It's here. We got rain yesterday, inches of the stuff. The basement is leaking. Today it's wind and falling temps. Wind is 25 mph now sustained with gusts at 49. Supposed to get worse later and gusts 50-60.

Don't know where the Christmas lights will be by tonight, but I sure would like to keep the roof, siding, and electricity this time. There are already power outages locally, and it's supposed to drop to 18 degrees by tonight. A least it's not blizzards and feet of snow that some are getting.

I hate winter.

Karen

Karen, I second that emotion.

Just glad DH cut down the diseased tree in our yard last week, otherwise it'd probably be in my kitchen today. Winds 25-40mph here. Think I'll stay in today. At least until I go to work tonight in mixed precipitation. Hope everyone stays safe. Glad the pantry is full, probably should check for batteries and candles, only way to make sure I don't need them.

We got 1-1/2" of rain from 5pm til this morning. The last of it just moved out of the vicinity. The wind is supposed to pick up around noon. At least it will dry the soil which had turned soggy. I don't think I'll be planting my 400 daffodils today.

weather report from the "Derby City" Louisville KY

rain....dropping temps...wind gusts up to 50 mph

I '3rd' that ...

Linda

Most of the reports here yesterday talked as if there would be a bit of rain, a bit of snow, then more rain and it wouldn't be a big deal.

I woke up to 3 to 4 inches of snow, and now there's a lovely sleet mixture falling. It's making me wonder if I should continue shoveling, since the shoveled areas are now getting icy and slick. Sometimes it's better to walk through the snow than on a clear, slick sidewalk.

Yucky weather. I'd rather have a nice snowfall than this messy stuff. But Mother Nature didn't ask me, lol!

:)
Dee

It's here. Now. The poor dog went out for her morning wee and came back in soaked to the skin. Poor thing. But she always smells so nice after a good toweling off. Rain makes clean.

That was a bad rainstorm,I just spent all nite driving in it.NOW its time to put these bloodshot eyes to bed...

I "4th" that!
I'm lucky if the forecast is to be believed - only rain.
Flooding yes, but I hope we miss the snow.
Iowa is really getting it.

Heavy wet snow here in northern CT, about 5 inches, just changed over to sleet/freezing rain. Lovely stuff. Wind isn't bad yet but they're saying it'll really start to blow as the day wears on. Finally seeing some activity at the feeders. Up to now the Cooper's hawks kept everybody away. Good luck everyone--hope no one loses power, including me.

Snow and high winds here....I am worried about my walk in container. DH cleared the heavy wet snow off it this am before he went to work. Now I am worried about the wind! I thought it was going to blow my little Honda right off the highway this morning. Hope my greenhouse does not blow away. Supposed to get thunder snow too....

I just heard thunder. It was 48 degrees this morning, is 35 now with 46 mph wind. At least we still have power, that's all I care about.

Karen

It's windy here. So far it looks like we have three trees down but hubby hasn't hiked the fence line yet so we will probably find more. Hopefully they end up in places where they aren't to difficult to clean up.

We had power blink out once, but just for a second or two. We are keeping our fingers crossed and hoping we don't have any major outages. After the 3 day one in August 08, the 8 day one in January 09, and the 5 day one at the start of February '09 we feel like we've had enough of that for a while!

On the positive side, if the power does go out I'm getting really good at making homemade deep dish pizza in a cast iron skillet balanced on top of a kerosene room heater.

Lynda

Too domestic for me- we just get in the car and drive until we find an open restaurant or bar.

My husband and I were both off work today. We went out for lunch and a few beers with friends. So I don't think we need dinner today.

Karen

On the radio, they are saying we dodged the bullet. At least 10 inches, gusty 40mph winds, still snowing since last night, drop to 0 tonight, even the plow hasn't been by on my snow route, no point until it quits at 6, I hope.

This is not fun. It's not so bad once you get dug out and can get around until the next one hits.

Dress warm, people, if you're in the colder zones, don't worry about fashion. Blue jeans w/no long underwear you'll feel it worse even if you're depending on your car heater. You may have trouble and have to be out in the cold for awhile. My daughter was complaining about the cold, and I told her to get some warmer clothes for winter, will help her if she'll wear them. Younger people don't like to bundle up and depend on car heaters, etc.

I wear two layers of sweat pants when I have to go out and plow or shovel and/or long underwear, picked up a pair of very lightweight nylon flannel-lined snow pants for the worst days, really cuts the wind, good boots, scarves, warm mittens or gloves, warm coat; I wear a couple sweaters sometimes underneath my jacket.

