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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


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