Where's Jim Cantore?

*** Update:  Found him and he's apparently afraid of thunder!  Who knew! Ha.

He should be on the corner of Belmont and Sheridan in Chicago... This weather report direct from my son. He walked down the street, downwind. Had to crawl part of the way back. People are getting knocked over by the wind. The screen on his window just blew off. There are people sitting in his lobby whose cars are stuck on Lake Shore Drive. It's a very nice lobby with television and hot coffee. (I would never be so lucky).

My son has been through a hurricane during his AIT in the Army, he has been through sandstorms in the desert. He calls this the wind from hell... this is from his phone looking out the front door of his building.

The Windy City.

My daughter is staying at a hotel near where she works.  Her company is picking up the tab. Of course they just had a fire (not a draher faher) but a fire nevertheless.  So it was out into the storm to await the FD giving the all clear.  

But all is well, the fire is out - the bars are open. So she's happy. 

***

Wouldn't you know - I put up a video and Vimeo decides to do system maintenance.... geeze.  Hopefully it's back soon.

Posted by: Teresa in Weather at 11:32 PM | Comments (5) | Add Comment
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Winter Has Arrived

We've been up and down and up and down with temps here lately.  The beginning of December had temps in the high 20's.  Then the big storm rolled through and the temps went up to the 50's.  Now we're down in the high teens.   I think it will stay this way a while. 

This is what you get when the temps drop:



Kinda pretty isn't it.  Cold though.

Here's a friendly dog who really loves this weather.



I would too if I had his coat. 

Posted by: Teresa in Weather at 02:36 PM | Comments (7) | Add Comment
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Humid - Very Humid

My husband found a site that tells us the ground elevations around this area.  He was able to find the site of our house and it's at about 640ft above sea level. This is why it doesn't get quite so hot here, high up and in the trees.  The highway is exactly 2 miles from the house - it's at about 400ft.  Somehow I didn't realize the climb was quite that steep - but the temp often drops about 5 degrees as we drive from the highway to the house.  I know - it's just some bits of trivia which no one cares about but me.  But that's why I blog - so I can throw out these little things into the world and bore everyone silly.  Heh.

The temps have been hovering in the mid 80's.  Unlike lots of poor bloggers down south, we don't have the excess heat problem.  But a bit of humidity has wafted this way (around 90%) and thunderstorms are promised.  After all, I believe I've told you before, we live in a rain forest.

Instead of having to get up at 3am and run around shutting windows (which we did several times last week), we decided to turn on the A/C.  We had a moment of tremendous irritation when my husband flipped the switch and... nothing happened.  Nothing at all. 

Off - On - Off - On - zip.  Not even a hiccup.

Since we just had those guys in to fix the wires that were chewed by mice in the outdoor unit, this was not just disconcerting - it was a momentary spike of anger.  I wanted to call them and make them come back "right now" and get it running.  They ran it before they left, then they turned it off - they must have broken it! (well that's what I was thinking as we stood there looking at the thermostat that was eliciting no response)

After checking all the circuit breakers inside and outside, checking that the blower switch was on, we head back up to look at the thermostat again. (Somewhat despairingly I might add. I mean there is nothing we can do if it just doesn't start.)

Without much hope, my husband flips on the blower switch - the blower obligingly turns on.  Well okay that works.  He turns it back to "auto" - turns the A/C on and suddenly - it works. 

We have no idea why.  I have a feeling it will suddenly stop again for no reason. But we shall see.

Maybe tomorrow I'll have some ambition to post more pictures.  Tonight I think I'm going to go read instead.  In the meantime, here's a bird we saw in San Antonio where it was hot, but not quite so humid as it is here.

Posted by: Teresa in Weather at 10:45 PM | Comments (5) | Add Comment
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The Snow's A Comin'

While we aren't supposed to get the massive brunt of the storm (which is supposed to be farther south of us), this is the prediction for tomorrow from the NOAA:

Wednesday: Snow, mainly after 11am. High near 31. Blustery, with a northeast wind 5 to 8 mph increasing to between 18 and 21 mph. Chance of precipitation is 100%. New snow accumulation of 4 to 8 inches possible.

