It is cold and quiet this morning, with just a fine dust of snow covering the streets and driveways. At least the wind is not howling...not yet! That will begin tonight into tomorrow as even colder air get blown into the area from the northeast. Winds will gust to 3o miles per hour, and temperatures will only be around 20 (after reaching 30 today) so the combination will produce a windchill of zero or below at times. There isn't much snow in the forecast for the next few days, but it sure will be cold. On Monday and Tuesday the high temperatures won't be getting out of the teens, and the lows will be near zero. If there were a bunch of snow on the ground it would be 10 to 15 degrees colder.
Kay and I were considering going out to hunt down and kill a Christmas tree tomorrow. With the above forecast...not so much!
Saturday, December 5, 2009
Friday, December 4, 2009
Test Time
At this moment I am sitting in my classroom watching my aviation weather students take the last exam of the course. If I had to take it today I would probably get all of the questions wrong, even though I am the person who made up the test! I make this statement based upon my performance on the tennis court this morning, or better yet, lack of performance. I knew what I needed to do, but just couldn't execute it. (Actually, I probably should have been executed!). It was by far the worst tennis that I have played since Wednesday. Unfortunately, I was able to drag my partners down with me. Hey...there is always a bright side...things won't be able to get much worse today!
The gray and gloomy sky matches my gray and gloomy perspective on things. It is cold and we have had a few snow flurries today. The gray will likely last all day, and temperatures will remain just in the 20s. There may be a light dusting of snow tomorrow and the cold temperatures will continue. Into the middle of next week it is going to be very cold, so cold in fact, that we may not even get to 20 on Monday and Tuesday.
The gray and gloomy sky matches my gray and gloomy perspective on things. It is cold and we have had a few snow flurries today. The gray will likely last all day, and temperatures will remain just in the 20s. There may be a light dusting of snow tomorrow and the cold temperatures will continue. Into the middle of next week it is going to be very cold, so cold in fact, that we may not even get to 20 on Monday and Tuesday.
Thursday, December 3, 2009
Thinkin' Christmas
I spent a good part of the afternoon putting together the Christmas Eve "evening service". We are going to have one service at 6:00pm, and another at 11:00pm. The earlier will be a family service and the later a traditional candlelight service. At 6 we will be doing a Lessons and Carols liturgy with lots of our favorite Christmas carols with scripture readings in between. The music will be a blend of traditional instrumentation (probably piano since I don't think that the organ will be completely installed by Christmas Eve) and more contemporary (guitars and drums). I am really excited about this service and am looking forward to having lots of visitors. I still have to put together the 11 o'clock Christmas Eve service and the Christmas morning service, bit hey, there is still 3 weeks to go!
The weather is making it feel like Christmas, but it doesn't look like it, at least not yet. It has been cold and sunny these last couple of days, and it is going to be getting colder. The chill will grip us through most of next week, but the air is going to be too dry to produce much snow.
The weather is making it feel like Christmas, but it doesn't look like it, at least not yet. It has been cold and sunny these last couple of days, and it is going to be getting colder. The chill will grip us through most of next week, but the air is going to be too dry to produce much snow.
Wednesday, December 2, 2009
Another Cold One
Temperatures are dropping again out there as the sky is clear and the wind is light. We will be in the mid teens by morning. Today was bright and sunny though, and tomorrow should be similar, so I am certainly not complaining. As I have mentioned in earlier posts this week it is going to get a whole lot colder. By the early part of next week the temperature is going to have a hard time getting much above 20 degrees!
This evening we had our first Advent supper study at church. We had 13 people for dinner, each of which brought a dish to pass. We ended up with enough food to supply the Russian army. The highlight of the night was the pumpkin-egg nog pie. Wow! Was that ever good. After the supper part we had a bible study covering the events leading up to that first Christmas. This is an opportunity for everyone to slow down a bit during the hectic holiday season and focus on what Christmas is all about...Christ! We will be doing the same thing next Wednesday, and the Wednesday after that, so if you are feeling stressed by all of the holiday hoopla, and feeling hungry, stop by St. John's Lutheran Church from 5:30 to 7:00pm to be fed physically and spiritually.
