__
“If Candlemas is bright and clear, there’ll be two winters in the year;
If Candlemas has snow and rain, old winter shall not come again.”
If Candlemas has snow and rain, old winter shall not come again.”
__
I think the folkloric point could’ve been established somewhere short of 9 inches of sleet/snow crusting to ice on top of yesterday’s 10 inches of powder.
__
What’s the forecast like in your neighborhood tonight?
(General note: FYWP can’t handle the ‘minus’ sign. If it’s that cold, keep your fingers limber by typing out the word rather than the symbol.)
Gus
I talked to a client in Amarillo who said it was minus 4 there this morning! Minus 1 for a forecasted low in Minneapolis, but it’s supposed to get near 30 this weekend. Balmy!
jnfr
Mr. J has decided that crepes are traditional for Candlemas, so he’s making cherry and peach crepes for dessert tonight. I have not objected.
May the light return, I say, and any occasion is good for crepes.
ETA: This is jnfr. My comment seems to have been added to Gus! FYWP!
Tom Hilton
Bitter, hellacious cold. It could even get down into the 40s tonight.
General Stuck
Jeebus Christ on an iceberg. It is currently 14 degrees F out, and that was today’s high. I am freezing my ass off with a sucky heater and a tiny space heater barricaded in the bedroom. And it is going to go subzero tonight, the only question is how low.
And yes, I know a lot of you are in even colder places, but this is the frickin southwest desert. We are not acclimated to this shit, and our brick huts are built for staying cool in the summer.
Loneoak
Hey lookie here, Rand Paul thinks the Tea Party is the same thing as the Abolitionists. Because the Abolitionists didn’t think that people could be owned and he thinks he should be able to certify his own dentistry practice.
BGinCHI
We shoveled out our back lot this morning with our neighbors. Our building is near the lake and contains 10 condos. We got 20+ inches of snow and the wind was crazy.
Cleared the lot but the alley was drifted anywhere from a foot to 4 or 5 feet.
At 3:00 we went out again and the folks from the bldg behind us came out and one of the guys said he had to get out early to drive to work. So we started shoveling and snow blowing. More people came out to help. It wasn’t quite a party, but the communal effort and the kindness made it fun and allowed many to help a few. It was an object lesson in how when people get together they can accomplish things.
That alley looked like it would not be cleared for a week. But 12 people did it in 2 hours. And liked it.
frosty
Balmy as all get out. Break out the beach towels. I believe it was up in the 40s today!
ETA: We got lucky on this one. The line between ice and rain was just north of us, so we had fog and drizzle and not the horrible “wintry mix” they predicted.
freelancer
I think the high here today was 8.
Davis X. Machina
It’s Imbolg, mid-winter. Old timers up here say you should still have half your firewood left, or you didn’t lay in enough. Also half your fodder, because pastures won’t be green till late April or early May, the ‘hungry months’.
Linda Featheringill
I usually don’t complain much about winter but this snow storm has gotten the best of me.
People I was depending upon can’t do their thing because their entire offices are closed down due to the weather. And I am left hanging.
I will be short a half day on my next paycheck because of the blizzard in Oklahoma City. And I had to get up at an ungodly hour to salvage that a half day. I guess that’s what happens when you telecommute.
The ice on top of the snow has conquered me physically. By the time the ice is broken with brute force, I am already tired. Then I bravely tackle the damn snow underneath and it’s the wet and heavy kind. I tried. Didn’t accomplish much.
We do have electricity, though, and heat. And food. And animals. :-)
New Yorker
A strange day for my pop culture sensibilities: I’m mourning the break-up of The White Stripes (not exactly unexpected, but still) while celebrating the return of “Beavis and Butt-Head”.
BruceFromOhio
I was okay with it all until 30 minutes ago, waiting for the iceberg at the end of the driveway to finish calving before anyone could park. The fucking thing is huge.
(insert obligatory algoreisfat)
Mnemosyne
It’s been chilly in Los Angeles lately — only in the mid-60s during the day. It’s going to warm up next week, but by that time I will be in the frozen wastelands of Chicago desperately trying to stay warm. I have knitted myself various items to help me in that endeavor (including a hat, cowl, mittens and slippers) but I’m still paranoid.
