So has it been as bad of a winter as it seems?

niel

Re: So has it been as bad of a winter as it seems?

well i hope winter is over. so far the snowfall totals did not go above the 57.4 inches i last reported. it was 80 degrees today, but there's a bit of a system coming that may give us a tad more snow and it odd with us having 80 degrees while denver was 27 and they will go into the single digits tonight while we will still be above 60 degrees. it is also not unusual to have frost up to april 20 or so here as that is about the average for our last day of frost. if the temp goes low there's always a chance to add to the total snowfall.

me, i already started pulled weeds out of the yard and even used weed killer twice already. we also had our first bee sneak into the house. big mistake for him.

NorthGuy

Re: So has it been as bad of a winter as it seems?

niel wrote: »

me, i already started pulled weeds out of the yard and even used weed killer twice already.

And we still have 3 feet of snow on the ground

icarus

Re: So has it been as bad of a winter as it seems?

Hah! we had 6" moreover the weekend, and more very night since. Today it finally cleared, but it is going to drop to about 0F (-18c) tonight. we still have ~3' of snow in the bush. we went out and measured the ice today. 6" snow on top of 6" of slush ice, 6" of water over 30" of blue ice.

We usually See open water the last week in April, first week in May. My bet is we might get open water by May 15th. Heck, we re still on the snowmobile, both on the lake and on the road. By now we usually have been on the ATV for a couple of weeks!

Tony

PS last year we had record early open water, April 3.

T

Dill

Re: So has it been as bad of a winter as it seems?

worst spring in recent memory. 9-12 inches of snow on the way this afternoon and into tomorrow. What a kick in the boys....

niel

Re: So has it been as bad of a winter as it seems?

as much as i feel the winter has been worse than usual here, you guys are all making me feel glad i'm in pittsburgh.:-)

solar_dave

Re: So has it been as bad of a winter as it seems?

niel wrote: »

as much as i feel the winter has been worse than usual here, you guys are all making me feel glad i'm in pittsburgh.:-)

And me glad I am in AZ. The tomato plants are all at least a foot tall and flowering now.

Cariboocoot

Re: So has it been as bad of a winter as it seems?

niel wrote: »

as much as i feel the winter has been worse than usual here, you guys are all making me feel glad i'm in pittsburgh.:-)

That's not an easy thing to accomplish either.

We're having fun with precipitation on above freezing days followed by below freezing nights here. It's ... interesting.

RandomJoe

Re: So has it been as bad of a winter as it seems?

Hah... When I first read this thread I was thinking "no, it's been remarkably warm and pleasant..."

Not today!

It was 80F and HUMID yesterday, sultry and warm! By 5PM it was 50 degrees. This morning it was hovering right at freezing, and had been raining lightly since before midnight. The temp actually dropped to about 31 during the morning, and the western half of the state was encased in ice. Power lines and LOTS of trees coming down, thanks to the high winds that came along too.

Not NEARLY as bad as the big ice storm we had a few years back, thankfully, but quite a mess. It's now up to 36, and the trees are slowly resuming normal shape.

But we're going down to a record low tonight, last record set back in the mid-1950s. The last time we saw sleet and ice in Oklahoma in April was back in the 1940s!

And by Sunday we'll be back up to 80 degrees...! :cool:

niel

Re: So has it been as bad of a winter as it seems?

the weather is kind of crazy isn't it. i just had some nasty storms blow through here yesterday and along with the usual power outage i found my other pc did not turn on again.:grr doa. even though it was off, computers still run in the background just like many things today including tvs and sat/cable boxes. if it isn't switched off physically it could still blow out. i left the power strip on as the other half got a wireless phone and i plugged it into the pc's power strip. oops. so far that's 2 amd pcs downed by incidents like this and 2 intels that did fine. i won't draw the conclusion that intel's boards and chips are bulletproof though. i will probably prefer intel, but they are higher priced too. i don't want to replace it with something that won't handle things in a year or 2 either. ah decisions.

Cariboocoot

Re: So has it been as bad of a winter as it seems?

Yesterday: 4C (40F) and raining.
Today: ground is covered in snow again.
But it's melting now.

Crazy.

ggunn

Re: So has it been as bad of a winter as it seems?

It was 41 degrees in Austin last night. I had to move some tropical plants back inside.

It's not unheard of weather here this time of year, but definitely unusual. It was an unusually warm winter as well. Go figure.

northerner

Re: So has it been as bad of a winter as it seems?

Has been a long winter here in the Peace Region of Northern Alberta. We had an early start to winter with snow on the ground in October, and we still have about 1 to 1 1/2 feet of snow pack left to melt. Snow is usually gone here in mid April. It has been a relatively mild season, with more temperature fluctuations than normal. We didn't even make it down to -40C!:D

And we likely will be getting round two of the major tent caterpillar infestation this spring. Last year most of the deciduous tree leaves disappeared in areas as far as the eye could see (ie for tens of kilometers). Apparently it gets worse every year until a virus or significant environmental event finally does them in. I've heard that can take up to 7 years!

