Dawn,
Yes I have been looking at the forecasts. Again no agreement. The only agreements I see is cold is coming and most if not all are saying around 2 inches accumulation in our area. Which to me isn't a blizzard. The part that concerns me is many times when they say a skiff to 2 inches we get blasted. Like I've said none of them predict for us except the local weather man who i've mentioned before and haven't heard his forecast yet. They have dropped temps 15-20 degrees per day just from yesterday. And that is still 2-3 days away. So a lot can change. Just hope the snow amounts don't increase. Like I've said it is nice to read the forecasts but they are so far from the truth here I pay very little attention to them. Not sure why it would be so hard to make a forecast for our area. Just more work I guess. And they are probably like everyone else have cut back help.
Will let you know Thursday how it all comes out. Jay

Dawn after I posted I went and looked at the forecast for a town 12 miles south of the state line. And a big difference and not near the chance of snow especially on Thursday. Both NWS forecasts. One out of Amarillo, TX and the other out of Dodge City, KS. So like I've stated before basically in my opinion they are good to read but I not wise to pay much attention to them. Jay

Jay,

I guess this week's weather patterns are confusing them because our weather forecast for Wed-Thurs-Fri has been all over the place and changing about 3 times a day. At one point, they said Wed would be 32 degrees with sleet and snow, then changed to the 50s and no precip, then changed it again to about 68 degrees with a high probability of moisture--70%. If I wait and check the Wed. forecast again in a couple of hours, it probably will change yet again.

These weather forecasters are changing their forecast about as many times as I've changed my tomato grow list. Of course, I am not announcing every change I'm making to that list because no one but me cares.....personally, I'm hoping the 68-degree forecast is the kind of weather we end up having.

I wondered about the blizzard part of your forecast....from what I gathered watching the news this weekend, it may be the wind/blowing snow possibility that factors into deciding to issue a blizzard watch?

Dawn

I was living in North Grafton, Massachusetts in 1992 when I experienced my first and only blizzard. A true Nor'easter. Was I surprised!! We had 31" of snow.

On Christmas Eve I visited a friend in Westborough, Mass, just a few miles away, and it began snowing again. It was a magical drive from there to N. Grafton, through the Tufts University campus. Everything in Massachusetts outside of Boston, is woodsy and beautiful.

Lots of Currier and Ives-like scenes up there.....and they keep the roads clean! Kenna is hoping for snow, as are all kids I'm sure.

Susan

I hope you guys that want a white Christmas get one, and it skips me. LOL My only desire for snow is for it's insulating qualities if the temp is going to drop extremely low. I'm afraid that I can't say that I have never been in a blizzard, because I have seen plenty.

I lived in the upper peninsula of Michigan and heavy snow and blizzard conditions were frequent. I lived just south of Marquette, Michigan but had been on temporary duty at the Air Force Base at Sault Saint Marie for the week. It was Friday and I was finished and ready to go home. I loaded up my stuff and filled my gas tank and everyone was warning me not to go, but I wanted to go home. This is a long trip and the UP sits between the great lakes. Most of the gas stations were closed and some guy that drove a gas truck sold two of us gasoline from the back of his tanker truck. Most of the time I was driving on a heavy snow bed and it was snowing so hard that they couldn't keep the roads uncovered but I could still see. Then it got bad. For several miles, the only thing I could see were two tail lights in front of me and that is what I followed. If he had gone into the ditch, he would have had company, because I could see nothing except the snow that was blowing sideways and his tail lights, but I made it home.

A few years ago we were leaving Utah and driving thru Denver. The snow started while we were in the Rocky Mountains but we were a little ahead of it. We stopped in Denver for a couple of hours but they were predicting a foot of snow so we knew we had to keep driving east. We stayed ahead of it (somewhat) into Kansas as long as we were going east. When we turned south to come down I-35, we ran into it. We were sure glad we had been ahead of it all day, because it was a big one.

I have lived in Alaska and Colorado, but nothing compares to northern Michigan. Everyday you looked out the windows to see if you needed to go at the back so you could shovel the front, or if you could go out the front and shovel a path to the back door. It all depended on which way the wind blew. You had to shovel after every snowfall so you had a place to park your car in your front yard. You could have put plywood across the top of the snow and had a garage toward the end of winter, and they didn't even try to keep parking lots clear. It took a neighborhood of snow shovelers to clear the residental streets so you could get your car to a street that had been plowed.

In was in Alaska 8 years total and lived in both Wasilla and Anchorage, (also Colorado for 5 1/2) but we didn't get a lot of snow in Alaska. We had friends that had lived in Fairbanks, where it does snow, for many years and at the time were living in Wasilla. He was retired and had decided to move south. We asked him where he was going to move and he said he didn't know. He said he was going to buy a new snow shovel and tie it to the front grill of his truck and start south. He said when the first person said, "What's that on the front of your truck?", he would know he was far enough south and he was stoping. Last time I saw them they were living in OKC. LOL

I've been in my fair share of blizzards and would love to have one here this winter. Of course, I don't have to drive anywhere so that makes it easier to appreciate such things.

Hey, I just realized that today is the first day of winter. That means seed-starting time can't be that far off. Yay!

Diane

Our weather forecast has changed about four times today, each time increasing the likely hood of snow. The only thing I think we can be sure of is that we will have wind. Since my son and his wife will be traveling this way from the OKC area I hope the blizzard doesn't happen. I hope all of you have a Merry Christmas and stay warm. I have 2 out of three children home and hopefully the third will be here too. Having family home is the best Christmas gift.

