost blankets last weekend.

A few signs of spring other than the weather are a pair of Cardinals building a nest in the Garden and numerous flocks of robbins.

More rain in the forecast, although a slight rise in temperatures was revised for the 10 day forecast. The plants are looking a bit ragged from too much moisture.

Hi Sidney.!!

Rj

Kelli that was a Tornado Sky!
Nice to see one w/o the threat of one to anybody.

The pictures have been fabulous!
It's just not been in the cards here.
Either the snow is gone by the time I get home during the week or the weekends have been gray and dingy.

It's currently 18° w/ a wind chill of 5°.
NW winds at 12 MPH
Hard to believe now it was 65° back on January 5th........ LOL!
Well the long range forecast shows a warming trend by next Thurs..... we'll see..........

Ric

I just have to jump in here with tonight's sunset - It's 6pm and as we came out of the ice-rink, sunset was nearly over...my grandson climbed up the huge snow bank to take this just before it faded...
Kiska

Awesome as usual Kiska!

awesome Kiska

thanks Blooms and Sugarweed, I'll pass the nice words along to GS..
rj- Just thinking of robins sounds great; they usually get here in June and we, too, love seeing them. The term, "frost blanket" is new to me..not quite a "blanket of frost"... :)
Ric - sure is sounding like winter is there now.
se_eds, so glad that the snow is something you like; me too.
Alpenglow on the Chugach Range/Palmer
Kiska

Current conditions.

mg

Rest of the week.

mg

Pretty cool there, mornin_gayle, no pun intended :)
28*, dark w/nearly full moon...
Kiska

31½°(F) shed and porch - and (you guessed it) - Dark.

Rjudd – I don’t know about an artic blast, but the weather will be changing for us again on Saturday (brrr)!
Kiska – that is a beautiful sunset! I’ve never seen one with such colors!! The alpen glow is amazing as well.
morning_gayle – Got your blanket?!

Wednesday...Partly cloudy. Isolated sprinkles early in the morning. High 55. North winds 10 to 15 mph shifting to the northeast 5 to 10 mph in the afternoon.


Sunrise yesterday morning

Exactly 32F and "dim". Expecting a beautiful day, except for the 15 degrees below normal for the mid-day high thing. Still waiting for the "moderating trend" they keep mentioning in the forecasts. :)

Beautiful sunsets and sunrises!

Deb

7am, 28*F, dark, moonlight/stars; pretty nice so far...
MySharona- my first thought at seeing your sunrise, was I wish I was there, coffee in hand, to watch..very calm-looking.
DebinSC; "dim" is an apt term, I like it, may I hijack it?
Here is Pioneer Peak, at "dim", last night.
Kiska

Hi everyone!

Great photos Kiska and Sharon and anyone else I might have left out! Love the sunset and sunrise :-)

It was another great spring-like day today :-) It was a bit blustery this morning but calmed down this afternoon, and there was no rain - even saw the sun peak through today - it sure has a way of brightening things up! :-) Went outside for a bit of garden clean up and it sure did feel like spring ...... this doesn't feel at all like "thorri" but I'm not complaining! lol I'll enjoy it while it lasts - it'll cool down again soon enough I'm sure. It's 43°F at the moment - very nice :-) and it's getting dark as it should since it's 5:30 already. Still the days are really getting longer now - it was still very BRIGHT at 3 pm and not dim at all! Even was bright enough to turn the lights off for a few hours today :-) Debi - I'll have to borrow that "dim" term too since it's dim a lot here :-) lol

Kelli - so glad you got some rain! Hope you'll get some more :-)

Have a great day all!

Rannveig

Currently in the mid-high 20's here. Loved the sunset, Kiska!

From Weather.com
Tonight:
Partly cloudy skies this evening. A few snow showers developing late. Low 22F. Winds light and variable. Chance of snow 50%.

Tomorrow:
Periods of snow during the morning will transition to a wintry mix in the afternoon. Cold. High 34F. Winds S at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of precip 90%. 1 to 3 inches of snow expected.

Accu-Weather says 3-6” of snow Thursday followed by 1-3” of sleet and freezing rain Thursday night. Additional snow showers Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

Some nasty cold temps coming up next week.

