Skip to main content

Well, Winter WAS coming!

Happy new year to any and all readers of my, on again, off again, blog.

In our little corner of the world, and with stories of record cold and snowfall in areas that don't normally get that type of weather, our winter has been almost no snow and well warmer than any winter since we've been living in this mountainous area of the North West since 2006.

Yes, there has been some snowfall, we got about two inches just before Christmas Eve so we did have a 'white Christmas' but then it warmed and rained. And that scenario has been the constant here.
Even with many "Winter Storm Warnings" in the past month, none of the storms have been of any consequence here with no precipitation at all occurring or smatterings of snow locally, like less than a half inch.
I've been keeping weather records since before 2016, but the before 2016 records were lost so I am more careful now by using Google Sheets, keeping it "in the cloud" so I won't lose it like before.

Anyway, as I write this post, it should be during the coldest and snowiest time of winter locally.
It USED to be about a week somewhere from Christmas to the middle of January that would be at or even below zero (-17 C) and there would "normally" be a building of snow between 3 and 6 feet (0.9 to 1.8 Meters) of snow on the ground in our area for a normal winter season.
Today, there is a dusting of snow from a passing storm last night with the possibility, another winter storm warning until tomorrow afternoon, of some accumulation. We'll see. It could happen, there is time and it is winter after all. I just am not optimistic myself.

Many people, like Stacy, are loving this new, (Global Warming) warmer, no real snow on the ground winter. This reminds me of my winters growing up in Southern California, where in winters we got the rain in the valleys, back when it rained, and snow in the mountains, usually over 4,000 to 6,000 feet (1,219 to 1,828 meters) high. That is kind of what is happening this winter, except there aren't the high mountains like the San Bernardino mountains had with the local high peak at about 6,000 feet (1,828 meters) high.
All I see is the severe fire and hornet season coming this summer. Drier means more fire in the forested North West and Canada!

Above: This was taken in December 2017, I think around the 27th. 



Above: This was taken 12/24/18 with our heaviest snowfall so far, just a couple of inches......and
Below: How things looked on 12/21/18


So, this is where things are at this point. In February 2017, that was when we got about three feet of snow overnight, but there was already a few feet of snow on the ground so it really added on. It could happen, there might be a snowfall. We'll see!

Overall, looking forward to a good 2019!

Tad


Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Life in a Northern Town, In Winter

So, here we are, early in 2018. While our area gets cold, we don't get the  really cold, the cold of Montana and eastward. Where we are, in North Idaho, 30 miles from Canada, we are in a bowl of a valley. That's why we wind up with mostly overcast days in the winter. We are also pretty well protected from the strong blizzard kinds of winds and the weather patterns that are causing the conditions in Montana eastward, a parked high-pressure system that steers that super cold weather up and over this area and into Montana and eastward. We are into, what is usually some of the coldest weather of the year for this area, for a normal year! When was the last of those, normal years, thanks to climate change, whether from natural cycles or what's been changed by human expansion? Anyway, since before Christmas the area has been lows in the 8 to 10-degree (F) range (-13 C to -12 C) with highs in the upper teens to low 20's (-6 C or so). As mentioned the last post, we'd

Yeah!! The Elections are over!!! For now.....

Yes we're sure glad the elections are over, that is a really good thing. But we're even more happy that they're over because of the CONSTANT commercials on TV and the, seemed like, every night calls at home. With the stretched out length of this election "season" (as it was referred to on many programs!), and with those increasingly annoying TV adds and calls to sway votes, we quit answering the phone all together, were really bad and lasted so much longer this time around. And with our ability to see regional TV from other locations in the US and Canada, what we didn't see for more local stuff, we saw the same kinds of things for those areas instead. It was interesting at times, and thoughts of how things could have changed if the actual election had been held earlier with the rush of pro Palin, or if Obama had chosen Hillary instead of Biden, just so many things this time around had potential for some serious changes to the outcome! But we've got what

Other things from the past week

Hornets, Yellow jackets, and Wasps, a very, very bad year this year for them around here!  And not just in our area but most of North Idaho from what we've found out. In fact when Stacy stopped at Wal Mart to buy some new bait for our traps, Wal Mart was sold out and across the street at Home Depot, she was lucky to get there when a new shipment of traps and bait was being opened. She was told by the clerk that their shipments have been selling out in less than a day and as quick as a half hour as so many people are having problems with the bugs! And hospital and doctor visits have increased dramatically too due to stings according to the news. It has been both hotter and dryer than normal locally this summer so mosquitoes were way down, a very good thing!  But now in late August when the "skitos" would be low anyway, the Hornets, Yellow Jackets and Wasps, and yes we have all three types on our place!, have been going crazy quietly building nests all over the