Jan

Yes hard to say what will happen. What I've seen most are saying 1-2 inches of accumulation. I'm supposed to go to Amarillo to a specialist Wed.. Called and told them it will depend on what it looks like Wed. morning. Hate to miss an appointment hard to get one. What worries me is sometimes when they say 1-2 inches it dumps on us. It will matter how it tracks. I hope the snow misses us so everyone can get around for Christmas. Jan hope you son and DIL make it home fine. Jay

Jay and Jan,

What is wrong with these forecasters? Our forecast for Tues-Wed-Thur-Fri changed 2 or 3 times yesterday. They are driving me nuts with their wishy-washy ways. In our case, Jan, the forecast is giving us increasing chances of bad weather (cold, sleet, snow) too, but I'd be surprised if we have snow here. We've already had 2" of snow this month, which is 2" more than Love County generally gets in December, so the odds of a second snowfall are very low. On the other hand, El Nino might cause us to have more snow this year.

I do hope your family members make it to your place safely, and hopefully the snow won't happen or at least hopefully it won't fall until they've safely arrived at your place.

Jay,

I hope you can make it to Amarillo but the weather certainly looks like it may make driving to Amarillo difficult if not impossible. A friend of ours is leaving Wed. to drive to Colorado and I expect he'll have a long, difficult drive once he runs into the snow.

Dawn

Dawn, at least the weatherman admitted today that they won't really know until tomorrow what is going to happen!

Jan, I do hope your family makes it with no problems!

It is just our typical weird and unpredictable Oklahoma weather.
usan
S

Dawn I've checked all the forecasts this morning. Yes I agree about them being wishy washy. Also think that way they can say they were right. hehe. What really gets me is the different forecasts from the same service. Like I said the forecast for Elkhart is from Dodge City and the one for Eva, OK just south of me is from Amarillo, TX. The one from Dodge has issued a Blizzard watch and the one from Amarillo has issued a Winter Storm Watch. This if for areas 12 miles apart. Like I said before they don't forecast for this area in my opinion. The percentage for moisture starting tonight and going through Thursday for Elkhart are 90-100-90-20 and for Eva for the same time frame they are 40-90-60-20. And Accuweather which is usually more accurate says no chance for Thursday. They are all saying around 2-4 with the NWS for Elkhart saying 2-5. Hope it is the lower amount. And conditions improve so people can have Christmas.

As for my trip the only problem with be if we get the freezing drizzle and rain. And the roads get slick. Right now i don't see the snowfall being a big problem. Of course that can change. I looked at the satellite to the west and unless something really forms can't see anything that looks real bad. Will be cold for sure. Of course don't take much drizzle and freezing rain to make things bad. So it is a wait and see affair. Like I said I wish I could get paid to be wrong. And also a legal way to panic folks. It reminds me of the old weather man whose brother ran a farm type store in a small town. Everyone always accused him of saying in late winter every year that a bad one was coming so his brother would sell his winter supplies. It is amazing to me that people who have lived how they panic. Jay

Susan,

I agree. Our local guy is really good about telling us when the models are giving conflicting indications and keeping everything "up in the air". The NWS is the worst, I think, for changing the forecast. My favorite weather faux pas is when there is NO rain in the forecast and then it starts raining. AFTER the rain starts, they run back and change the forecast to show that rain is "predicted". LOL Do they think we don't realize they are putting rain in the forecast only after it has started falling?

Jay,

I always look at Amarillo for your forecast but they don't seem terribly accurate. You need your own NWS office there in Elkhart (LOL), but even that wouldn't guarantee an accurate forecast.

Today our local guy is saying 63 for today and the NWS was saying 54. Someone will be right, and I bet it will be the local guy. Our LOW last night was something like 50 or 52 degrees. It feels like a March or April morning outside right now.

I always try to be stocked up on supplies just in case, but we never really have such bad weather here that we are snowbound. It does amaze me how people run to the store and wipe out the shelves when even a slight chance of bad weather is forecast. I try to always be prepared in terms of having candles and matches, flashlights and batteries, bottled water and nonperishable food items. We rarely have ice or snow last more than 1 day on the roadways, so it is unlikely we'd ever have to stock up in fear of being 'snowbound' here.

I do always make sure I have ingredients for something yummy and filling for the firefighters (like stew or 15-bean soup or taco soup or chicken-n-dumplings and the like) if ice is forecast. Often, on icy days the FFs are out all day long going from one wreck/disaster to another, so when they leave on a morning like that, some of us ladies start cooking. We try to get the food to the fire station so the FFs can come back to the station and eat a hot meal and drink coffee or cocoa or hot tea, but if I think it is too dangerous to try to drive to the station, I tell the FFs to come by the house and pick up the food.
Our firefighters currently are converting some storage space to a kitchen, bathroom and conference room space at the station, so before too long we'll be able to go to the station with them on icy days and stay there and cook while they're out working accidents. That will be a lot easier than transporting containers of hot food.

We have never had a power outage here that lasted more than an hour or two, and the few we have had usually have occurred during windstorms/duststorms with winds in excess of 50 mph. So, spring windstorms generally make me more nervous than freezing precip.

I do always buy an extra bag of hen scratch and maybe thistle seed for the finches if icy/snowey weather is expected because the wild birds show up in huge flocks when inclement weather occurs. One year, I didn't have extra henscratch, so I made the birds blueberry pancakes....and they ate every bit of it. That same year, my old farmer friend Fred saw the huge flocks of birds in our snowy yard and came over on his ATV and brought me a big bucket of oats for them.

Dawn

Have checked the forecasts, radars and satellites and doesn't show much. One has lowered their predictions and say most if any will be later this afternoon and evening and even raised temps a little. What still concerns me is freezing drizzle and rain. That can make driving in a big town dangerous. Of course I can skirt the edge of Amarillo and don't have to go into the heart. Will watch things for a couple of hours and then make a decision. Right now I'm thinking I'll head out. Everyone take care and stay warm. Jay