At least it’s a vacation (at least as much as a trip to visit family can be) so we don’t have to try to get to work in a blizzard.
BGinCHI
@New Yorker: Didn’t know that. Weird when a two-piece breaks up.
BruceFromOhio
Then I bravely tackle the damn snow underneath and it’s the wet and heavy kind.
This is the snowfall you leave until spring. Or it melts. Whichever happens first.
BGinCHI
@Mnemosyne: Don’t worry, the Rahmentum will keep you warm while you’re here.
Linda Featheringill
@General Stuck:
I hear you. An older brother of mine lived in Milwaukee and owned a trailer house outside of Phoenix. But he refused to go down there in the dead of winter because his place in Milwaukee was warmer. Insufficient heat, insufficient insulation in Arizona.
He would extend his sympathies.
Emily L. Hauser/ellaesther
In a school district (just outside of Chicago) that hasn’t taken a snow day in thirteen years, we were just notified that we’re having another one tomorrow — well, technically, it’s a “hazardous travel conditions and frigid temperatures” day.
Today the kids had fun. Not sure how they’ll feel about it tomorrow!
Mnemosyne
@New Yorker:
Oh, great, now I get to hear triumphalist crowing from the asshats who insist that Meg White is the worst drummer in the history of the entire universe and shouldn’t even be allowed to play in public.
dmsilev
Scenes from the snowpocalypse: Someone’s bad day is about to get worse…
dms
Emily L. Hauser/ellaesther
@Mnemosyne: Allowed to play? I hear she should be retroactively stripped from all the recordings to date! (!!1!)
I suspect that if she were a) a man or b) presented like a model, feelings about her might be different. (Though, I suppose, not necessarily positive. Just different).
Mnemosyne
@Emily L. Hauser/ellaesther:
When I was in high school on the North Shore, school was closed for a couple of days because it was too cold for us to walk between buildings. (Including wind chill, it was 80 below.)
This is why I moved out to California after one year of community college and never went back. We’re wondering what kind of fools we are to visit for an entire week in February.
Cliff
Hey Guys, you got our snow again, could we have it back yet? its been a few years .. – MWV
Cliff
We’ve only gotten a foot or so, and – thingies must have a space on both sides…
burnspbesq
On a topic other than the weather:
Apparently the National Enquirer has a Valentine’s Day treat for Boehner.
http://boyculture.typepad.com/boy_culture/2011/02/the-lobbyist-hobbyist.html
dmsilev
After Snowmaggedon, Adam and Eve vow to repopulate the planet
Museum of Science and Industry, and Lake Shore Drive. Not much traffic, to put it mildly. One of the very few cars I did see promptly got stuck in a snowbank. It took a dozen of us, including two people on skis, to pull the damn thing clear.
dms
Cliff
anyhow, Clips of Molly being Jolly will be up in the morning, after I trim a 25 min walk down to something tolerable for youtube.
burnspbesq
@Mnemosyne:
She was good enough. It’s not like the music required a drummer with serious chops.
Boudica
We only got about 1/2 inch of snow out of this monster storm in DFW, but it was on top of 1/2 inch of ice that hasn’t been able to melt due to below freezing temps. Tomorrow will be day 3 of no school and it ain’t looking good for Friday.
I went to work for 4 hours today (heat wasn’t working so I left when I lost feeling in my toes). Roads were a disaster.
But Super Bowl on Sunday should be in the 50s. Go Packers (only ’cause that’s my dad’s team)!
J.W. Hamner
Here in Boston/Cambridge it was quite mild in terms of actual snowfall… a couple of inches today plus four yesterday maybe? But since it turned to rain we now have huge pools of slush that can’t drain, so that’s pretty exciting. I went into work and didn’t have too much troubles, but I took public transit (as I always do) and thus didn’t experience the roads.
WoodyNYC
Once I ordered a sandwich in a deli. While I was waiting the guy behind the counter suddenly inquired, “Minus?”
“Huh?”, I said. Confused, I listed all the ingredients again: turkey swiss lettuce tomato and mayo. The guy let out a satisfied grunt and said “Minus.” And finished making my sandwich.
Took me a while to realize he was saying mayonnaise.
Sko Hayes
@Mnemosyne:
Holy crap, you’re going on vacation to Chicago in the middle of winter???
