BS: Is it snowing where you live?

Subject: RE: BS: Is it snowing where you live?
From: Desert Dancer
Date: 06 Feb 10 - 01:22 PM

Alice, where are you in Montana, again? I have a friend in Coeur d'Alene, (northern) Idaho, and they've got no snow at all. Pretty strange for them.

~ Becky in Tucson, where we have had snow on the mountaintops lately

Subject: RE: BS: Is it snowing where you live?
From: Alice
Date: 06 Feb 10 - 01:40 PM

I live in Bozeman, near two ski areas. The town sits at the base of the Bridger mountain range. Bridger Bowl ski area is on the other side of the mountains from town. Big Sky ski resort is a little farther away. The town is a snow pocket. It is high enough in elevation that just driving a few miles lower into the Gallatin valley, you don't see the deep accumulation of snow we get in town.

warm season photo showing Bridger range behind the town

Even though that is not a winter photo, you can still see how we get snow on the peaks of the Bridgers.

Alice

Subject: RE: BS: Is it snowing where you live?
From: Alice
Date: 06 Feb 10 - 01:42 PM

This may have already been posted somewhere in this thread, but it is an El Nino weather pattern this winter, so that is why everyone is experiencing unusual weather.


Alice

Subject: RE: BS: Is it snowing where you live?
From: Alice
Date: 06 Feb 10 - 01:45 PM

Here is an article with photos from November, about the early opening season this winter for Bridger Bowl. Scenic photos from the top of the mountain. click

Subject: RE: BS: Is it snowing where you live?
From: Alice
Date: 09 Feb 10 - 06:18 PM

We are used to deep snow here, so building codes take that into account.
Something unusual has happened, though... two buildings have had roofs cave in from snow in just weeks of each other.



CLICK for full article


"Bob Risk, chief building official with the city of Bozeman, said Monday his staff is still trying to figure out what did in the 4,800-square-foot building.

His staff is also noting that it is part of an unsettling trend in town.

"My understanding is this is only the second time this has happened," Risk said, citing an informal survey of the building inspection office. "The first time was just a couple weeks ago.

"It's kind of odd we had two of them in such close proximity."

In both cases, snow seems to have played a role."

Subject: RE: BS: Is it snowing where you live?
From: Ebbie
Date: 09 Feb 10 - 07:25 PM

Well, after two weeks of balmy banana-y weather, the air has a little bite to it this afternoon, and last night it "snowed"- yeah, right. It snowed almost enough to be able to see your tracks in it.

The forecast is for warming.

The El Nino doesn't explain all of it. Three years ago we had an el nino and a warmer, wetter winter was forecast. That season we had a record-breaking snow season, followed by two other very snowy winter. This year we had a good bit of snow in November but hardly anything measeurable since.

Subject: RE: BS: Is it snowing where you live?
From: Alice
Date: 09 Feb 10 - 07:33 PM

El Nino doesn't deliver the same kind of weather every time it happens.

It does disrupts regular climate patterns, in a major way, in the years that it does happen (esp in continents around the Pacific).
But what happens locally in El Nino years is not always the same weather.

Subject: RE: BS: Is it snowing where you live?
From: frogprince
Date: 09 Feb 10 - 08:12 PM

Nasty here in Michigan. Scraped off my car windows, and ran downtown a couple of miles to the gallery to swap art for a change of exhibits. Got out from there and scraped off the windows. Drove half way home and stopped for 10 or 15 minutes. Scraped off the windows to drive the last mile home. My wife will get off work in about 20 minutes, and ride the 35 miles home with her car-pooling buddy; don't think I'll really be able to relax until I know she's home.

Subject: RE: BS: Is it snowing where you live?
From: SINSULL
Date: 10 Feb 10 - 09:54 AM

We will get some snow today but not much. Wonder if this portends a dry spring.
NYC schools closed today - an incredibly rare occurence. They are expecting a foot of snow.

Subject: RE: BS: Is it snowing where you live?
From: Ebbie
Date: 10 Feb 10 - 11:39 AM

This morning at 6 o'clock I sat on a streetside bench (dry!) and admired the newborn day. It is warm and the air is still.

A man told me last night that he has his springtime snuffles- he thinks winter is over.

Subject: RE: BS: Is it snowing where you live?
From: Bill D
Date: 10 Feb 10 - 12:00 PM

I hereby rename the weather patterns El Weirdo

Subject: RE: BS: Is it snowing where you live?
From: Alice
Date: 10 Feb 10 - 12:33 PM

That's funny, Bill.

Subject: RE: BS: Is it snowing where you live?
From: Ebbie
Date: 10 Feb 10 - 12:38 PM

el Weirdo works for me!