We got 0.2 inches of rain since I last wrote.


Updated: 10:51 AM PST on January 31, 2007
Observed at: Van Nuys, California
Elevation: 797 ft / 243 m
52 °F / 11 °C
Mostly Cloudy
Humidity: 74%
Dew Point: 44 °F / 7 °C
Wind: Calm

Well, the showers of whatever type didn't make it to Moab valley. An all over white cloudiness is up there and may be dropping a little snow on the mountain tops. Which is better than no precip at all.
Hi today 42* Low was around 20* - i wasn't up to see this morning. No sun in my window to waken me.

I'm totally energy bereft today. Nothing is getting done. I'll blame it on the lack of sun.

Like Darius we are scheduled for a bit of snow.
Trace to 2".... how's THAT for locking it down.... lol!

We took a quick trip to Dayton this morning.
It was 17° when we left here.... 9° up in Dayton only 40 miles North.......

28° here now and clouding over rapidly...

Ric

Under clear frosty nights in winter soft ice crystals might form on vegetation or any object that has been chilled below freezing point by radiation cooling. This deposit of ice crystals is known as hoar frost and may sometimes be so thick that it might look like snow. The interlocking ice crystals become attached to branches of trees, leafs, hedgerows and grass blades and are one of the most prominent features of a typical 'winter wonderland' day. However, the fine 'feathers', 'needles' and 'spines' might also be found on any other object that is exposed to supersaturated air below freezing temperature.

The relative humidity in supersaturated air is greater then 100% and the formation of hoar frost is similar to the formation of dew with the difference that the temperature of the object on which the hoar frost forms is well below 0°C, whereas this is not the case with dew. Hoar frost crystals often form intitially on the tips of plants or other objects.

Hoar frost might form as liquid dew that has subsequently frozen with a drop in temperature, which is then known as silver frost or white frost. Usually the dew drops do not freeze immediately, even if the air temperature is slightly below zero. Rather they become supercooled dew droplets at first. Supercooled dew will eventually freeze if the temperature falls below about -3°C to -5°C. Hoar frost deposits might also derive by sublimation, when water vapour is forming ice directly on the surfaces concerned. In most cases hoar frost will have formed by a combination of the processes above.

Thanks for the explanation, BP. When I lived in Boone (NC), Grandfather Mountain would get hoar's frost early and keep it most of the winter unless we got lots of snow.

Observed at: Muscatine, Iowa
Elevation: 548 ft / 167 m

23 °F / -5 °C
Mostly Cloudy
Humidity: 63%
Dew Point: 12 °F / -11 °C
Wind: 13 mph / 20 km/h / 5.7 m/s from the South
Pressure: 29.96 in / 1014 hPa
Windchill: 11 °F / -12 °C
Visibility: 10.0 miles / 16.1 kilometers
UV: 1 out of 16
Clouds: Mostly Cloudy 6000 ft / 1828 m
(Above Ground Level)

It's better today than it has been. Hope everyone enjoys the Hoarfrost explanation.

When did we start to get our posts counted under our name?

Sharon, I always thought a live oak was a huge tree. Learn something new all the time.

Kiska, your Grandson took an exellent picture. Breathtakingly beautiful!!! Alpenglow is neat too!

Deb, giggling over the ''dim.''

Yaay, Kelli gets more rain!!

Your welcome Darius. I love the name Grandfather Mountain. Was that the official name? It would be neat to have hoar froat all winter.

Grandfather Mountain is the official name. The ridge line looks like the face of a grandfather sleeping. There is a tourist attraction at the top with a mile-high swinging bridge between 2 peaks. It is well kinown to geologists too because the thick top surfaces have soil and rock that's usually a mile or more below the surface.
http://www.grandfather.com/

1pm, and for the first time in months - sunny and up to 40 degrees...I just posted but it was lost in space.
Thanks for the info on the hoarfrost, billyporter. Attached, hopefully, will be one of it on the deck railing.
Darius, I'll be checking the link to Grandfather Mountain. Sure sounds like a very interesting mountain..
Glad you liked yesteday's sunset...
Kiska