Cariboocoot

Re: So has it been as bad of a winter as it seems?

northerner wrote: »

And we likely will be getting round two of the major tent caterpillar infestation this spring. Last year most of the deciduous tree leaves disappeared in areas as far as the eye could see (ie for tens of kilometers). Apparently it gets worse every year until a virus or significant environmental event finally does them in. I've heard that can take up to 7 years!

Good thing Alberta (unlike BC) made an effort against the pine bark beetle or else you'd have no green at all.

Nothing like a few hundred thousand hectares of standing dead trees to make T-storms more interesting.

northerner

Re: So has it been as bad of a winter as it seems?

Cariboocoot wrote: »

Good thing Alberta (unlike BC) made an effort against the pine bark beetle or else you'd have no green at all.

Nothing like a few hundred thousand hectares of standing dead trees to make T-storms more interesting.

I really don't think it will be stopped. Alberta is still battling the mountain pine beetle. There's not many pine trees in the area I live in. We mostly have white spruce, aspen, and polar trees, with black spruce and larches in the wetter areas. But when the beetle came through here a couple of years ago or so, it took out every pine tree.

The tent caterpillar infestations of the poplar and aspen trees are a natural occurrence here, and are actually beneficial to the forest overall. Although, they stress the trees by eating all the leaves, a few smaller leaves grow back, and is enough to keep the tree alive. By eating the leaves and pooping it out, that helps to decompose the leaves and fertilizes the forest floor at a much faster rate than through normal decomposition, due to the cool climate here. Weaker and older trees may not survive the gluttonous onslaught of these bugs. Although, you don't want to be in the forest when they are going through, as it will be raining with their poop. I've also heard of vehicles getting stuck on hills, because their remains are greasy too!

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmonton/story/2012/06/18/edmonton-tent-caterpillars-infestation.html

niel

Re: So has it been as bad of a winter as it seems?

just when we thought winter's over the midwest it getting zapped with a snow storm. it certainly has been as weird winter season, but enough's enough already.

NorthGuy

Re: So has it been as bad of a winter as it seems?

niel wrote: »

just when we thought winter's over the midwest it getting zapped with a snow storm. it certainly has been as weird winter season, but enough's enough already.

We've got a foot of snow on April 29. Where's the global warming?

solar_dave

Re: So has it been as bad of a winter as it seems?

NorthGuy wrote: »

We've got a foot of snow on April 29. Where's the global warming?

Down here! it was 98F yesterday. April was above average temps.

westbranch

Re: So has it been as bad of a winter as it seems?

According to the meteorologist on Mother TV (CBC) the cause has been a southward shift in the Jet stream (from its normal spring location) to about the 49 th parallel or a bit south of it and a bunch of lows trapped in the stream which has caused COLD Northern air to head south... Forecast for tomorrow is in the mid 20's headed to 28 C ( ~82 F) on Monday! Weird... was in the low digits (5*C) yesterday.

mike95490

Re: So has it been as bad of a winter as it seems?

NorthGuy wrote: »

We've got a foot of snow on April 29. Where's the global warming?

San Francisco has heat alert warnings for the next several days, elderly to seek shelter......

niel

Re: So has it been as bad of a winter as it seems?

it's warm here too and the temps were above normal for april, although not too noticeably so. eventually that cold pocket of air should go east and it will most likely moderate some before it gets to here, but i don't really see that indicated by my 10 day long range forecast as they show temps fairly steady with a chance of showers thursday. official temp for may 2 here was 77 degrees and long range shows temps into the 70s pretty much for the next 10 days. that 77 degrees is 10 degrees above normal for here this time of year.

NorthGuy

Re: So has it been as bad of a winter as it seems?

We finally got some above seasonal temperatures too. Skipped the spring and went directly to the summer!

RandomJoe

Re: So has it been as bad of a winter as it seems?

This week we had a near-repeat of my previous post. Didn't get below freezing, so no ice this time. Wednesday it was in the 80s, I was nice and warm in shorts and t-shirt. The house even got to 80 inside, at one point I considered firing up the AC for the first time this year.

Then I noticed the weather station. The front had arrived! In just a couple hours it dropped from 80 into the 50s - so I just opened the windows for "free cooling".

Yesterday was cold, W*I*N*D*Y, wet and miserable. So glad I didn't have to work outside. Just going from car to building was bad enough!

Today the sun was out, looks like a nice weekend.

Mangas

Re: So has it been as bad of a winter as it seems?

Drought conditions continue here in the desert mountains and mesas. Another dry and cold winter. Grazing conditions difficult except for mesquite country where blooms and beans provide dependable forage for stock and wildlife.

Hardly any wildflower show this spring. Summer rains still out to July 4th.

Wildfire danger high.

niel

Re: So has it been as bad of a winter as it seems?

that front did arrive here and they changed the forecast for 5 straight gloom and doom days. it seems sunday will be the first predicted day of sun again.:grr

niel

Re: So has it been as bad of a winter as it seems?

unbelievably it does not end as they have issued a freeze warning for my area tonight. i think i'm in the twilight zone with this goofy weather's unpredictability. it'll be back into the 80s by weds.