This evening we had our first Advent supper study at church. We had 13 people for dinner, each of which brought a dish to pass. We ended up with enough food to supply the Russian army. The highlight of the night was the pumpkin-egg nog pie. Wow! Was that ever good. After the supper part we had a bible study covering the events leading up to that first Christmas. This is an opportunity for everyone to slow down a bit during the hectic holiday season and focus on what Christmas is all about...Christ! We will be doing the same thing next Wednesday, and the Wednesday after that, so if you are feeling stressed by all of the holiday hoopla, and feeling hungry, stop by St. John's Lutheran Church from 5:30 to 7:00pm to be fed physically and spiritually.
Its Cold Out There!
I just let the dog...Dixie...out and almost froze my feet. The temperature is 19 degrees! The sun is rising into a clear sky again this morning, so it looks like another sunny day is on the way. One thing to consider is that if there were a couple of inches of snow on the ground it would probably be closer to 5 degrees this morning. That is because snow is more effective emitter of radiation, heat, and on a clear night that snow surface would lose much more heat, with it all just radiating away through the atmosphere out into space. The cold snow surface then chills the air above resulting in much colder temperatures when there is a snow cover as compared with when the ground is bare.
During the day today the temperatures will rise only to the mid 30s, and tomorrow looks about the same. That would be sunny with morning lows in the upper teens and highs in the mid 30s. More clouds will be coming along by Friday and then a few snow showers Friday night into Saturday. That shouldn't amount to much but it will sure feel like winter this weekend as the temperatures get even colder.
During the day today the temperatures will rise only to the mid 30s, and tomorrow looks about the same. That would be sunny with morning lows in the upper teens and highs in the mid 30s. More clouds will be coming along by Friday and then a few snow showers Friday night into Saturday. That shouldn't amount to much but it will sure feel like winter this weekend as the temperatures get even colder.
Tuesday, December 1, 2009
More Lights!
The light of the sun shone all day long. It was a bit nippy, but sunny nonetheless. More sunny weather is to come for Wednesday and Thursday, but the temperatures will be even nippier. We will be only a few degrees above freezing for the next few afternoons, and then by Sunday and early next week high temperatures will just be in the 20s, with lows at 10 degrees or lower. Brrrr!!!
This evening brought new light to the Albrecht abode, as I hung a new fixture over the kitchen sink. I did manage to drop the doggone thing once, breaking the bulb that was in it, but no permanent damage was done to the fixture or to me. The old light was of the 3 dollar variety that you find in apartments and tract houses...go figure. The new one is a little more interesting while still providing enough light to work in the winter darkness. Kay seems pretty happy about it.
December's Lookin' Good...So Far
Its December 1st, and the sun is shining brightly. That doesn't happen that much in December. This is, according to the long term averages, the snowiest month of the year, and when it is not snowing it is usually quite foggy and gloomy. That is why this sunshine is such a welcomed sight. Actually the next few days should be fairly sunny as very dry air inhabits the Pacific Northwest. It will be getting colder though, as today the high will be near 40, tomorrow the mid 30s, and by the weekend just in the 20s. A little snow is still in the forecast for the end of the week, centered on Friday, but I emphasize little as the dry air will continue to dominate the scene.
What about the longer term forecast, for the month of December and the entire winter? The biggest factor in what to expect is still out there, and that is an El Nino event in the tropical Pacific. In a nutshell, when an El Nino occurs warmer than normal water flows slowly eastward from the West Indies toward the northwest coast of South America and that warms the air above. What it all means to us is that El Nino winters tend to be warmer and slightly drier than normal. The average snow level (the elevation that snowflakes melt into raindrops) should be quite a bit higher than the past couple of years, so we should see much less snow and more rain than during the record breaking snowy winter last year, and the one before which was very nearly as bad. We will see some snow, but the total for the year should fall well short of our seasonal average of 48 inches. That sounds like good news to me!
What about the longer term forecast, for the month of December and the entire winter? The biggest factor in what to expect is still out there, and that is an El Nino event in the tropical Pacific. In a nutshell, when an El Nino occurs warmer than normal water flows slowly eastward from the West Indies toward the northwest coast of South America and that warms the air above. What it all means to us is that El Nino winters tend to be warmer and slightly drier than normal. The average snow level (the elevation that snowflakes melt into raindrops) should be quite a bit higher than the past couple of years, so we should see much less snow and more rain than during the record breaking snowy winter last year, and the one before which was very nearly as bad. We will see some snow, but the total for the year should fall well short of our seasonal average of 48 inches. That sounds like good news to me!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)