Last night was a beautiful late fall evening. Full or nearly full moon, temps in the low 50s, fairly clear skies. I had a fire outside, sat out until about 9 PM, very pleasant.
Right now it’s in the upper 20s, about 2" of snow on the ground, roads treacherous. Traffic was crawling the whole way home from work. I turned on my wipers and they were frozen up, caused one to slip on it’s shaft and tear off the washer fluid hose. Drove home with one functional wiper and one smearing ice and snow while pointed in an unintended direction.
This is kind of unusual for this time of year. Normally we have temps in the high 40s- low 50s until early-mid December.
I was unprepared, didn’t have cold weather gear or windshield scrapers in the car. Got off work and the wind was coming straight from the north, usually cold comes from the northwest.
I’m sick of winter already.
I am so glad that the random vagrancies of my retail-worker-bee schedule gave me today off. I originally had plans involving errand and such, but reviewed them and realized I didn’t actually have to to anywhere today. So I didn’t.
I will, however, have to get my butt out the door at dawn tomorrow in the freezing cold.
As I left work yesterday I wondered If I’d have to shovel the driveway when I got home. Yeah, there was a shovelable amount of snow, as it turns out. Which was on top of a thickish layer of ice. I need a large chisel and driveway salt.
Freeze warning for tomorrow night. Low about 24. Had some warnings before but never got below 35.
On Sunday I picked all the peppers in the garden. Something like 30-40 bells, bananas and poblanos. A lovely mix of colors. Mrs. FtG has her hands full. She made a casserole with garbanzos and whatnot stuffed into red bell peppers. That took what, 3 peppers?
I think I’ll bring in one of my impatiens baskets to see how long I can keep it going in the basement.
This is almost 2 weeks earlier than what we’ve been experiencing lately.
When I used to commute from Chicago’s western burbs to Valpo, you could often see a clear weather line along 65. I saw the winds were straight from the N yesterday, running the length of Lake Mich. Woulda made for impressive waves at the Dunes!
But you are not alone. Here, W oc Chicago, we got our 2d sizeable snow of the season yesterday. And today it is likely to get down to single digits.
I’m in west central Indiana. We ended up with around 3" of snow, yesterday. It’s currently 9F, with a windchill of -5. Typical Indiana weather. It’s amazing how many, MANY people, who have lived with wintry conditions all their lives, absolutely forget how to drive in them. Amazing, I say! Wow, though.
I live at 11-2. A quarter of a mile from the continental divide. Winter has been here for a while. 4 feet of snow so far, it’s been an easy November though. October was rough with temps that dipped to -10f.
Saw three cars off the road on my way into town yesterday. Two inches of light powder at night on a ‘warm’ road will really mess you up. Locals are used to it. But tourists/skiers that rent a cars in Denver can get a surprise. The combination of All-Season tires, and limited experience makes for predictable results.
This. Damn, I hate the cold. Yesterday afternoon I set up the horses’ heated water trough and dug up the ground around the barn doors so that they can slide closed when the serious cold arrives.
I also broke out my hoodies. Until it drops below 10F I try to get by with just a hoodie. I despise walking into a bar/restaurant and having to deal with a bulky coat.
Me too, re: a big bulky coat. I pretty much live in fleece pullovers, and a fleece vest. Good enough in even the coldest temps as long as you’re not outside too long. I keep proper gear in my car in case.
For time outside when the weather demands it, I depend on insulated NorthFace bib overalls. Boots, gaiters (you MUST keep your feet warm), the overalls with a fleece pull over under the overalls a fleece vest over the overalls and a long covering shell coat with hood works well. Much more than that and I can’t move.
YakTraxs on your boots for traction are great. A half inch of powder over hard ice will take you down eventually. You still need to be careful. Ice dams are a tricky thing and will take you down as well. It sucks to find yourself on the ground and wondering how the hell it happened.
Gloves are a whole different issue. The answer about gloves is “It depends”.
Hey, I’m not the only one with that on the fall work list! I checked off “scrape barn door clearances” last week. Glad I did – not sure we’re not about to get an early freezeup [ETA: hard frozen soil; we’ve had hard frost, and it wasn’t early for that], though I haven’t seen one this early in years.
No livestock in my barn, but I do need to be able to get in there sometimes during the winter, and having a door refuse to cooperate due to frost heave is annoying.
We got 2" snow last night, a good bit less than they predicted which is fine with me, and prediction for tonight is 12ºF and I expect we’ll get there; it was down to 17º shortly before dark. 12 wouldn’t be surprising at all around here in January or late December, we get colder temps than that; but this is early in the year for it to get this cold. Weatherman on the radio said it’s because the jet streams are acting weird, and it’s actually warmer than usual in Alaska.
I’m currently seeing 20-23 degrees online. My thermometer says 24.6. But it feels just like 25 to me!
Too dark to see the damage to the non-hardy plants yet.
Up the neighborhood, there was a work crew tearing out a driveway yesterday. Um, between alternating freezing and rain forecast, when do they think they’re going to pour?
I moved to a large NE Indiana city last fall. I sincerely dislike the winter already. The roads are bad when it snows, but far scarier are the drivers. Driving home from work Monday night, we saw the remains of 7 car crashes.
The howls from students when they are told they will not go outside for recess are impressive. The district rule is no outdoor recess when it is 20 degrees or below. Perhaps we could send kids out if their parents would dress them in appropriate clothing.