Wednesday Night: Snow, mainly before 1am. Low around 22. Blustery, with a north wind between 18 and 22 mph, with gusts as high as 32 mph. Chance of precipitation is 90%. New snow accumulation of 2 to 4 inches possible.

Reading between the lines and going from historical data (aka - the kind of snow we've seen with each predicted storm)... we will be getting between 8-15 inches of snow.

About average.

I have my wine stocked up and I have a chuck roast for the crockpot.

I'm ready!

Posted by: Teresa in Weather at 05:41 PM | Comments (5) | Add Comment
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It's All About the Water - Or Not

The rain is coming...

Warning! Warning! Danger Will Robinson!

We have about 8 inches of snow on the ground even after several days of mid 30's temps.  It's heavy wet packed snow.

Rain is coming tonight - 1 to 3 inches.  Temps going up to the 50's. 

Warm, rain, frozen ground, melting snow - what could possibly go wrong?

Joy.

Maybe I should stop at DSW and buy rainboots tomorrow so I can wade back into my house.  That's always assuming the house isn't simply washed away.

I think it's too late to build an ark.

Ho-hum.

****

In other news my daughter called tonight to chat for a bit. 
Me: How's your brother?
Her: Oh he's fine, I saw him yesterday, B (his girlfriend) is in Florida.
Me: Florida? 
Her: Yeah, I think she's down there with her mom.
Me: You know, you got the short end of the deal in the mom department.  I never take you places.

***

I think I'll go read now.  It's shaping up to be a very very long 2 days.  If I survive until Wednesday things might slow down a bit. We'll see.  Wednesday is the current goal - just get to Wednesday then we'll worry about the rest of the week.

Posted by: Teresa in Ummmmm at 11:59 PM | Comments (5) | Add Comment
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It's Cold

Last time I looked at the thermometer it was a rather chilly 7 degrees.  My fingers are cold and I should head to bed.  Since I have been so busy I decided I should leave you with at least one pic for the day.  From last weekend when it was still warm.



It won't stay this cold for long (after all we do have glowball warmening going on) but it's nice to look back to that balmy weather of around 32 degrees.  Springlike...

Posted by: Teresa in Weather at 12:28 AM | Comments (8) | Add Comment
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Summer's About Over

If the weather nuts are correct, we have one more 80+ degree day in store and then the temps drop to the 70's.  That means fall is ready to dig in and get things underway. 

At this time of year the temp seldom shoots back up once it starts the downward trend.  Of course we had about 2 and a half weeks of summer.  So I guess I should say Yay!  And I have to say that while it was very humid and yucky... it wasn't incredibly hot (I'm sorry but high 80's don't count as incredibly hot) and it wasn't even all that humid compared to say... Florida where it's about 100% humidity all the time.

So Yay - we had a leetle bit of summer.

Okay, I said it.

Until the beginning of August we had "not-winter" instead of summer.  I'm pretty sure most of the kids around here are all bummed out because now they have to head back to school and they barely got summer. 

Usually fall is lovely here.  I'm waiting to see if all the rain earlier this summer makes the fall better or worse.  Stay tuned. I'm sure there will be pictures involved.

Posted by: Teresa in Weather at 09:47 PM | Comments (4) | Add Comment
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Water Water Everywhere

Yesterday I had to go out several times and drive around to get various things done.  Each time I was out, it was in the middle of a torrential downpour.

Local airport measured a little over an inch of rain yesterday, but who knows how close that measurement is to actual rainfall in the various areas.  We all know that storms never drop the same amount of rain everywhere. 

While trying to peer through all the rain on the windshield, I saw a goodly number of pickup trucks with canoes/kayaks either strapped to the top or resting in the bed.

Hmmm... what do they know that I don't?

I checked at weather.com.  If you poke around enough you can find historical information (even though they make it convoluted and difficult to locate and I never remember how I got there so have to waste all kinds of time finding it each time I want to look...).  Since yesterday was the end of July they had the month-to-date rain totals. 

