I understand ho so well, Robert. If and when the sun does shine it will take a week or more for the ground to dry out enough to do anything with it.

This time last year I had started some seedlings but I've managed to hold off doing that this year. I've been getting prepared though. I bought a shop light to start my seedings under (didn't have that last year), had to get quite a bit more starting soil too.

Ok I got off the subject, sorry. Since everything is so dawg gone wet here and I haven't seen any sunshine in several days, I'm going to take a trip to see my kids and grandkids in New Mexico. A friend is traveling with me because DH doesn't feel like making a trip. We are leaving this morning about ten. We will be gone about a week.

And the projected forecast for Fri. Sat. and Sun. SUNSHINE and temps in the low 60's. Man, I can handle that. Hopefully, the sun will be shining here when we get back.
LOL

Teresa

Sadly, SAD (play on words and acronyms) is a very real problem for a lot of people. Some say it is a result of low Vitamin D (from sun), others say weather, and still others say a combination of both.

When I lived in the Northeast, it garnered a lot of attention. Perhaps because of the length of the nighttime hours - dark from 4 pm to 6 or 7 am, coupled with lack of sun - it snows a lot so is cloudy a lot.

I don't know much about it, but I could easily see why it was such a big topic of conversation there. It seems like it could be a problem this year in Oklahoma because we have had little sunlight and a lot of dark, dreary winter days that are generally atypical for us.

I know I am going to be ecstatic when spring arrives!

Susan

When I saw the title of this post I was afraid Robert had been diagnosed with S.A.D. I'm glad that's not true. I can see where people in some areas would be particularly prone to this.....like folks who live in the foggy, cool and cloudy Paciic Northwest or in northern and northeastern parts of the USA where the cold and gloomy season lasts for so long.

We had sun on the day before yesterday and it was heavenly. As long as we have sunshine at least once a week, I can handle the gloom and gray skies of this wet El Nino winter. I could understand why many more Okies than usual might be having symptoms of S.A.D. though.

Sunday is my seed-starting day and I will start those seeds under lights no matter what, and then hope the weather warms up/dries up by the time that planting time rolls around.

Our clay soil has been so wet for so long that I think it will take it weeks to dry out once the moisture finally stops falling. If I didn't have raised beds, I'd be worried that I wasn't going to be able to plant onions and potatoes on time later this month.

Teresa, have a fun and safe trip and I hope y'all find sunlight and warmth there.

Robert, the current storm doesn't bother me as much as the one coming our way around Sunday or Monday, although there is always a chance that storm will miss us since the models are unsettled on its path. Although we had rain yesterday afternoon, last night and this morning, it was just light and patchy rain and has totaled less than 1/2" so far. I do think this current storm is supposed to cause a whole lot of trouble as it makes its way across the country.

This year's winter weather reminds me too much of the spring and summer of 2007 when we had too much rain and so little sunlight that our plants wouldn't grow. I hope that's not the kind of spring we're going to have this year.

Dawn

The big red spot looks like it is headed my way. And the little red spot is on my house. At least it is not zero degrees. Please no ice; those pictures of the last storm ice damage are something I don't want to see again. Cabin fever was a real disease.

Helen,

It sure looks like it might be headed your way, so be careful and stay inside and stay warm. I hate this weather and I hate the way it is driving all of us crazy.

Cabin fever is truly a real disease and I have an extreme case of it. It is sad when the highlight of my day is putting on my rain boots and going outside to let the chickens out of the coop, feed and water them and then fill up the bird feeders and put out the deer corn. I come back inside cold and wet, but even 10 minutes out in the winter weather is better than being stuck inside the whole day.

We need an emergency shipment of sunshine and warm weather. I wonder when we'll see either of those again? Maybe the week after next? Maybe not until March? This certainly is a winter to remember....but for all the wrong reasons.

Dawn

They are saying they don't think we will see much from the storm coming this weekend and again Monday. But that is usually when we get it. I was listening to a NWS forecaster on the radio Monday morning and he said the models showed we would be on the edge here and might see an inch. Then Tuesday it was 1-2 inches and by yesterday 2-4 and we got 5-6. I do think we were on the western edge as there is only around 3 inches here at my station in extreme CO. I do expect more for the next 2-3 weeks. My garden was well worked so this is the medicine I ordered for it. By mid March if this keeps up will be in ideal condition to poke the onions in. I don't need to work anything anymore. Unless I decide to work up the old peacock pen. Jay

OMG - well, this certainly won't help our cabin fever, but I just saw on the weather that we could be in for THREE storms next week, the first one on Sunday night into Monday, the second on Thursday, and the third one on the weekend! These storms are not like our spring storms that come and go quickly either. They carry over for 2 or 3 days. Geez, do we really need that many? NO!!!!

