Rat thoughts

Just a light snowfall...



Icicles hanging from the roof.



I've had this incense for a couple years now and only recently realized the adapter they included with it is just a spent .22LR shell with a screw through it.

We got about an inch of snow Friday night.  Saturday morning when we headed out to do our weekly shopping, the ground was completely white.  The high temperature for the day was near freezing, and the sky was hazy all afternoon.  But by the time we got home that evening, the snow had completely melted.

We really don't need any more precipitation.  The ground is extremely muddy around here, and many of the area rivers are at or above flood stage.  The Hydrologic Information Center website says that 174 gauges are reporting flooding, with 22 reporting major flooding.  Another 136 gauges are near flood stage.  The Missouri River at Omaha is reporting 27.6 feet; the flood stage is 29 feet.  At Brownville, the Missouri has reached 37.3 feet and is rising; at 38 feet the Cooper Nuclear Power Plant begins flooding preparations.

Fortunately the forecast appears to be dry for the week ahead, with temps in the 50s.

The weather is finally starting to warm.  It's up into the 40's and there are patches of bare ground beginning to appear.  It's still well below freezing at night (it got down to about 10°F last night), so things are starting to get rather icy.  The forecast calls for temps to get into the 50's by Monday, but the Climate Prediction Center is forecasting below average temperatures in their 8-14 day and one month outlooks. 

My car has been trapped in the garage for over 3 months now.  There's still a considerable depth of snow in front of the door, so even with these warmer temps, it will likely still be weeks before it's clear, and even longer before the mud dries out enough to actually drive through.

I haven't really been outside since the last snow storm, which allegedly dropped just 4 inches.  This morning, I was woken up by my roommate who needed my help opening the gate because someone was here with a snow blower-equipped tractor.

I had no idea the snow drifts had gotten this bad.  The massive drift across the driveway has evolved into a glacier, about 4 feet deep at it's worst, extending completely across the driveway from the house to the barn, and from beyond the gate to the garage.  Fortunately the area around the gate was a mere 1-1/2 to 2 feet deep.

The gate was stuck closed tight as a drum, so I started digging out the side I could reach and digging out the path where the sliding gate slides.  The biggest problem is that the guide wheels were set at ground level; the holes underneath had become packed solid with ice.  Without the guide wheels turning, you have to shove the entire weight of the gate across the metal wheels.  We cleaned up under the wheels as best we could, then it took myself, my SO and our roommate all throwing our weight into the gate to get it open.

That was the first half of the gate, which is enough to get most cars or pickups through, but a big tractor like that needs both halves of the gate opened.  Because the ground slopes upwards on that side, the other half of the gate is a swinging gate.  That meant clearing everything in front of it.  The top foot or so was snow, easy enough to move, but underneath were thick layers of very hard ice which took a lot of work to break up.

Unfortunately, it took so long for us to get the gate open that the guy with the tractor left.  Hopefully he'll be back tomorrow.

The forecast last night called for temperatures as low as -23°F (-30.6°C), but it only got down to -5°F (-20.6°C).  Starting tomorrow the temperatures should return to a more normal winter level, with highs in the 20's instead of below zero.  There's a very slight chance of snow Monday morning, but it shouldn't amount to anything at all.  Hopefully this will be the last of the snow for the year.

-13.9°F (-25.5°C) this morning.  Just a few degrees warmer than the coldest temperature I've ever recorded, which was -15.5°F (-26.4°C)  in January 2007.  We had an inch or so of snow this evening.

The forecast for the next week doesn't get above 11°F (-12°C), and we're looking at another chance at a record low Friday morning.  There's a chance of snow every single day through Wednesday.  The snow drift down the middle of the driveway isn't getting any smaller and probably won't for several weeks at least.

The NWS is forecasting 8 to 12 inches of snow and winds of 25 to 35 MPH, with higher gusts, so we're gonna have huge snow drifts again.  The drifts from the LAST snow storm two weeks ago are still nearly a foot deep.

The sheep & goats are locked in the barn so they'll stay nice and warm and the front gate is wide open, just in case the guy who plowed our driveway last time comes around again.

NWS storm report says we got about 12 inches of snow, which appears to be about right. The wind is really strong outside and although it's no longer snowing, the wind is really whipping the existing snow around. There are several drifts across the driveway, including one nearly 28 inches (70 cm) deep!


That's a yard stick sticking out of the snow bank.

I'll take more pictures later; it's much too cold right now. It's about 6°F (-14.3°C) outside right now, with winds gusting to 22 mph (35.4 kph), making for a windchill of -11°F (-24°C).

* Snow accumulations: as a result of these two systems... total
accumulations by Wednesday morning is expected to be generally
in the range of 10 to 13 inches.

It's just getting worse.

It's snowing.  In October.  And not just a slight dusting, there's at least a couple inches of accumulation so far.  Everything is covered in white.

The goats and the young ram are out playing in the snow; you can see the tracks from where they've been running around.  Our elderly ewe, who's normally the leader of the flock, wanted nothing to do with it and was hanging out in the barn doorway where it's warm and dry, at least until I let the dogs out, then she came racing over to protect her flock and to hit me up for food.

I'm glad I did the grocery shopping yesterday.

A frost advisory remains in effect from 4 am to 8 am CDT Sunday.

Skies over the region will clear this evening... and with light
winds... temperatures should drop into the lower to mid 30s by
daybreak Sunday. This should allow areas of frost to develop over
much of the area late tonight.

It's barely October and temps are already getting close to freezing.  This was a remarkably cool summer.  I think we only had a handful of days where the temperature got above 90.  According to the Climate Prediction Center, Cooling Degree Days were 21% below average so far this year.