At the local airport where these measurements occur the grand total for July was 9.97 inches.  Normal rainfall for July in this area is 3.80 inches.

Time to go boat shopping? 

Posted by: Teresa in Weather at 11:39 AM | Comments (4) | Add Comment
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Weather or Not

I am not a weather watcher. I only tune into the Weather Channel when I have something specific to check out - like - I'm trying to fly... is it REALLY going to rain? Or something like that.

I do periodically check out NOAA if I hear from my husband that we'll be getting rain. I just plug in my zipcode and it gives me a forecast.

I have to wonder who writes these. After a while they MUST get punch drunk or maybe drunk for real... or maybe it's a computer writing it. Personally I like to think it's someone with a really skewed sense of humor. After all, look at our forecast for tomorrow:

Tuesday: Showers and possibly a thunderstorm before 1pm, then showers between 1pm and 2pm, then showers and possibly a thunderstorm after 2pm. High near 70. East wind around 7 mph. Chance of precipitation is 90%. New rainfall amounts between 1 and 2 inches possible.

Showers, then showers, then showers. I read these and giggle. It's the only thing I find funny about the weather lately. I think I've been working too much or something.

Posted by: Teresa in Weather at 09:55 PM | Comments (11) | Add Comment
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Aw Hail

Last Wednesday we had hail.

Enough that a pretty decent amount landed on the covered front porch.



Of course there was far more once you got out from under the porch.



And the back porch seemed to gather more than its fair share. 



Looks like it's a good thing I'm not much into outdoor decoration or I would have had quite a bit to replace. Heh.

Posted by: Teresa in Weather at 11:27 PM | Comments (4) | Add Comment
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Okay I'm Done

It is raining steadily... still.  And it's 60 degrees. See the cute map:



Okay - done now.  Make it stop! 

I had planned on grilling something for dinner.  But I guess that's out unless we want to be soaked while cooking (along with the food). 

I can not tell you how tired I am of this rain.  BAH!

Posted by: Teresa in Weather at 03:22 PM | Comments (9) | Add Comment
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It's All Entertainment Now!

I was looking about on Google news today and ran across this on the main page and had to take a screen shot:


 
Would this be the Cantore effect?  Has he dashed up here to do a soft-shoe routine in the snow?  Is Algore up here showing his damned movie again?  Or has "Entertainment News" hit such a low point they've decided discussing the weather is more entertaining? 

Currently we have a light covering of snow - the real stuff is supposed to hit tonight.  The snow blower is at the ready, the shovels are at hand, soon I'll have a nice pot roast in the oven.

Coming hard on the heels of a pretty nice 40+ degree couple of days, I'm not in the mood for a foot of snow. 

Ho-hum. 

That's winter up north - it doesn't want to give up.

Posted by: Teresa in Weather at 02:20 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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A Leetle Snow

I know the states north of me got hammered hard yesterday with lots and lots of snow and major power outages.  Here, it rained, starting around noon and lasting most of the day with a touch of snow over night to finish.  

Therefore we were left with iciness this morning. Yep, just enough snow to cover all the treacherous spots. That and the wind howling like mad. 

It seldom "sounds" windy at our house.  I guess it's all the trees.  For the most part I hear the wind in the trees, but don't have that sense of it hitting the house. 

Last night - it was hitting the house.  More than I've heard in the 3+ years we've lived here.  Felt almost like I was back in the Chicago burbs... except this is a much better house than any we had there and so - even when the wind hits it - it's got a solid feeling.  (our last house I could swear I'd see the north wall move with the gusts)

The weird thing is, the temps are about the same as yesterday, but it feels so much colder today.  Most odd.

Why am I weather blogging about such incredibly bland weather?   Because I've been staring at computer code today.  Code that should have been pretty easily worked into what I wanted it to do.  Yet my brain cells resisted any pretense at comprehension.   Resisted mightily. 