Oh, well, since there is nothing we can do about it, I'll have to think of something to do indoors like seed planting, as Dawn mentioned. Sigh.........:(

Susan

Susan,

Next week's weather is the wicked February weather Jay and I have been talking about for 2 or 3 weeks now. (Not because we're psychic, but because we watch long-term forecast discussions. LOL) It is developing just as the models have predicted, although there is some conflict between the various models about what kind of precipitation if any will fall in Texas and Oklahoma and the surrounding region.

The third storm next week is the really bad one because the cold is coming down from the Nunavet part of the Artic Region. The GFS and ECMWC models differ strongly on the precip. part, but the cold is pretty much 'guaranteed'. Unfortunately, the GFS model is the one predicting precipitation (earlier this week it was showing a lot of snow in southcentral Texas late next week) and it is the GFS model that has accurately predicted the snow/ice storms that have hit us recently, so it has been pretty accurate this year. The Fort Worth NWS forecasters currently are predicting very cold but are holding back on adding precipitation to the forecast because the ECMWC shows a front that will be dry and amplified. The FW NWS office does caution that if the GFS is correct, then a major 'winter situation' could develop.

I suspect what we see next week will be a replay of what we've had already in terms of cold, clouds and some form of precipitation. The issue is whether the precip falls as rain, which would be preferable, or something else like ice or snow and time will tell.

We need to start a new thread about indoor gardening projects for winter, because I don't think many of us will be spending much time outside the next 2 or 3 weeks.

Dawn

I really appreciate hearing these long-term forecasts as they're not something I keep up with on my own.

Looks like I'd better get whatever onions planted out that I can before next week. I was going to wait for hubby to get a couple of new raised beds built but he won't be able to get them done if the mud keeps up. I don't have enough unplanted space in the wellhouse garden but I'll just have to cram as many in there as I can and just cross my fingers for what's left over.

Diane

Diane,

Sometimes it doesn't seem like following the long-term forecasts is worthwhile because they're often quite inaccurate. This year, though, the long-term forecasts have been fairly accurate within a certain margin or error, with regards to the snow/ice/cold that we've endured since late December. The easy part for the models and the mets who interpret them seems to be determining where the high and low pressure areas will be, what conditions will exist at different levels in the atmosphere, and where the various fronts are likely to collide or merge, etc. They are less accurate on whether a given area will get precip. and if so, how much. Usually though, about 3 days before a cold front is due to arrive here, it seems like our mets' confidence in the models firms up. Sometimes this means 2 or more models that have been given contradictory info start to resemble one another more and other times it means they're discarding the least reliable models or going with a gut feeling based on the most reliable models plus history plus recent trends. Some models show an inherent bias towards incorrectly predicting certain results from certain data and really experienced meteorologists know that and give that model less weight/less confidence if they think that is occurring.

Some of the early models have forecast up to a foot of snow for southcentral Texas next week, which I guess is probably zone 8b to zone 9...if that were to happen, it would be hard on those gardeners and their plants. (Some of them are close to tomato transplant time already.) However, the forecasters do not have high enough confidence in that model to start talking about snow or sleet yet. I would expect that about Tues. or Wed., the forecasters will see the models coming together better and will start to issue the necessary advisories, watches and warnings. When that happens, just remember that Jay has been warning of serious mid-Feb. winter weather for about 3 or more weeks now! LOL

For cool-season crops, and especially the extra-early ones like potatoes, onions, peas, etc., I think we're just going to have to do the best we can with the weather we have because it is unlikely the soil will dry out much.

My own personal forecast is that spring weather will come but I have no idea when...although, hopefully, it will arrive before summer gets here.

Dawn

Dawn, I read your post with great interested and was thinking how "techy" you are about the weather. Then I got to the last line of the post and you sounded like the TV weather man. LOL

Carol,

Oh, no, I know very little about the weather and less than that about technology, but I read some of the weather blogs where the really knowledgeable folks converse about weather like we converse about gardening and I feel like I'm starting to learn a little bit there.

Today, I was reading Dr. Master's blog on Wunderground about the Nor'Easter that is pounding the heck out of the Washington D.C., Maryland, Delaware and Virginia region (and surrounding areas) and it sounds like they're in a world of hurt already and getting worse. (They say the grocery stores had checkout lines 40 shopping carts long and the stores are stripped of everything.) In the "Comments" section, some of the Florida blog members started commenting on a developing tornado they believed they were watching form (on radar) over Florida. Finally, after what seemed like hours, the NWS woke up, saw the same thing and started issuing tornado watches and warnings. I was just so incredibly impressed that the bloggers were ahead of the NWS on those tornadoes in Florida today. I was looking at the graphics they were posting and I couldn't see anything.....LOL.

I am forecasting blue skies and sunny skies and warmer than forecast high temps for Love County today. (grin) You can take that forecast to the bank! That's because we have had blue skies and sunshine for hours now, and our forecast high of 55 has been reached at the Mesonet station and it is 56 on our front porch. That's my favorite way to forecast the weather....look out the window, see what it is doing and then pretend that's what I had already said it would do.