Subject: RE: BS: Is it snowing where you live?
From: Ebbie
Date: 10 Feb 10 - 01:22 PM

The local paper reported the other day that we in Juneau have received less than half of the normal precip this winter.

Subject: RE: BS: Is it snowing where you live?
From: gnu
Date: 10 Feb 10 - 01:23 PM

SINS... starting to look a tad worriesome here, even moreso than for Maine. We have some snow on the ground but it's melting fast... right now in Moncton, it's 5C, sun, no wind.

Like you say, could be a dry spring and if it continues into summer, water could be a problem.

Of course, it's only Feb 10 so there's lots of time yet.

Subject: RE: BS: Is it snowing where you live?
From: VirginiaTam
Date: 10 Feb 10 - 01:58 PM

gawddammitallanyway! yes!

Subject: RE: BS: Is it snowing where you live?
From: Alice
Date: 10 Feb 10 - 02:07 PM

Harvard has an interesting page on El Nino.


http://www.seas.harvard.edu/climate/eli/Level2/research-elnino.html

Subject: RE: BS: Is it snowing where you live?
From: maire-aine
Date: 10 Feb 10 - 02:08 PM

It has stopped now, bu my part of SE Michigan got about 6 - 6.5 inches. Frogprince probably got more (?). It's very light, so not great for snowballs & packing. We missed the earlier storm completely, so we don't have much to complain about. (We'll complain anyway, of course.)

Careful out there, everybody.

M

Subject: RE: BS: Is it snowing where you live?
From: Bill D
Date: 10 Feb 10 - 02:17 PM

We are now within 1/2" of the all-time snowiest Winter since records were kept.

Subject: RE: BS: Is it snowing where you live?
From: Alice
Date: 11 Feb 10 - 01:23 PM

weather.com in their 10 day forecast for Washington, DC, predicts some more snow next Monday.

Subject: RE: BS: Is it snowing where you live?
From: Amos
Date: 11 Feb 10 - 02:06 PM

When even the French Riviera gets hit I am even gladder I live somewhere warm.



A

Subject: RE: BS: Is it snowing where you live?
From: Alice
Date: 11 Feb 10 - 02:34 PM

AP news Feb 11, 2010
DALLAS — Snow blanketed parts of Texas on Thursday as a winter storm slowed traffic, interrupted classes and forced the cancellation of hundreds of flights.

Subject: RE: BS: Is it snowing where you live?
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 11 Feb 10 - 03:19 PM

If you have serious snow, you might as well get some pleasure out of it.

Here are the directions for following a tradition from Sweden. When its cold and snowy, you make a little 'igloo' of snowballs and burn a candle inside it.

One night long ago, I was going to have board meeting at my house one winter night. I knew that people would be tired and discouraged that day, so I built one of these near my front door. One member said that her heart lifted at the sight of it, and that made it worthwhile for me.

I made the snowballs stick together by spraying them with water from a spray bottle and quickly pressing them down. Since the temperature was about 0 F, they froze immediately.

Subject: RE: BS: Is it snowing where you live?
From: Ebbie
Date: 11 Feb 10 - 05:09 PM

Leenia, a Swede told me of that, too. Although he said they just hollowed out a grotto and set the candle inside. (Quite likely he was married and his wife did the work. :)

Back when I had a yard (garden?) to play with I did it just about every winter. It was lovely.

Subject: RE: BS: Is it snowing where you live?
From: frogprince
Date: 11 Feb 10 - 08:37 PM

In answer to Maire-Aine yesterday: a lot of this area got hit pretty good, but we lucked out right at our place; it must not have been more than about 4".

Subject: RE: BS: Is it snowing where you live?
From: Sawzaw
Date: 12 Feb 10 - 09:19 AM

PENSACOLA, Fla. – Schools were shuttered and flights canceled across the South on Friday as snow began falling, bringing a rare white landscape that could stretch into areas that haven't seen snow in a decade — or longer.

Winter storm warnings spanned the Gulf Coast states early Friday as the snow crawled east out of Texas, where it left the Dallas area with more than a foot of snow, nearly 200 traffic accidents and hundreds of canceled flights. Snow, ice and sleet closed parts of Interstate 49 in central Louisiana early Friday.

Areas of northern and central Louisiana got 5 inches or more of snow before dawn Friday. In southern Mississippi, 3 inches had fallen in McComb and 2 inches were on the ground in Tylertown. One to 3 inches of snow had fallen in Jackson. Snow also began falling in southern Alabama, where up to 5 inches was expected.

Subject: RE: BS: Is it snowing where you live?
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 12 Feb 10 - 09:36 AM

How strange, and what bad luck!

