So, how's the weather?

And it's snowing again. A week too late to make a white Christmas.

All foggy this morning. Was foggy a few weeks ago.

I was almost expecting (or really half-hoping) that creatures from Silent Hill would start shambling out of the mist.

Snowed on Monday but that didn't last long.

I just wish that something else would come with the weather.

It's bloody mayhem here just now; bridges that have stood for centuries are being washed away and villages are underwater tonight that have never been troubled by so much as a damp carpet before now.

It's been clear for the last few days, but the recent downpours have made for a lot of flooding and some scary times for many people.

It's not just the downpours. Differing policies on how to treat watersheds have had major impacts.

For example... the Long Preston section of the Yorkshire river system in Cravendale. Dry as a bone, with woodland management around the sources and careful water-storing measures in place. But, compare and contrast with just a little further downstream where other tributaries joined the system without such things in place to calm the rush and sudden shocks down.

We've been piecemeal and stupid over the last 30 to 40 years with our waterway management. Anybody on the canals and rivers could tell you that for free.

The Rivers Warfe, Derwent and Ouse have been issues for years (centuries, actually). The Aire is... well, it's always been a bit odd: most of it isn't navigable at the best of times and is often left to its own devices (not a grand idea). But, the conflicting attempts to do quick fixes in odd sections of rivers rather than longer term planning for all the rivers and tributary streams ultimately joining the Humber haven't helped one bit.

We need joined-up thinking for a lot of the linked river systems, regardless of district, city, county, council and, in some cases, country boundaries.

Places like the Craven need to have more say (and clout) when it comes to the management of the land around their section of systems... and in how others continue to manage the rivers they are the sheds for: they're vital.

In short: locals need to be listened to when they start yelling about such things as land use, drainage issues and silt build-up. They know where the small problems that turn into bigger ones down the line are.

edited 5th Jan '16 12:08:30 PM by Euodiachloris

So, today it seems that the weather thought we were getting too complacent with this mild winter and decided to surprise us with -20 degree weather.

I had to wear five layers on me to be somewhat warm.

That's not THAT bad...if assuming that's a Centigrade/Celsius reading. (Which would be about -4F) That's a near-zero/just below-zero Fahrenheit temp. Bitterly cold yes for temperate latitudes, but Arctic it is not.

Now, if that is -20 Fahrenheit...yeesh! Perkele, that's cold! That would be almost about -30 Celsius and would be a "warm" day on the Arctic Circle. That kind of cold is rare at my latitude (37N near the 38th).

edited 5th Jan '16 6:50:19 PM by MajorTom

Snow 4 weeks late. Thanks for nothing, Nature.

Not going in to work tonight. Even when the weather isn't crap (by local standards, hush you northern tropers ) I wouldn't be making a lot of money. When the weather is crap what little value exists vanishes.

We got about 6" of snow overnight...got the day off from work.

Around here there was like 3 inches, but there was some freezing rain in the mix so it's particularly unpleasant for most drivers, since they don't see snow regularly enough to be familiar with how to handle it.

As for work, they closed an hour before I was scheduled to come in anyway, so my decision to stay home was a moot point.

It is just cold right now. However our last snow dump was 3.5-4" overnight. Not a huge load but noticeable. Given we still have a ways to go before we get out of the snow period chances are pretty good we are far from done with snow and many believe we are doing for a big storm by the end of winter or our last snow time frame.

Snowing heavily here. Seems like winter, having held off until December, is really here now.

We are heading into a likely Blizzard starting sometime tomorrow. Lots of wind around 12" possible.

Currently in the middle of the second week of a three week high pressure ridge over the Desert Southwest. It's kept the temps (and wind every so often) up and it's a nice change of pace compared to the 18 inches of snow we got just over two weeks ago.

Unfortunately, being a three week ridge it'll break sometime late next week or shortly thereafter...just in time for March, the snowiest time of year in Colorado. Usually when we get a three week ridge (In a normal year you get at least one per winter), the storm that breaks it ain't weak. I'm expecting the beginning of March is going to be a lot of white stuff.

It's a long period of 45-50F weather over here. When someone threw out a hockey stick into a garbage bin on the street, I couldn't help but take a photo captioned with a riff on "climate change hockey stick garbage... and it's 48F in the middle of February!"

Weather is weird where I am. Today I was comfortable in a sweater; tomorrow it's supposed to hit 60 and I'll be fine with a blouse or longsleeve T-shirt, and next week there's a chance of snow showers.

Ah, February/early March, gotta love it.

Ugggggh...already had a day and a half of rain and it's not expected to end until this weekend. Gonna have to exchange my car for a boat to get to work.

Welp we've got the "April monsoon" starting up this week. Rain (which briefly turned to snow) on Sunday into Monday with thunderstorms building up on the mountains over yesterday during the day. Same thing will happen today or at least try. High altitudes above 8000 feet will see rain or snow depending on how long those storms hold over and above 9500 feet will definitely see snow. Anywhere else that might see precipitation will see it as rain.

There's a danger however this time of year. While the "April monsoon" isn't actually a monsoon season and really more just a string of unpredictable weather that lasts about 15 days maximum in mid to late April, it's also first time of year where you see real risk of tornadoes on the high plains and foothills regions. Yeah in rare occasions you'll see a March tornado but it's just that, rare. Usually April is the official start to Colorado tornado season.

And this past weekend we got a minimum of 6 inches of heavy wet sloppy snow and upwards of a maximum of 10 with spots being a foot or deeper. The mountains basically got a uniform 18+ inches with upwards of 4 feet in places.

Now I gotta keep my eye on the rivers for the next two weeks cuz if we get a little bit of a heat wave we might get some flooding.

Two weeks later, it's May 1 and we have snow on the ground from the past several days of heavy snow and rain. The rivers are rising from both melt and rain and I think the forecast today said there was going to be more snow possibly tonight.

Can summer please show up next week?

I know the feeling sans snow. Lots and lots of rain.

Blazing hot here in NYC! Unbearably so.

It saddens me to see page after page of mentions of snow and rain. I wish it was something other than sunny and hot out where I live. We really need some more rain so it must be nice living in areas where the weather is more varied.

^ That's the drawback of living literally right next door to the desert. I live right next door to the Colorado Rockies and we see everything weather wise. No really, everything. About the only thing we can't or don't usually get are tropical weather systems aka hurricanes.

It's starting to rain again here (Oregon). We still get relatively sunny days, but after 10+ years living here I grow to loathe the gray, overcast skies more and more...