There were a few glimmers and I spent time changing some code that I'm pretty sure I now simply need to delete. 

In other words, I'm spinning my wheels today.  So, I just got back from pilates, will now make dinner, and contemplate sitting under a blanket to warm myself up.

Maybe some hot tea will help.  Heh.

Posted by: Teresa in Weather at 06:35 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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Conversation With Darling Daughter

My daughter managed (probably because no phone would dare thwart her) to get through to my cell phone last night.  She had tales to tell and threats of possible disconnect did not deter her.

It seems she was walking to the store yesterday and went to cross the street, whereupon the wind blew so hard, it stopped her (and everyone else crossing) in the middle of the street and proceeded to blow her backward. 

She said people in cars waiting for the light to turn were laughing. 

Then she walked into the coffee shop to get something hot to drink, only to find that the metal clasp on her purse had frozen shut on her half mile walk from home.  She had to breathe on it to thaw it out and get it open.  The girl working the register was apparently fascinated, never having seen anyone's purse freeze shut before. 

Chicago at -2 with full on wind gusts of 40+ mph. Gotta love it when the jet stream comes to town. Heh.

Posted by: Teresa in Weather at 11:38 PM | Comments (9) | Add Comment
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Let It Snow

One of the few weather predictions we seem to be able to count on... when they say it's going to snow, they are always right. They haven't missed yet.

Yesterday the prediction was between 8 and 16 inches.  We got about 8.

I have been sitting in front of my computer working most of the day while my husband has been outside trying to move snow.  (yes working - we had an office computer meltdown yesterday - I've spent nearly all day helping to get things fixed up and running again for all the jobs that need doing this weekend).

I did take a break and take a few pictures, mostly from inside the house because I've been too lazy to put my boots and coat on.

Out my front door, this is what I see



Looks pretty nice doesn't it.  Then there's the back deck where we have a cute little bistro table and chairs...



Sorry, the window is a bit dirty.  Didn't realize that until I uploaded the pic. 

This one is my view out the office door.  All those tree limbs are getting hard to see.



Well, I did step outside my side door because I knew you'd all want to see my grill being buried under the snow.



But since they are predicting at least 8 more inches of snow tonight, my husband not only cleaned off the driveway and the sidewalks, he also worked on "shoveling" the roof.  Much easier than letting it go and dealing with the effects of ice dams later.



Mostly snow is just lots of work. It can be very pretty though.



Now it's time to make some hot tea, snuggle under a blanket and watch a bit of television.  Tomorrow it will be my turn to do some shoveling.

Posted by: Teresa in Weather at 04:04 PM | Comments (5) | Add Comment
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More Fun With Wires

The dudes who clear branches for the local electric company dropped by today. I wouldn't have known, except they were leaving my driveway as I was coming back from Starbucks this morning. (no I probably would not have noticed the changes in branch stacking - there are too many floating about the yard so I'm ignoring them)

They cleaned up the large pile of branches off the power line... the LIVE power line... and pulled the broken phone line somewhat off the ground by wrapping it around the pole in our yard.

Supposedly tomorrow the guys who reattach these things to the tops of the poles are supposed to drop by and put the wires back up where they belong. Then the electrician has to visit and reattach the meter box to the house.

Depending on when all this happens they may be playing in the snow. From the NOAA, this is our forecast*** for tomorrow:

Friday: Snow, mainly after 3pm. The snow could be heavy at times. High near 29. Light wind becoming east between 10 and 13 mph. Winds could gust as high as 24 mph. Chance of precipitation is 100%. New snow accumulation of 5 to 9 inches possible.

Friday Night: Snow. The snow could be heavy at times. Low around 12. North wind around 14 mph, with gusts as high as 30 mph. Chance of precipitation is 100%. New snow accumulation of 3 to 7 inches possible.

Ah lovely - anywhere from 8 to 16 inches of snow. And that gusty wind thing... just what we need. Will they look at the weather channel in the morning and say "Screw it. we'll wait for summer!"?