And you’re calling 60 degrees “chilly”?
You’re going to need a lot more yarn.
PurpleGirl
NYC has had winter mix the last two days — you know, freezing rain, sleet, snow in various combinations. The next two days should be sunny. The weekend is going to bring more snow. I need to run errands tomorrow; I want the day to be dry so I can at least walk outside. (Not so much cabin fever as financial matters to take care of.)
Boudica
@WoodyNYC: Had a similar story when I first moved to Texas. You could get a free car wash with a fill up. You’d go in and get the numerical code for the keypad to start the car wash. The attendant tells me the code is T N. I’m puzzled as there are no letters on the key pad and then I realize he’s saying 10…Teee ennn.
Jim, Once
Well … since FYWP wouldn’t let me tell Frosty to shut up, this has been our day: only twelve inches of snow here, but heavy stuff. Husband spent nearly four hours blowing shit around our not terribly long driveway, while I shoveled the areas snow blowers can’t reach. I’m aching, he really wants to go to bed early, but is resisting. Tomorrow – fifteen below zero.
gogol's wife
@Linda Featheringill:
This is close to my experience. Too much disruption. Unable to do anything but barely make it to work (didn’t manage that today). No social life whatsoever, so driving my husband crazy. Total depression. And the town is having a nervous breakdown. I’m not an adherent of the idea that misery loves company. It only makes me feel worse that everyone in town is miserable.
Davis X. Machina
I was teaching in Georgia, working out how verbs conjugate, pointing to the first person singular, saying “I carry”, pointing to the second person singular, saying “you carry”, pointing to the third person singular, saying “he, she it….” and never got to “carries” — someone in back asked “He dee-yid?” first.
Got a foot today and yesterday, combined. Still spitting snow, but nothing to matter. +14 at the Auburn airport, may go down to +4 or so by 5 A.M. We had minus 20 last week, so that’s no biggie, either.
Jim, Once
@Cliff: I’m confused. (What else is new?) Where are you?
madmommy
It was cold, windy and cloudy all day today, temps in the low 40’s. Supposed to get down below freezing tonight. This might not seem like much, but this is south Louisiana! I moved here from Colorado to get away from freezing my ass off. Add to that the wintry mix we’re supposed to get tomorrow and there will be idiots in the ditches all over the place. These yahoos can’t drive well on a sunny day.
The worst part is day before yesterday it was 70 degrees. The whiplash is wrecking me.
GregB
The Constitution is under attack by the National Enquirer and their unconstitutional attacks on an elected public official.
The Constitution was written to protect elected leaders from criticism and the Enquirer is ruining it for everyone.
Mnemosyne
@Sko Hayes:
Well, it sounded like a good idea at the time. I’ve also spent the last few weeks investing in snow boots, wool sweaters, long underwear, and puffy coats, so I’m hoping to get through it. (It’s also supposed to warm back up to the mid-20s while we’re there. Hopefully.)
I already warned G that if it falls past 10 below, his family has to come to us at the B&B, ’cause I ain’t going outside.
kdaug
It’s an odd situation to be longing for 120, but we’ve got rolling blackouts down here because a) the water lines to the coal-fired generators, and b) the gas lines to the natural gas generators, keep freezing up.
We’ll typically get outages when there is sub-freezing precip, but that’s due to iced branches breaking and falling on power lines.
But this ain’t precip, this is the goddamned cold shutting down power plants. It’s the coldest I’ve seen it in Austin in 30 years.
Cliff
@Jim, Once:
MWV = Mount Washington Valley.
we are supposed to get 140″ a year, for the last few years that hasn’t happened by a long shot.
My third person (for the sole reason of using a – )went a bit out of control I guess.
ooo.. ooo.. shameless plug:
The 18th Mount Washington Valley Ice Festival! (a.k.a. The Ice Fest!)
North Conway, New Hampshire
February 4th-6th, 2011
http://www.icefest.blogspot.com/
Ice Climbing Clinics, Mountaineering & Avalanche Courses, & Guided Ascents: Come climb and learn from the best no matter your skill level!
