Octopus Overlords

KATU

Travelers headed south on Interstate 5 for Thanksgiving holiday travel are in for a wild ride.

While traffic is moving at its usual pace with no weather woes along the Oregon-Washington border – it’s a different story near the Oregon-California border.

I-5 remains closed near the border Wednesday morning due to a massive snow storm in the area. Tuesday night, officials closed the interstate in the Yreka, California area and at the southbound lanes of the freeway at Exit 11 in Ashland. I-5 southbound reopened in Ashland at around 8 a.m. Wednesday.

Caltrans District 2 announced I-5 southbound reopened at Weed, California at around 8:10 a.m. Chains or traction tires are required.

We had >50 mph winds today. sent it east, where it is likely to wreck the Macy's parade tomorrow.

Roads are basically "clear" here this morning but I still have ~16" of snow in my backyard and will continue to do so for some time. Dogs not happy.

We had a major snow storm yesterday. Got a lot of snow dumped on us. And then there were the power outages. We had multiple power outages last night, so much so that it made power unreliable. After the first major outage, it would come on for about 5-10 min and go off again, rinse and repeat.

Both major Chicago airports were shutdown for a while this morning because of heavy freezing fog. That'll get the travel day off to a rousing start. Temps are supposed to be in the 50''s here until this weekend. I hope it's cold enough to chill the beer I bought this morning for a 2 pm party.

Weather.com

A major winter storm will bring heavy snow, some ice and potentially blizzard conditions to parts of the Plains this weekend, potentially snarling post-Christmas holiday travel.

This storm system is currently bringing rain and heavy mountain snow to Southern California.

Heavy snow stranded vehicles on Interstate 5 in the mountains north of Los Angeles, a stretch known as the Grapevine, late Wednesday night, prompting a shutdown of freeway. Interstate 15 (Cajon Pass), highways 33 and 138 into the mountains were also closed due to heavy snow early Thursday.

Traffic slowed as portions of Interstate 8 closed in southern California, well east of San Diego, due to heavy snow and lowering visibilities, Thursday morning.
...
Later Thursday through Friday night is when the bulk of rain and higher-elevation snow moves into Arizona, southern Utah, New Mexico and southern Colorado. Some lingering snow is possible in these higher elevations into Saturday, before the storm's precipitation finally moves away.
...
-Friday: Rain spreads into the central and southern Plains during the day. Friday night, snow expands out of the High Plains into the Northern Plains. Freezing rain is possible from parts of northern Kansas into central Nebraska, southeast South Dakota, northern Iowa and southern Minnesota.

We get a toasty holiday week then the bottom goes out and we get normal'ish weather. Yuck.

I just took an hour-long walk over lunch, and now I'm kind of sweaty. I should have left the light jacket behind. It's in the low-60's.

We are going from 70 degrees to 20 degrees in the span of one week....almost just 2 days. Later need week they are saying teens. Well had to happen sometime.

We blew away two high-temp records last weekend, plus a few of the more obscure ones, such as "greatest departure from average" and "highest low temp for the date." It was the first time Boston has ever had two 70-degree days in January. It's still mild this week, but within normal parameters. Supposed to be sunny and 52 tomorrow -- our avg Jan. high is around 35.

Kraken wrote: ↑Wed Jan 15, 2020 12:50 am We blew away two high-temp records last weekend, plus a few of the more obscure ones, such as "greatest departure from average" and "highest low temp for the date." It was the first time Boston has ever had two 70-degree days in January. It's still mild this week, but within normal parameters. Supposed to be sunny and 52 tomorrow -- our avg Jan. high is around 35.

Living in Maine, my biggest concern (outside direct Climate Change) is that a warm or mild winter doesn't kill enough ticks. Warm winters lead to tick explosions, which lead to lots of them finding us - and lots of moose being drained dry.

We invested in a snow blower this winter - I can clear our driveway and 700' easement in about 90 minutes by myself now - but this seems to have only provoked the Snow Gods into withholding their bounty.

This weekend, the Canadian East-Coast got beat by winter. 30-Inches in 24hrs, 15ft snowdrifts and cars completely covered. I've even seen a video of someone snowboarding down the streets and onto the edge of a building.

https://earther.gizmodo.com/check-out-t ... 1841100561

Think it will rain?

They say this could be our first "year without a winter" since 2012. They also say that Boston will have the climate of Virginia by 2050 (while VA will have the climate of Venus).

My watch says -6°F. We don't get a lot of degree-deficit days around here (though I do have a screencap of a -28°F from a drive to the airport from a few years ago).

Brrr...

Forecast models for the next couple of days helpfully put snow accumulation at 0-8".

I love winter...



I love the sound it makes as it goes whooshing by.

We're supposed to get 7" of rain over the next 36 hours. We normally get right around 4" of rain/month. In January we got 7". Now we're getting almost 2 months worth by Friday. This should be fun.

We haven't seen lows like this since Tuesday, February 4, 2020!

stessier wrote: ↑Wed Feb 05, 2020 11:36 am We're supposed to get 7" of rain over the next 36 hours. We normally get right around 4" of rain/month. In January we got 7". Now we're getting almost 2 months worth by Friday. This should be fun.