I'm glad they closed the Interstate. Drivers there have so little experience with snow and ice - not that anybody can actually drive on ice. Well, you know what I mean.

Subject: RE: BS: Is it snowing where you live?
From: SINSULL
Date: 12 Feb 10 - 09:57 AM

Still not snowing in Maine...

Subject: RE: BS: Is it snowing where you live?
From: gnu
Date: 12 Feb 10 - 11:03 AM

Same here, SINS... never saw it this warm this long.

Subject: RE: BS: Is it snowing where you live?
From: Ebbie
Date: 12 Feb 10 - 11:38 AM

Nor here, in Juneau, Alaska. The forecasts continue to call for "rain, mixed with snow" but it has stayed dry and warm.

Subject: RE: BS: Is it snowing where you live?
From: Bill D
Date: 12 Feb 10 - 11:44 AM

" Schools were shuttered and flights canceled across the South on Friday as snow began falling...."

When I moved to the D.C. area in early March, 1977, there was a heavy coating of ice & snow. Later, the local channel 4 weatherman reported that this was the first 'recorded' time that there was snow on the ground in all of the lower 48 states.
I suppose we may be near that again. The jet stream is taking quite a dip....

Subject: RE: BS: Is it snowing where you live?
From: mg
Date: 12 Feb 10 - 03:41 PM

heavy wind and rain and thunder. mg

Subject: RE: BS: Is it snowing where you live?
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 12 Feb 10 - 04:40 PM

DIRE WARNINGS OF PENDING SNOW!!!

Parts of South brace for first snow in decade
Winter storm warnings span the Gulf Coast states; Interstate-49 shut in La.
The Associated Press
updated 2:38 p.m. CT, Fri., Feb. 12, 2010

PENSACOLA, Fla. - It took back-to-back blizzards to paralyze the nation's capital, but in the Deep South it only takes a couple inches of snow.

Flakes were falling — or threatened — Friday from Texas to the Florida Panhandle and then up along the coasts of Georgia and South Carolina, bringing a rare white landscape to spots that haven't seen snow in a decade or longer. The storm was crawling east out of Texas, where it left the Dallas area with more than a foot of snow, nearly 200 traffic accidents, thousands without power and hundreds of canceled flights.

Far less snow was falling in Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama, though the effect was still crippling.

Just the anticipation of an inch of snow was enough to close schools in the Florida Panhandle, while classes also were canceled in parts of Alabama. Nearly two-dozen school districts closed across Georgia because of the snow forecast. ...

The southern Alabama city of Andalusia had recorded its largest snowfall since 1973 — 2 inches as of Friday morning. The city of 8,800 near the Florida line was getting ready to close its streets because of snow, which no one could remember happening before, said city building inspector Micah Blair. ...

And as much as 3 inches could hit Savannah, Ga., where snow was last traced in February 1996 — "and that was only 0.2 inches ...

In Atlanta, Delta Air Lines canceled 1,100 flights for Friday in anticipation of as much as 2 inches of snow expected in the region. AirTran also said Friday that it was canceling more than 60 flights in or out of Atlanta because of the threat of snow.

[I guess it depends on what you're used to - and prepared for.]


A side note (in another article) is that the recent unusually cold weather is estimated to have produced a possible 50 percent(?) kill of some "invasive species" that have been a concern in Florida and adjacent areas recently - huge tropical snakes of a few kinds, iguanas, and some others. Lovers of "exotic pets" are of course citing this rare event in opposition to the recent import ban on snakes "big enough to eat our children."

John

Subject: RE: BS: Is it snowing where you live?
From: gnu
Date: 12 Feb 10 - 05:25 PM

I'd rather have snow than snakes that big.

Subject: RE: BS: Is it snowing where you live?
From: GUEST,pattyClink
Date: 12 Feb 10 - 09:39 PM

A lovely 5-inch snowfall here in Mississippi. I actually got to put on boots and have snow crunch under my feet as I walked the happy but befuddled dog leaving tracks from one mailbox to the next. Beautiful fluffy stuff in the tall pines, the Leyland cypresses, the Bradford pear trees, and frosting the muscadine vines. Meanwhile, the cat is still pissed off about the whole thing.

This has been a hell of a fall and winter. I have great hopes that the floods and freezes will eradicate a lot of our bug friends which have been wintering over for too many mild ones.

Subject: RE: BS: Is it snowing where you live?
From: CarolC
Date: 13 Feb 10 - 02:15 AM

Yes, for only the second time in the four years we've lived here. I like this kind of snow - a few inches of fluffy snow on everything but the roads once every few years, and it melts in a day or two.