Lysana
@Davis X. Machina:
Imbolc is also a correct spelling. As is Oimelc. And it’s originally the start of spring in the pagan Irish calendar. But they also had their days starting at dusk instead of midnight, so the deepest part of winter would be the start of spring in that mentality. Also, this is when the snowdrops start to peek out and the ewes that are due to lamb start to lactate. So spring does peek out to say hello in February whether it makes an early arrival or not.
Around here, it was clear and sunny with temps in the low 60s. But SFBA weather has a hard time conforming to more northerly patterns, so the rhyme may not mean as much here.
Davis X. Machina
@Cliff: 4th of July ski race in Tuckerman’s is on like Donkey Kong, I take it?
Amir_Khalid
@Mnemosyne: Someone should mention to Meg White that there’s more than one exercise in that “How to Play the Drums” video she bought. But within her (very, um, basic) skills, I think she is a perfectly good drummer.
What always struck me as weird about her and Jack was that they claimed to be brother and sister even after Rolling Stone found out that they were really a divorced couple.
Jim, Once
@Cliff:
Thanks for the information. I get it now. I do love NH – and I appreciate your invitation – but am going to say no thank you, right now. There are some things you just learn you can never do beyond a certain age. For me, downhill skiing is that for me.
Jim, Once
@kdaug: We have family in your area who have been telling us the same thing. It sounds awful.
Jim, Once
@Cliff: Sorry, Cliff – I only focussed on skiing, when you mentioned ‘guided ascents,’ etc. Maybe limited aspects of mountaineering – in the summer – but otherwise, probably not. Hey – I’m sixty-six, after all.
Cliff
@Davis X. Machina:
No way man I’m too outta shape, but if molly wants to go I’ll try it. (its amazing how out of shape you can get in paradise if you don’t have a dog. I got one now so she is working on me!)
This is more my speed:
Travis Pastrana sets record for Mt. Washington hillclimb
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IdXJYc4CpXA
New England Forest Rally:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UnhfAAt0M2M
Mnemosyne
@Linda Featheringill:
@gogol’s wife:
Not that it’s any comfort, but I have friends who are getting divorced over an Illinois winter. He decided he wanted to move back to be closer to his family and she agreed, even though she’s So Cal born and bred.
Unfortunately for them, they sold their house quickly and moved to Illinois in October, just in time for a very nasty prairie winter where the front door iced over. His wife had no friends there (just his family) and no job because she was waiting for the nursing board to approve transferring her California license to Illinois.
As soon as a thaw came, she went back to California and refuses to return to Illinois. It’s really sad, but honestly I can’t blame her. It was the worst introduction to the midwest you can imagine.
BGinCHI
@WoodyNYC: Reminds me of the old routine with the guy with the Middle Eastern accent saying that he had a “hair piece” but it sounded exactly like “herpes.”
Cliff
@Jim, Once:
It’s nice scenery and stuff, there are things to do, I am told … Molly at least is getting me out of the house now so it’s not 24hrs a day infront of the screen…. only 22..
PurpleGirl
@kdaug: There is an apartment building about a block from me that was not finished; the interior room work wasn’t done, apparently. I hadn’t realized that the building was vacant, til I walked passed it one day and saw the entry doorways boarded up. Anyway, the other day I noticed steam coming out of the building. I guess they did put in the water service and now they have to keep the building at some minimum heat level so the pipes don’t freeze, burst and flood.
kdaug
@Jim, Once: It is what it is. We tend to focus on AC down here, not on insulated pipes.
jnfr
@Gus:
No idea, but thanks to whoever fixed it!
Here in Colorado we reached minus 20 night before last with a high of 0 yesterday. Sprang up to 7 today! Hooray. Not much snow fortunately, and it’s supposed to be above freezing tomorrow, so we’ll get by. We used the fireplace to warm the downstairs for a couple days straight, though.
ETA: Ah! apparently the minus sign makes a strikethrough and breaks something.
Omnes Omnibus
Madison will be cold. That is all.
Steeplejack
__
Positively balmy in NoVa today–somewhat sunny and up around 50°. Going down to 25° tonight and only up to 35° tomorrow, so winter is back, but it was a nice little break while it lasted.