I was looking at some images from the GFS model today and it still shows heavy snow/ice/freezing rain over much of Texas and Oklahoma next week approx. Feb. 13-14. The more I look at this model, the more I hope it is wrong and expect it to change as each day passes. Otherwise, vast portions of TX and OK are in trouble.

I should go outside and sit in the sun for a while and soak up some rays, and I think maybe I'll do that right now. I've been 'playing' with my tomato seeds today....looking at the packets, trying to figure out how many seeds of each variety to plant, trying to talk myself into adding this one or that one or trying to talk myself out of growing that one or this one....it is exhausting. It is crunch time, you know, because I start seeds Sunday. "Decision-making" weekend is so tough, because it is my last chance to change the grow list. And, have you ever noticed that when I change my grow list it always gets bigger and not smaller?

OK I'm gonna click 'submit' on this and run outside and sit in the sun even if I have to walk through ankle deep mud to do it.

Dawn

Sun? You have sun?! That is so not fair.

Diane

Diane,

Oops, sorry. Forget that I mentioned we had sunlight for approximately seven hours at our house today and a nice afternoon high of 57 degrees.

It wasn't that special. Just bright blue skies and a big funny-looking bright light in the sky that was rumored to be the actual Sun itself.

Maybe you'll have sunlight tomorrow?

And, by the way, didn't your mama teach you that life is not always fair? : )

Dawn

Yes, I had read about the mid-February storm forecast awhile back but a 1-2-3 pop is still more than I anticipated.

I have spent the day baking a ham and researching Salvias. Not too bad now that I think about it. Of course, I'll have plenty of time researching over the next week it looks like.

Susan

My weather radio is set for adjoining counties, and in my case that means one Missouri county and one Arkansas county in addition to Oklahoma. It starting going off during the early morning hours, but everything was east of us. Even with no bad weather here, it is still damp and dreary.

Susan,

It is likely that after the three storms next week, more will come in the following two weeks and we can blame it on El Nino. We are likely to have, at best, a spring like 2007 and maybe an early summer like 2004. Remember all the rain and how we couldn't plant for ages and then the plants still wouldn't grow in waterlogged soil? Remember the flooding? That is what a moderate to strong El Nino tends to bring us...not just several 'big events' but many smaller ones coming one after another after another. We also have some rainy years without El Nino, but since this is a year with a strong El Nino, we'll blame it.

The good thing is that the acquifers that many water companies and individuals draw their water from should really, really recharge well thanks to the 2009-2010 rainfall. That's a great thing because the springs at the Chickasaw National Recreational Area in Sulphur had gotten really low the last couple of years and some of the springs had stopped running.

For garderners, though, it is not such a great thing.

Watching The Weather Channel as I type this and Jim Cantore said there's breaking news of a mud slide in North Carolina and a rescue of affected people is underway. How strange is that? This weekend storm looks to be a record-breaker.

Carol, We have 8 counties on ours....which can be annoying on bad thunderstorm nights when it goes off every half-hour for one county or another, but it also ensures a storm won't sneak up on us from any direction. The 8 counties are: in Oklahoma--Love, Jefferson, Carter, Marshall and Bryan and, in Texas--Montague, Cooke and Grayson.

Today we got a break from dull and dreary and it was so incredibly wonderful....and then sunset arrived and it turned cold quickly. I am dreading the next week of gloomy weather (after tomorrow's day of sunshine). I NEEDED the sunshine today and can't believe how much it perked me up. (Didn't even know I needed to be perked up!) I wish y'all could have had sunshine today. Maybe tomorrow the sun will shine on y'all.

Dawn

Okay, I just checked our forecast and it seems the next time we'll have a chabce of seeing the sun will be Tuesday. Poop.

Ah, well, at least there's no rain slotted for tomorrow. I'll try to get some onions planted out and maybe a bit more wintersowing.

Diane

Was bright and sunny here today. And got warmer than some had predicted. Hit 42 and got a lot of melting done. I was in Guymon this afternoon. They have a lot more snow left than we do. I still have around 2 inches on the average here. With a few bare spots showing. Once you get 4 miles north of town from there on the ground is almost bare. We have been on the northern and western edges the last two storms. And not sure what to expect about the coming storm. Glad they are hitting Dawn's as they have been all over here all winter. Missing the track and amounts. It is like a friend of mine said today. They named this area "No Man's Land" years ago and the weather forecasters still consider it that. We get no forecast for this area. And I don't claim to be a forecaster. So I watch the critters and ask Dan once a week or so. He has been way closer on anything over 3 days. He warned me a week or so back I had better be getting hay if I needed it as we would be having one storm after another. That was when Accuweather and the NWS was still showing it mild and uneventful till the 14th. The best way is too just take it day by day. Once we get to the 20th at least normally any snow doesn't stay on the ground long. Jay