The first (and last?) winter storm of the season is behind us

I feel kind of foolish now.  In preparation for what was being declared a disaster of massive proportions, I stocked up on a dozen cans of deviled ham and jugs of water and got ready for the worst.  The storm was supposed to hit mid-day on Saturday (two days ago) with snow and sleet, then become freezing rain with 1-3 inches of ice on all the exposed surfaces.  We were told to get ready to be trapped inside for the next three or four days.

Instead, there was a nice bit of snowfall yesterday morning about 1 a.m.  With below freezing temperatures it did make travel a bit hazardous.  But the much-ballyhooed thick sheets of ice never came about.  There was some rain yesterday evening but the system moved out of the area sooner than expected.   It also began warming a bit.  About 2 this morning the temperature was at 33 degrees Fahrenheit (just a tad above zero degrees for our friends using Celsius).

Temperatures are going to be climbing the rest of today.  I'm going to chance a short trip out in a little while and get some real food.

Anyway, here are some pics I took from the front and back doors of my house.  Not as impressive a snowfall as my friends and neighbors back in North Carolina got, but it was still nice...

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"Winter is coming"

Actually, scratch that... because winter is here, bay-bee!!!!

Freezing records getting shattered all over the country today.  Here in North Carolina we're set to have a morning temperature of 4 Fahrenheit two days from now.  Even so, we're much warmer than our friends in the north.

Let's hope the Wall hasn't been breached.

'Cuz if you thought illegals coming in from the South has been bad, it's nothing compared to the White Walkers!

Speaking of Game of Thrones/A Song of Ice and Fire, I've developed a theory. Despite everything George R. R. Martin insists, I think the world of Westeros may be our own Earth, thousands of years from now.  There have been what could be deemed a few hints that such is the case (in the books, not so much the HBO television series).  Whatever it was that threw the seasons so wildly out of whack is a catastrophe that is yet to come in our world's future and the characters are going to find... well, something that will substantiate that during the next two books.  Even if I'm wrong, it's still an awesome series (and one that I'm re-reading now :-)

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70 degrees Fahrenheit at quarter 'til 5 p.m.

This is in north-central North Carolina, mind ya, and ordinarily at this time in the midst of winter the temperature should be about 40 degrees colder.

I went to Greensboro yesterday evening. It was much the same, with people wearing shorts, t-shirts etc. at 8 at night. I wore my "Weird Al" Yankovic Alpocalypse Tour shirt and if I didn't know any better could have sworn it was late spring.

But I've already seen snow four times this winter so far, most recently this past weekend (the girlfriend and I found ourselves looking at about 2 inches of the white stuff falling at her house in Roanoke). There's another cold front about to hit us in the worst way (read as: severe storms, high winds and possible tornadoes) this evening and given the way the trends work out we're apt to have snow later next week.

Expect a bunch more posts soon. In the meantime I gotta go unplug the 'spensive stuff. All of y'all getting hit by this storm system (which The Weather Channel has decided to dub "Magnus") and all of you folks in the path of it, batten down and good luck!

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This winter brings the wrath of Khan

Ever breaking the boundaries of meteorology, The Weather Channel has announced that just as organized tropical storm systems have names, major winter storms will now be named too!

Here is the list of storm names for Winter 2012-2013:

What the...?!?

"Draco"? "Gandolf"? "Khan"? "Q"? "Rocky"?

"Orko"?!?!

To the left you see Orko, the Trollan magician/court jester from He-Man and the Masters of the Universe. That is what people mostly think of when they hear "Orko". But according to The Weather Channel the name "Orko" was chosen because it's "the thunder god in Basque mythology". Yes, The Weather Channel went to a region of Spain to look for an obscure deity to be on their winter storm list. And they expect us to buh-leeeve that?

Jason Samenow writes some thoughts about this on the Washington Post's website. And make sure to stock up on plenty of bread and milk before we get slammed by Yogi.

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Climatological wishful thinking

This is one winter that makes global warming sound like a pretty darned good idea.

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It is snowing. Again.

I have decided that Winter 2010 is officially going to be recognized as "The Fell Winter".

Look it up if you've never read Tolkien :-)

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First snow of 2008

Taken just after 7 a.m. EST outside our apartment in Reidsville, North Carolina...

Temperature was 38 degrees Fahrenheit at midnight and it's been dropping since. It's now just below freezing and it's not supposed to get any warmer for the rest of the day. The driveway is already slippery in many spots. The Rockingham County School System canceled classes for today late last night, so Lisa isn't going in. We won't be getting out today.

But Lisa went and pillaged the local supermarket and Wal-Mart last night for supplies. We've got plenty of food. And we've got plenty of things to entertain ourselves with (like the Wii that I got Lisa for Christmas, the one that I camped out overnight at the GameStop in Greensboro to buy it the next morning :-). And, for once, I don't have any projects that I'm rushing to get finished. And no bad guys that I have to really fight either. So I'm going to look at today as a gift from God, and He's finally giving me a chance to do something that I have not done in a very, very, very long time: relax and play.

Heck, I still have that Indiana Jones LEGO set that I haven't put together yet!

Okay, off to have breakfast. And then hang out with Lisa. And then do... other stuff ;-)

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