Or will they get distracted in the middle of the job and have a snowball fight? After all the guy way up in the air has a real advantage if he can collect enough snow.

Hmmm... might be interesting.

We shall see.

*** why is it I always forget the "e" in the middle of "forecast" whenever I type it. I know it's there yet every single time I type the word, I skip it and have to go back to put it in. Most annoying.

Posted by: Teresa in Weather at 10:44 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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If I Was Eloquent

I would be able to write something called

Ode to a Generator



During our recent power outage, this little guy kept us going beautifully.  I think it deserves an ode, but that type of prose is beyond me.

Of course so then does my husband.  The man who knew how to wire things so the generator could be used to its full potential during those hours with no electricity.  The man knows how to create cables, how to run motors on the generator without ruining them (there is apparently a trick to this that I did not know), ensuring that things are safely connected and listening critically to how the motor runs the entire time it's on...

Who knew it could be so complicated.  That you don't just turn it on, plug stuff in and walk away.  I think he has osmosis where this stuff is concerned.  He seems to just "know" it.  He will claim it's through trial and error and lots of reading... but I think it's got to be osmosis. 

We were able to use this lovely little machine to alternately, run the furnace, the hot water heater, the water pump (necessary when you have well and septic for your water supply), the refrigerator, and any lights we needed (we didn't turn on anything high voltage of course).  Except for the lights these all had to run separately, but just the fact that they could run was most excellent.

There were a few harrowing moments when it started to bog down.  That was Saturday night when the temperature was about 15 degrees.  My husband had read that these generators can have difficulty with ice build up in the carburetor... so we moved it into the garage, opened a couple of doors and a window.  For some reason that was adequate to make it start behaving well again.

We bought this back in 2000 after a power outage caused a basement flood.  This is the first time we've used it, outside of the test runs.  I will say, it performed beautifully.  I'm very glad we had it or we might have frozen into Popsicles in our house.    

It's a wonderful thing this generator.  It goes without saying that my husband is wonderful. 

Posted by: Teresa in Weather at 10:19 PM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
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Ice Storm... Of Course There are Pictures

Look what a little rain can do when it decides to freeze on the trees.  We drove home in this rain.  The roads were not slick it was not sleet - it was rain.  But...

At just the right temp, it turns into ice on plants.  Somewhere around midnight last Thursday we started hearing branches break.  It sounds like a shotgun and then you hear them fall.  We kept jumping out of bed just in case one of those times it was a tree from our back yard headed toward our bedroom. 

The next morning, this was the front yard.



If you look closely, the largest pile of branches in the very back is on the power lines.  At that time the electric box was still on the house - a couple hours later another branch fell and ripped it away. 

Here's a closer view of the branch pile that the electric company still needs to clear away.  (we don't mess with electrical wires here even if they do seem to be dead!)



When I looked out the side window this was what I saw.



That's looking through the window so it's a bit fuzzy.

Of course, the roads were a mess too.  Here's one example.



There are more over at Smugmug.  I took a bunch while walking with my blackberry.  There was so much ice and crap pelting us, I was afraid I'd ruin my good camera.  Then I took some others with my Nikon. 

Pretty?  Maybe.  As long as you have heat and a computer...

Blackberry shots are here.

Nikon shots are here.

Stay warm!

PS. I should note that while many of the branches don't look very large - most could not be moved until they were cut into smaller bits by the chainsaw.   Looks are very deceiving.  

Posted by: Teresa in Weather at 11:24 PM | Comments (8) | Add Comment
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We Have Power!!!

At least for the moment. The electrician isn't here yet. I don't want to fire up the computer until that's done. But at least the heater is running!!!

Posted by: Teresa in Weather at 04:34 PM | Comments (6) | Add Comment
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We Have A Siting!!!

***I can't figure out how to reply in my own comments using the bb. It's a display issue when I go to the comment page*** We do have linemen on the street. We did call the city about the electric box & yes we had to call an electrician. He's supposed to get over here about 6 (we hope). Now we're just waiting.

Posted by: Teresa in Weather at 03:17 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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