Wool is the warmest if you're not allergic to it and don't wear it next to your skin, makes a huge difference.

I hope this is not a harbinger of how winter is going to be this year, very unusual. Usually we don't get hit like this until right after Christmas through February the last several years.

Hope all stay warm and well.

Weird. Yesterday NJ had spring-like weather. After morning rain, the sun came out, and I went about without a jacket!

This is what my garden looked like after 5 inches of snow this past weekend, but very happy we were able to save our greens!!

{{gwi:453603}}

{{gwi:453604}}

Yum! Those look great! I've got some gorgeous looking lettuces in my cold frames, and I'm debating when to cut them - I want to eat my lettuce and have it too, lol!

Ellen, how did you escape? We got 5.8 inches here, but much of it went away in the yucky rain that fell for a few hours - and left a lovely coating of ice everywhere.

Sometimes I wish I could be a bear and hibernate for the winter! Not necessarily sleep, but stay in my house (and even outside in my yard) and do all the things I want to do and I need to catch up on, and the outside world be damned!

:)
Dee
who grew up on Wind in the Willows and wishes she were like Mole and Rat who stayed in for the winter by the fire and ate like kings and wrote poetry - ah, the life! (Can you tell I don't want to go to work today, lol?)

The storm arrived in the Minneapolis area on Tuesday with just a light dusty in the morning and by end of day we knew we were going to be in for it. Wednesday got up at 4am and shoveled 3 ft high drifts in driveway. Only had 7inches or so but the wind created those darn snow drifts. Mental note to self while shoveling (been saying for 23 yrs)- Next house needs to be on other side of road so not to get snow drifting in driveway. Wind blows right at front of house and creates some nice size drifts.

Temps on Wednesday held to about 9 degrees without windshield factor - about -15 with windshield. This morning woke up to -2 and a windshield of -25. Suns out though and is 0 at the moment!

We had such a nice Novemeber so now we will probably be paying the piper for a while.

Sandy, although I know it's a very nice area, it boggles my mind that anyone can live in Minneapolis - not anywhere near enough warm weather for me! I flew to NYC yesterday; managed to time flights so that turbulence wasn't too awful ("not a real good flier" is putting it mildly, in my case) - flying back into Huntsville today, I could see there was a lot of flooding in the area.

I live in Cincinnati, WAY south of Mineapolis. Our normal temp for today is hi 43, lo 25. Our actual temp now is 20, low tonight 14 with wind chill of -5. I didn't sign up for this! I'm in Cincinnati, not Minneapolis. I want to go to Huntsville with Kim.

Did I ever mention that I hate winter?

Karen

I was surprised to wake up and find the temp still hovering around 39 degrees. I figured I'd be crawling along icy roads driving to work but most roads were bare and since the temp was above freezing there weren't any icy patches to worry about. Hauled some boxes out to the car around midday and felt that icy chill in the wind that feels as though it's blowing straight down from the North Pole. It won't be quite so mild by tomorrow morning but I'm off work and don't have to drive in it.
I don't hate winter since we need it in order for plants to go dormant and get some rest. Does anyone else think 48 hours should be more than enough for that to happen? Why does it have to last so long?

:-D Can't beat Minnesota for the cold. :-)
It's a balmy 5F when I left the house this morning.
Much warmer than yesterday's 2F windchill -19. lol
Wednesday the snow came down like mad I was so afraid my son would have troble with his flight out of O'Hare airport.

The ground is covered with snow now.
I need to move my potting soil from the garage to the basement.
Are any of you ready for WS? I am rearing to start.
I don't usually start until February, but this year I want to sow some perennials for friends.

It was 22 degrees this morning when we got up. Yikes! I hate winter! I told my husband to look at that sun shining so beautiful before it rains again. It was so raw and windy last night. Brr! Brr! time to get the longjohns out!

Ready? I've been "ready" for over a week. Somehow I thought once all my labels were ready it would be time to start. I brought all the bags of soil into the kitchen more than a week ago and mixed up my own special blend in a large bucket. Soil mixed? Check. Labels printed? Check. Containers cut & drainage holes punched out? Check. I used a soldering iron to poke holes in the bottoms of 2 liter seltzer bottles--worked like a charm. Since I can't will the calendar to move faster, I guess I'll just go mix up another bucket of soil. Waiting...