Yipee It's March!! Daily Weather # II

Kelli, ""I'll stick with the scandalous statement that there is a people surplus."" I'll go along with that but we all gotta live somewhere. The only thing that gets me about southern California is the few actual get over the mountains roads. When they have some guy in the movies say "We have to evacuate LA", I always burst out laughing. My thought being ''Using what roads?"

I've been on I-15 almost to the junction with 215 when a flashing sign alerts traffic "Congestion at 215 intersection TAKE ALTERNATE ROUTE" Like any of us would be there crawling along with overheating engines IF there were an alternate route. At that point there's really no point. you have to get over Cajon Pass and that's the only road.

Anyway, I signed back in to send pic of Apricot blossom. I trimmed it and sized it down.

early_bloomer I was just taking a quick peak at some of the pics I missed and your trillium pic is soooooooooooooo breathtakingly beautiful!!!!!

Debi that is one of my fave shades of pansies. :) I always keep an eye open for those come spring.

Blooms I wanna see those here soon (but in my case it'll be apples and plums). Lovely pic against that blue sky!

Somedays DH thanks me for making him take pics.

This afternoon he was on the highway by Chaplin, SK

Sky was clear and blue.........

But when he passed the little village the sky was starting to cloud up.......

He watched the clouds starting to swirl........

Then he phoned me to report snowballs were falling from the sky. I asked him to pull over so he could take some pics. In the background it sounded like soft hail was hitting the car.

He stopped and took a couple of pics.......they looked like the larger perlite you can buy. Edited to say he said they were the size of a marble but they broke up when they landed. Anyways whilst we were talking he saw a horrendous flash and there was a loud crashing noise.

This message was edited Mar 14, 2007 11:28 PM

Lilypon - that's a fantastic series of photos - and, with thunder/lightning, so glad you've posted them. Hope all's well.
Kiska

A little while later he phoned me back and said stopping to take the above pics might have saved him. The bolt had hit a number of power poles and he said he prolly would have been even with them had he not stopped. About 8 of the poles had been hit and 3 or 4 shattered into many pieces.......they had ended up all across the highway.

Another one......

..........

Thanks Kiska I thought he did a really good job too (and I'm sooooooooooooooooo glad he listened to me and stopped ;).

He said the cloud was turning in a clockwise motion. He also said the chunks of the poles on the highway were huge.

Wow, Lilypon! That cloud is scary looking in a still picture - I sure wouldn't have wanted to see it in person! Well, yes I would, but now while I was in a vehicle. LOL I'm glad your husband listened to you, too!!!

Thanks Marilyn so am I.......the more I look the more I wonder was it lightning that stuck the poles? Or was it a Tornado? Very strange time of year for one of those to form. It was only +36F at that time.

This message was edited Mar 14, 2007 7:40 PM

Wow - so glad all's well, seems it could have had a different outcome. Amazing photos.
Kiska

It sure looks like a tornadic cloud - not that I'm an expert or anything.

It does to me too but I wonder if it formed fully and landed? Just seeing the vertically developed clouds, or cumulus clouds, is very, very unusual here for this time of year. We usually see them in mid summer......right now the low lying clouds, carrying snow, are usually seen.

A strong updraft was certainly occurring anyway.

nearly 8am, sunrise at 8:14, sets at 7:58pm
-12*F Clear, cold w/a high of 11*... at least the winds have died down. The river's open channel has frozen over again; break-up is going to be quite a sight and sound.
Lilypon - that series is just amazing and no matter what it was, it's great that he was able to safely take the photos.
Slide on Pioneer Peak happened during the 1964 earthquake.
Kiska

Lilypon, I am so impressed with your husband's series of cloud pictures, and what an amazing story to follow! I am so glad he stopped! WOW!

Kiska, I love the color on the mounts!

Cone Marsh, a conservation area. A lot of geese were trying to land that day, but there was too much ice.

I was so excited over the clouds I forgot my weather :))

45° cloudy and cool.

billyporter - nice gaggle of geese - looks like they share the pond with beaver, too. Do you go there often?
Thanks, this time of year brings beautiful alpenglow to both sunrise and sunset.
-6*F and sunny.
Kiska

70°(F) or so, rain, gray skies.

