Great Blizzard of December 2010

While the homies back in Wisconsin and Minnesota were trying to deal with about a foot and a half of new snow, winds of 30 to 40 miles per hour, and temperatures plummeting toward zero over the last night and today I was out putting the Christmas lights on the front of the house today in temperatures that were hovering around 50 degrees!  I must say that the Albrecht mansion of 54th Lane in Spokane is looking mighty festive.  Santa is hanging out in the backyard, and as always he is pretty well lit up...Christmas cheer you know.  I am certainly not fool enough to think that this weather is going to be like this for long, but for the next couple of days I will be enjoying the meltdown before the colder weather returns.

Now I have my doubts that any of you have ever heard of the Madden-Julian Oscillation, but you are about too.  This is a winter phenomena that occurs from the Indian Ocean into the tropical western Pacific that has a huge influence on our weather here in the United States, especially the Pacific Northwest.  I will spare you the details but it generally takes place over a two to three week span, and so our weather tends to swing from cold to warm in the same pattern.  From the middle of November to just past the first of December things around here were very snowy and cold.  Them, we swung the other way and about a week and a half ago things started to warm up.  By the end of this week we will be heading back toward the cold side of the cycle, so you can look forward to more winter like weather through the end of the month.  I just thought you might want to know for planning purposes through the Christmas and New Years holiday.

Just a quick note on our church services this morning...today we had the Christmas program for the kids of the Pre-school and Kindergarten, along with a little help from the Sunday School.  210 people showed up today, and the church only seats about 220, so it was a packed house.  The parking lot was full almost an hour before things got started!  Following the worship service we had our 2nd Sunday Brunch...french toast casserole and sausage links...Yum!  It all turned out to be quite an experience.  With Christmas Eve less than 2 weeks away I can even begin to guess how many folks might come through the doors!