Anne Laurie
@Cliff:
Send a couple empty dumptrucks down to Woburn and you can have all of ours. Just keeping a narrow walkway to the front door & enough driveway to park the car clear on our 75×80 lot has us lifting today’s snow shoulder-high. Hell, you could probably put out a “snow wanted” call and get plenty of Masshole border towns to deliver.
(Yeah, there’s the whole ‘pollution’ issue. Just to further astonish/please our warm-weather correspondents: The mayor of Lawrence, near Lowell, suspended 3 city workers for dumping snow in the Merrimack River, which is illegal. The workers say they had no choice, because the city’s “snow farms” are filled to capacity. “Snow farms” are empty lots where the heavy machinery can pile up mountains of frozen precip trucked from elsewhere, reportedly up to five stories tall in some Boston lots where they have cranes to lift it that high.)
Emily L. Hauser/ellaesther
@Mnemosyne: Aha! This was about 1981/82, am I right? I remember that week very, very well…!
Davis X. Machina
@Lysana: I like my etymology best — bolg = belly, and we’re in the fat middle of winter now. The plowback in front of my house is up to my nose, and I’m 6’4″.
Davis X. Machina
@Anne Laurie: The City of Portland (ME) got slapped a while back — mid ’90’s IIRC — for just dumping plowed snow into Casco Bay. Urban snow is a pretty grotty stew….
Tfitzaz
Coldest night in Phoenix in 20 yrs…high today 44F.
South of I-10
Our schools are closed tomorrow and probably Friday due to the terrifying possibility of frozen precipitation and freezing temperatures in S. Louisiana.
TaMara (BHF)
@jnfr: Hi neighbor. Yes, practically balmy here today. Funny thing happened this morning, I was brushing my teeth and the cold water just stopped*. Since I work with a bunch of plumbers (you need to be a plumber-type to install solar thermal) they explained to me that it was probably not a frozen pipe, per se, but a chunk of ice lodged in the pipe. I left the pipe open enough to drip hot and cold water all day (as I’ve been doing all night) and it resolved itself. It was a new and different way to start the morning.
*Dear Al Gore, I do not usually run water while brushing my teeth, I know it is bad for the planet. But it was minus 20 last night and I was trying to make sure the pipes were clear. And p.s. you’re not fat. love, TaMara
jnfr
@TaMara (BHF):
/wave
Keep warm!
Jim, Once
@Steeplejack: My sixteen year old granddaughter recently moved to north Iowa from Virginia to live with her daddy. One of her early Facebook posts: “Snow in Virginia – YAY! Snow in Iowa – not this sh*t again.”
Jeanne ringland
Not too bad here now, near Seattle. The overnight low is supposed to be 28, the high today was 47 and sunny. Just gorgeous but we got cold working in the garden. Tomorrow same high but with rain. Poop.
A friend in El Paso reported that her high was 28 and the low is expected to be 7. Brrr!
asiangrrlMN
@Steeplejack: Good to see you, Steepman. But, you’re confusing me by posting so early.
It’s negative one degree here. Love. It.
Mnemosyne
@Emily L. Hauser/ellaesther:
1985, according to Wikipedia. But I remember pretty much all of the 1980s winters being nasty.
Ash Can
@Emily L. Hauser/ellaesther: I’m not sure when the last back-to-back Chicago Public School snow days were. Neither is the husband, who went to CPS schools beginning in the late 60s. The kids in the neighborhood here were having the time of their lives today, playing in the snow, while we snowbound parents shoveled and snowblower-ed (and waved at the snowmobiling neighbors as they zoomed past). A bunch of us ended up at the neighbor’s house across the street for a gluhwein happy hour, and I came home afterwards and made porterhouse steaks (on sale at Dominick’s) in my trusty grill pan, accompanied by fresh sauteed mushrooms and old-vine zinfandel. I love winter. :)
Geoduck
Sunny and cool near Seattle. My sympathies to everyone..
catdevotee
In southern coastal Oregon, it’s been sunny and around 60. We’re in the middle of the rainy season (can’t really call it winter), but we’ve had a two week break from rain. By next week, it’ll be back to the normal 55 degrees with misty rain. So far, we haven’t had a freeze this year.
Mr. cat and I lived most of our lives in Texas, so we deeply sympathize with our southern neighbors who are having such nasty weather. We experienced more than one year in Dallas when it was 75 one day and next to zero the following day.