Subject: RE: BS: Is it snowing where you live?
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 13 Feb 10 - 04:28 AM

Snow on the ground in 49 states

(Hawaii is the only non-participant.)

"More than two-thirds of the nation's land mass had snow on the ground when the day dawned, and then it snowed ever so slightly in Florida to make it 49 states out of 50."

"The idea of 50 states with snow is so strange that the federal office that collects weather statistics doesn't keep track of that number and can't say whether it has ever happened. The office can't even say whether 49 out of 50 has ever taken place before."

The article has some comments on past statistics and "explanations" for the recent weather in the US. Although the explanations are somewhat superficial, they might be of interest to those who care to look.

John

Subject: RE: BS: Is it snowing where you live?
From: gnu
Date: 16 Feb 10 - 11:26 AM

Me and my big mouth. Only supposed to be 6" and windy. The last time they said that it was quite nasty as it stalled right over us.

Subject: RE: BS: Is it snowing where you live?
From: Bill D
Date: 16 Feb 10 - 12:37 PM

Yep, JiK...that article comports with what I remember about 1977. At that time, the local weather man, Bob Ryan, claimed there was snow in all the lower 48... *shrug* Maybe there was. Anyway, this time, with modern technology and sharing of data, we know we had it!

Subject: RE: BS: Is it snowing where you live?
From: AllisonA(Animaterra)
Date: 16 Feb 10 - 01:20 PM

Yes, in fact it is snowing here for a change (southwestern NH, which had mostly bare ground yesterday!).

But it's my chorus rehearsal night and guess who has to make the decision to have the rehearsal or not? lil ol me....

I'll decide later. That's my decision!

Subject: RE: BS: Is it snowing where you live?
From: Mrrzy
Date: 16 Feb 10 - 02:07 PM

A measly 4 inches last weekend - but I remember, a few weeks ago, when 4 inches would have been a real snowfall!
Anotehr 2 last night...
More expected today...

This is the winter I always thought I was missing when growing up in West Africa! I'm having a BLAST! Who needs to run errands?

Subject: RE: BS: Is it snowing where you live?
From: Amos
Date: 16 Feb 10 - 03:16 PM

We're in the middle of a full-bore sun blizzard here. The stuff drips from tree branches, runs along the streets, and stacks up in people's drives. In some areas people have to wear protective goggles and special lotions on their generous amounts of exposed skin. Traffic slows down due to the glare. Some people forget how to drive in full sun and have accidents until they re-learn their SoCal driving skills...



A

Subject: RE: BS: Is it snowing where you live?
From: Bill D
Date: 16 Feb 10 - 04:05 PM

gee, Amos.. we DO feel your pain. ☺


**planning things to write when the next set of wildfires, mudslides and ground shakes appear.**

Subject: RE: BS: Is it snowing where you live?
From: gnu
Date: 16 Feb 10 - 04:22 PM

Ahhh... when I checked an hour and a half ago... 12". And, this afternoon, while driving along, I saw a seagull land on the Walmart roof and three other guls fell off. Only the gull knows.

Subject: RE: BS: Is it snowing where you live?
From: Amos
Date: 16 Feb 10 - 04:38 PM

A gull's gotta do what a gull's gotta do, Gnuster!!



A

Subject: RE: BS: Is it snowing where you live?
From: gnu
Date: 16 Feb 10 - 04:41 PM

I saw a movie years ago about the Calleeforrrneeahhh faults letting go and the whole state being blown into the sky to become Earth's second moon.

If that happened, we could wave to the Man In The Moon every night... unless he was on the dark side. Be pretty cold there, Amos... sunny, but cold.

Subject: RE: BS: Is it snowing where you live?
From: Amos
Date: 16 Feb 10 - 05:06 PM

Nah--we'd take a significant portion of the Pacific with us, don't forget. Bimeby it would settle out into a loverly atmosphere and we would be a lot like SoCal is today, safely in orbit and well-removed from a lot of the insanity. We'd have some of the most innovative engineers on Earth with us, too, so we could tool up a solar-driven economy, using the hot side of our landmass, and be happily oil-free.


A

Subject: RE: BS: Is it snowing where you live?
From: gnu
Date: 16 Feb 10 - 05:26 PM

And air free.

Subject: RE: BS: Is it snowing where you live?
From: GUEST,Neil D
Date: 17 Feb 10 - 09:25 AM

It won't quit snowing where I live(Notheast Ohio). As of last night we broke the February snowfall record with 12 days left in the month.
We haven't had a winter like this since the 70's and I can't find 5-buckle boots anywhere.

Subject: RE: BS: Is it snowing where you live?
From: maeve
Date: 17 Feb 10 - 10:28 AM

My part of Midcoast Maine had Not One Flake of snow.

m