Got Snow?

[Kathie in Thorp]

They said, "Worst El Nino ever!" They said, "Look for most horrible drought ever!" We got snow; we got PITA snow! Passes shut down; wrecks all over the Cascade mountains and on both either sides and everywhere; state and county highway crews can't keep up. It's been coming down for days. Probably 16" now at our 1,700 ft. elevation.

BUT, wind has changed this evening (from the south -- weird), and just within the last hour cleared 8" from the front door. Pups are going to have to re-learn puppy pads, as we can't get to their outside kennel. Cattle are good; they can go out or in. We feed inside.

Definitely going to have a white Christmas here, but could really use a bit less of it right now. Putting the studded tires on my Jeep tomorrow! Don't have enough weight in the Dodge to be driving it; it's parked.

We need the snow. It's just an inconvenience we work with, with day job, daily chores, and (now) holiday travel.

Merry Christmas!

 

[Bestoutwest]

We've been getting rain. And more rain. And more rain after that. I'm sick of rain. I'm beginning to hate rain. But I know I'll be complaining come sometime next year when we don't have any rain at all.

 

[Dave]

The storms have been lining up one after another. The new bride has never seen rain like this before. I have been telling her it isn't normal but that is wearing thin. We even had snow down here at sea level yesterday. It snowed like mad for 20 minutes. Turned the ground white, then switched back to rain and it was gone in 10 minutes. It rained well into the evening last night. Then at some point it cleared off and dropped well below freezing. The roads were a sheet of black ice this morning.

There are five mountain passes connecting Eastern Washington to Western Washington. Two of them close every winter. They are closed now until about late May. Of the other three one has been closed for about two weeks now. They are hoping to get it open sometime next week. The other two have been closed off and on for about 20% of the time. Travel from one side of the state to the other has been nearly impossible. You got to love winter.

 

[chrisy]

We have one of the mildest winters on record here in London, looks like we might have a warm Christmas, strange no had one for years in England. North of the Country is not so lucky they have floods, and another bout of rain is expected to make it even worse, horrid Christmas for some poor folks.

 

[Williamsv]

No snow here in Middle GA. Just rain, rain, and more rain. Not even cold temps. We will be in the eighties Christmas Day. It feels more like spring here than winter. One heavy frost Sunday morning. Do not think it killed much. Grass is still green.
We have had too much rain and more on the way. My county is under a flash flood watch until Friday morning at nine o'clock. Dirt roads are really bad and everywhere you look is standing in water. Hope we get some of this in July. We need sun and wind right now.

 

[John SD]

5-6" here that came on Tues/Weds of last week. Lots of frost hanging on power lines at that time knocked the juice off here for 24 hours. Today might have hit 40. Sun does have some punch to it when it comes out.

I even turned the heater in the pickup off coming home from town with the new Stur-D 24' adjustable alley Santa got for me this year :banana: :banana: :banana: 50 mph is no problem. Starts feeling a bit squirrely at 55 :o

Above freezing temps today settled the snow down some but can't say any of this batch has melted yet. They had 18" in the higher Black Hills out of this deal. The ski places are now open for the season.

 

[Dave]

Chains are required on the two main mountain passes. The Washington Dept of Transportation is asking people to delay holiday travel over the mountains until at least Christmas day. So much for a trip to Grandma's house...... the news said that they have had more snow in Spokane so far this year than they did all of last winter.
All the ski areas are open but it is mighty difficult to get to them.
And there is another storm slamming us this morning.

 

[ga.prime]

Different set of problems down here in the tropics. Swarms of bloodthirsty mosquitos terrorize the land. Screams of the victims go unheard, their cries for help being drowned out by the deafening sound of croaking frogs.

 

[Nesikep]

We have a skiff of snow here.. temps just below freezing... I'm pretty happy about it.. cows are still grazing for a while

 

[Kathie in Thorp]

No new precip here today in last 24 hours, but we've got probably 14-15 inches on the ground. Enough to be troublesome, but we've been plowed out -- finally!

 

[John SD]

Probably another 3-4 inches of snow overnight on top of what we already have. Yard is snowed in again. Still blowing so I'm not going to try to do anything about it until the wind goes down.

 

[Alan]

It was a strange December on the wet side of Oregon and Washington, all time record for amount of rainfall and the most consecutive days of rain. In early December we had so much rain during one night many roads were washed out and are still closed. Then last Monday we had a freak wind storm, gust around 80mph, add the saturated ground and lot's and lot's of down trees. Seems like most of them were kind anough to fall on power lines and cause major problems. We lost power Monday afternoon, thankfully the PUD hired crews out of two other cities to help them get things back online, we had power back on Thursday afternoon and Internet came back on Christmas morning. We lost seven trees on our place, four of them were again kind enough to fall across our driveway. Most of our down trees were 50 to 60 Doug firs....... Oh well a couple of years worth of future firewood. The wife and I are hoping the worst of winter is behind us, although we're not holding our breath.

 

[Named'em Tamed'em]

I am sick and tired of the rain and mud!

My skidsteer died just as I dropped a 3x4x8 bail into the feeder. I had to disable the hydraulic drive gears and drag it out of the pasture with my dodge dually . What a muddy mess.

A couple wires on the wiring harness had rubbed against the engine. Easy fix once I got it to the shop.

 

[Kathie in Thorp]

We've got about 15" of white stuff on the ground now; have not had temps above freezing for days and days. A little bit below zero here this morning, and COLD is the forecast for the next week or so. Not expecting much in the way of new snowfall through that. But the white stuff is going to be around for awhile. Neighbor is out here with his big tractor and plow, re-doing what he did last week (we added a couple inches since his last visit), and clearing a path out back for the slaughter truck that'll be coming in on Monday morning. But, no question: We've got snow pack in the mountains; forecasts a couple months ago said we were still going to be wrapped in drought again in 2016. Not so -- look'n good for summer irrigation! Wouldn't mind a bit of WARM, but then we'd have the mud/muck and probably flooding along the waterways. I know: "B-ytch, b-ytch, b-ytch!"

 

[Nesikep]

No snow here to speak of.. it is cold this morning but it was gorgeous outside.. perfectly clear, sunny, and crystaline

 

[sim.-ang.king]

No snow just 9" of rain...

 

[Kathie in Thorp]

Fresh snow coming down here at a pretty good rate today. But, almost a heat wave at 18 degrees.

 

[Nesikep]

it's about 5F here today.. still cold and crisp.. gorgeous weather!... no snow.

 

[kjonesel]

I was just thinking this evening that it was pretty odd that I still haven't put the heaters in the stock tanks. It has gotten up to 40 today and has gotten down to 24 the past two nights with sunshine all day. It is just now beginning to get dry enough to walk across the fields as we had 5 plus inches of rain this past week. I will get the heaters out in the next day or so before it gets really cold it is always easier before the sun goes down and the temperture plunges.
As I sit here typing this I send out a prayer for all those who are facing hardships because of the adverse weather that we have experienced the past few weeks.

 

[Nesikep]

IT'S SNOWING.. a couple inches on the ground.. forecast wasn't calling for any, so we'll see how long it comes down