Rain is quite impressive. Trees down, rivers flooding. Two tornados on the ground. One headed our way (I'm at work - could probably take a direct nuclear blast and be fine) and lights flickering. Fun times.

We got 5" in 2 days now. Also its been 70/60 for high and low for a few days now. Tonight it will be 30 and tomorrow a high of 41....and of course tomorrow is a store trip day.

Wound up with about 2" of snow last night. Driveway and sidewalk was shoveled by 6:30 am.

Looks like we're supposed to get alternating snow-rain-snow on Sunday. I'm out of town this weekend, so I wonder what sort of suckage I'll be coming home to on Monday.

The view out the front door today. Got double what was predicted. Ive made me some snow cream and sitting here trying to thaw my fingers. I put out a big thing of bird seed for the little hungry folk. Going to be back in the 60s come Monday. 33 right now.

Looks exactly like my yard this morning but I'm used to it and I know you are not!

We got down into the upper forties last night... but it got into the sixties today. I suppose no one will care that I'm looking at the low eighties for a high for the next few days

In 2018 we bought a new house (out in the hinterlands). MHS had a medical procedure that required lots and lots of doctor appointments. And me and my broken lungs had a terrible infection that lasted months and months. When winter rolled around I splurged and purchased a two-stage electric snowblower (the markdown from the price on that page was a few benjamins). If we needed to get out of the house, we were going to be able to get out of the house.

I've used that sucker three times this year, twice in the last four days, and it looks like I'll be back out there blowing snow again today. When I cleaned things up prior to hosting poker yesterday, I (again) remarked just how happy I was that I made that "splurge" last year. Depending on conditions, there's just barely enough juice to clear the driveway in front of our 3-car garage, and the sidewalks in front of ours and our adjoining neighbors' homes. When conditions are ~8"+ of snow, I can leave our third driveway spot unblown and still get the relevant sidewalks on one charge.

The electric snowblower wouldn't be appropriate for everyone (this is the first place I've lived where it's just barely capable), but man is it convenient to have a light-weight, low-noise, nearly-zero-maintenance, zero-emission snow tosser in our garage at the ready. I can do in 45 minutes what would take me twice that with a shovel, and there's a significantly lower risk of an asthma or heart attack finishing the job before the driveway is cleared.

Thank you snowblower (and 2018 spending splurges)!

Maybe invest in a helicopter

Well we got 5"+ of rain then it snowed 3"+ then it melted and its rained another 2" or so and for the week another 4"+ is expected then next week is showing rain again.....gonna need a bigger boat...or a boat at all.

I feel ya, same here (except our snow was only enough to accumulate on the grass, but not really measurable). There's no where for all the water to go. And the roads are falling apart when it gets cold between the storms. Not great.

CNN

A complex storm system is gaining strength over the Midwest as two storms will combine to dump snow from Missouri to Maine this week.

"A strong winter storm will bring the heaviest snow from the Great Lakes into New England, including cities like Chicago, Detroit, and Buffalo," said CNN meteorologist Dave Hennen.

Monday's forecast models were predicting significant snow for Chicago. Forecasts now call for the snow band to setup farther south, leaving the city with far less snow than initially predicted.

"Chicago will likely see 3 to 6 inches in the city, with more substantial amounts south of town," Hennen says. "Detroit could pick up 8 to 10 inches, while parts of Canada could see 2 feet."
...
The most snowfall is currently expected across southeast Michigan where 6 inches or more could fall, according to the weather service.

CNN and the weather service should really get on the same page.

70 in SF, with no rain probable until a week from Sunday.

Looks like Fire Season this year will be ugly since we haven't had rain in a month.

We're on track for our 3rd-warmest February in history, but only our 7th-least-snowiest. Apparently there were years that February didn't bring any snow at all. For the YTD we've had ~15", and 7" of that were in December.

It got down to 44 last night, but order was restored with a high of 86.

25 tomorrow night. Monday's high will be near 70.

Isgrimnur wrote: ↑Tue Feb 25, 2020 5:26 pm
Monday's forecast models were predicting significant snow for Chicago. Forecasts now call for the snow band to setup farther south, leaving the city with far less snow than initially predicted.

"Chicago will likely see 3 to 6 inches in the city, with more substantial amounts south of town," Hennen says.

Or, 1-1.5", which is what we actually had. Enough to make the side streets shitty, but for the most part the roads were just wet. It was still blowing and flurrying this morning so I didn't bother shoveling my driveway. It's supposed to be in the 50's again Sunday.

We had about 2-3 inches where I live. I ran the shovel over the sidewalk and decks while the kids were eating breakfast and I'm hoping we don't get much more by the time I get home, as by that point the sidewalk will be a royal pain due to everyone walking and packing the snow down.

We got a dusting too. No snow stuck on our front sidewalk. About 2 inches of light stuff in back. 5 minutes to shovel and salt.

Normally I'd want more snow but I have 20 people from the office going to Morton Grove for a lunch meeting today. Everyone was crafting their weather related excuses yesterday and I said let's wait and see.

Bam, get ye there you slacker! Not my first snow rodeo.

Snowdeo?