Kiska, we go, but there isn't always a lot of water in some of the places. I found a duck call one year, and that's where I brought home my start of Cup plant. A 10' tall sunflower who's large leaves connect all the way around the stem and hold water. It was sort of invasive, so I planted it on the old railroad tracks down the road. I still enjoy it and can get it back if I want :))

At 45° we are at typical March temps.

Kiska what a spectacular pic!

Billy your picture is certainly capturing this time of year well......the geese are looking equally confused up here (they do look much happier in the melt water in the ditches).

I think I missed quite a bit staying inside yesterday. I showed the above pics to people at work and was told that the snowballs got to the size of a Looney (CDN $1 coin...or about the size of a golf ball) in the northeast section of town. They also saw the cumulus clouds, as well as the lightning/thunder, but didn't see any more ominous looking clouds like the one up above. The weather channel called it "snow thunder". To finish our strange weather day off last night the temperature dropped down to 6.8 °F and with windchill hit -7.6 °F and with it came a couple of inches of snow .

The weather network released it's spring 2007 forecast and basically said that there was a cooling trend in the Pacific Ocean and it would contribute to an increase in westerly and northwesterly low level winds that would allow cold arctic air to penetrate into southern parts of Canada, which will keep temperatures at or below normal for the next several months.

25 °F / -4 °C
Mostly Cloudy
Humidity: 80%
Dew Point: 19 °F / -7 °C
Wind: 8 mph / 13 km/h / 3.6 m/s from the East
Pressure: 30.48 in / 1032 hPa
Windchill: 16 °F / -9 °C
Visibility: 15.0 miles / 24.1 kilometers
UV: 1 out of 16

Lilypon, you have my sympathy.

:'( Thanks Billy! :) Ah well I'll take it if it means a cooler summer (mid eighties for the highest temp would make me delirously happy). I don't handle high heat/humidity well.

Well, there's a silver lining after all. Good!

Straight 75° would make me happy!

Well the weather sure took a dive here.
From the 70's to the upper 40's.... right now it's 38 and drizzly....
50's thru the weekend but sunny.... I'll take that!

Great shot of the slide kiska!

Here's a Very Confused Vinca..... flowers in March?

Ric

Hi all, quite a change today. We worked outside and made a 4 X 8 raised bed and transplanted plants yesterday at 78 degrees.

Today we awoke to 65 degrees which quickly dropped lower and lower during the day. Dark, overcast skies and now at 32 degrees. Came home this afternoon thru sleet and rain. Forecast is for 4-6 inches of snow tomorrow, unless we get sleet and freezing rain instead. Ah, Spring.

Lilypon, what a photo story that is. Words and pictures, both great. So glad DH stopped, would definitely NOT want to be driving by when that happened. By such tiny decisions is our life shaped.

Unfortunately that cooling ocean thing means my section of the globe is going to be short of water again this year. Or so the forecast says: the entire Southwest will be dryer than normal.

BP, I watched geese landing on a frozen over pond one afternoon == it was like watching a Disney nature short. Your photo brought back that giggle memory. Thanks

It was 75* and sunny again today. I'll take it. ;-) ~Blooms

almost 6:30pm; sunny w/sunset at 7:58. Still cold, 8*F, and is quickly dropping and will reach below zero soon. The deck starts popping and cracking when it's near zero, and "pops" at about every 10* drop thereafter. And it's popping now.
se_eds - that's quite a drop in temps in a short time. Same for ric, flowers won't know what to do this spring. Thanks.
Blooms, Doesn't sound good for your area this summer. Will there be water rationing?
Lilypon - cool summers are the best :)
Last March - looks the same today.
Kiska

It's one of those ''we'll see'' sort of scenarios. Despite the obvious dry trend our town fathers continue to encourage unlimited development. The open areas disappear, orchards, pastures, and alfalfa fields are all gone. What I can't figure out is what the people moving in are doing to make a living. We have absolutely no industry here. Just tourism. And I just don't see it supporting everybody, and how many folks can really work from home on the internet??

The irrigation water relies on winter snow and creeks running. A lack of snow and rainfall definitely affects that. The town's water is drawn from a deep water source that has thus far stood up to the increased usage. But when you figure in that historically there were still glaciers on the LaSal mtns when the first settlers came here - ya gotta figure that the source is not limitless.

How's that for a PC way of saying I think the town fathers are wrong. IMHO However, the realtors and developers are loving it. Here's my apricot tree just loaded with blossoms.

Blooms, I think you've put it very well. Does make you wonder what everyone does for a living.
The apricot blossoms are fantastic; the fruit is too.
It's now dropped to -2*F and due to go a bit lower. So glad I had a remote start put on the car a couple of weeks ago - sure is nice to start the car from indoors.
If it drops a few more degrees, will be able to vaporize coffee, as was done earlier.
Kiska

Kiska cooler or normal temps will be much better than what my location has had the past few years. I often think our ancestors (or we) chose our locations because of what we can handle. Mine, on the whole, came from cooler/cold countries and I really think it's in my blood.

Sorry Blooms (and everyone else in La Nina's line of fury). :S I've read that with a La Nina/El Nino there are winners and losers.......I don't wish the ugly side of either on anyone.

I can't see it improving re water sources. The rains have, on the whole, moved east and our glaciers are melting at a fast rate. Like the gas and oil I think the aquifers are a becoming a non-renewable resource (unless the weather patterns do an about face really soon). I too think we are on the threshold of too many and I'm afraid nature may take care of that problem for us.

Good afternoon everyone!

I'm home for the weekend and pretty happy with this first week. I'd say things are off to a very good start :-)

It's snowed the past two nights so the ground is covered with a white blanket - a very wet one though - the temp's well above freezing at 38°F so it's very slushy out there. A bit breezy and overcast at the moment, there was a fairly heavy snowshower on the way home with poor visibility. Not really fun to drive in.

Great photos everyone - too many to comment on them all .......

Blooms - your apricot tree is absolutely beautiful! I've seen so many photos of pretty cherry blossoms, but never realised that plums, peaches and apricots flower too lol - and they're just as pretty :-)

I'm so enjoying all these flowering fruit trees you guys have and can't wait to see more :-) Wish we had more of those here .......

Lilypon - so glad your DH was alright!

I took this photo this morning as I was going in for breakfast. My room is in one of those small houses - I'm lucky enough to have a private room :-)

Hope you all have a great day :-)

Rannveig

7:30; -6*F, daybreak. Another week of cold then it's supposed to be up in the teens to 20's.
Rann - so glad the first week went well - love the look of the fresh snowfall there.
Lilypon - cooler is better for me, too.
Kiska

The humidity is down (only 76%! woo hoo!), the temperatures are mild (it's 67° now and is going to be 72° later), my parents are in Arkansas and should be here by dinner time, and the Mountain Laurel is blooming nicely... The day couldn't be any better unless a magic fairy suddenly appeared and cleaned the house, weeded the garden, and potty trained my 3 year old all at the same time!

Since that seems slightly unlikely, I guess I should get off the computer and get busy, huh? LOL

Rann, I'm so glad your first week is going so well. :-)

Lilypon, I'm always amazed in the summer when I pop in here and it is hotter where you are than it is here! I'm sure a cooler summer sounds really good to you.

Observation for Houston, TX (KSGR) as of 10:53am CDT (27 min ago)
Temperature 67 °F 19 °C
Dew Point 57 °F 14 °C
Humidity 70%
Pressure 30.21 in 1023.1 mb
Wind Speed 21 MPH
G 26 18 kts
G 23
Wind Dir N 10°
Ceiling 2000 ft 610 m
Visibility 7 mi 11.3 km
Current Conditions Cloudy
Remarks 6 hour min temperature ending 6:53am CDT : 60.1°F / 15.6°C

This morning at 7AM we had a 'silent' fine snow falling. It has progressed to about 3" in the grass. but not on the highways. PA DOT is salting them down. Currently it is 29 degrees and ice falling fairly rapidly. We are supposed to get 6-10 inches today and this evening.

Blooms, that apricot tree looks so familiar, I had 3 northern hardy almond trees on the farm and they were gorgeous each spring. The almond were hard to crack and small, but tasty. The bloom on the trees were worth more than the nuts. LOL

We are supposed to get 9-14" of snow and sleet by noon tomorrow. Today we were sent home at 11:15 from the school where I work. Here we go!