cold and nasty day

[LCHIEN]

Rained all day temperatures around 35 with a "feels like" temperature of 28°F from the wind and rain. Snowing quite a bit farther north in Texas. My son in Austin and his family built a snowman with enough accumulated snow.

Not conducive to working in unheated garage here at home.
15 year old garden work bench is falling apart. and needs replacement. Not bad considering its made entirely of cedar fence boards.
New one will have reclaimed 4x4 TYP fence posts as legs! Should last a lot longer.

[leehljp]

We got some snow here in NW MS, about an inch accumulation. Memphis (35 miles to the north, hasn't received any yet.) BUT, 35 miles south they have about 2+ inches; Going to stay in and rest up after traveling back from Missouri - Grizzly and Bass Pro headquarters.

[cwsmith]

"Rained all day temperatures around 35"

Gee Loring, sounds like a nice spring day around here

Yesterday afternoon I was chipping the last of the hard ice out at the end of our driveway. Here's a couple of pictures from what we had back on December 17th and the night pictures were on January 3rd.

The bigger snow storm had me shoveling out the driveway twice a day for about four days, as the street crews kept plowing me in. As that snow came down, the temperatures changed up and down over about 15-degrees. It was thick and heavy, and my snow blower had to struggle with it. Where it was plowed, like at the end of my driveway, I had to shovel that. Then we got rain and some of the low areas flooded. A couple weeks later we got snow again, thick and heavy, the snow blower wouldn't touch it, it would come out of the chute like sausage, and would then plug it up.

Note that first picture, that's my van and that's not cargo up on it's roof, it's about three feet of hardened snow. I couldn't brush or push it off. I took a piece of fiberglass panel about 3 x 4 ft and used it to slice through it in big blocks and then slide it off that way. As you can see in the last two pictures, the previous snow had all but washed away in heavy rains around the holiday week.

CWS

[cwsmith]

I was thinking last night about the times I've had in the winters. I love the winter, perhaps it's just the 'boy' in me, as winters always seem more adventuresome. When we moved out of the city, to the 'country' when I was a 10, it seemed like I'd spend all the time I could outside. As a growing kid I loved the wooded hills and with an old pair of ski's I'd spend a lot of time back in the hills, just loving the silence and beauty of it all and knowing that I was the only person frequenting those areas. As such I was pretty good on my own, learned a lot of stuff. At the same time, I had a 5-mile long paper route, done on foot and a couple of winter days I've done it on ski's. Darned often cold and early on had more than a few times with numb fingers and ears.

During my late high school years I used to go to joint Civil Air Patrol/ Air Force winter survival schools up in the northeast edge of the Adirondacks. Went four years in a row. One year it was 10-below and the wind gusts exceeded 30 mph. But that winter was nothing compared to the one where it was 34 degrees and rain the entire four days. It's hard to stay dry and almost impossible to stay warm. We had a lot attendee's leave early, and for those of us who stayed, it was pretty challenging.

Wet and cold just don't mix and it's miserable. I mention this story because I didn't want you to think that I was making light of your subject, not in the least.

CWS

[atgcpaul]

I'll just say I'm sorry and not rub in the kind of weather I'm experiencing down here.

[twistsol]

It is all about perspective. I was on a call yesterday and the Canadian thought 18F was really warm for this time of year. I felt the same way about 23F in here in Minnesota. The Texan thought 40F was bitterly cold. Like CWS I love wintertime and snow although three feet at once might be a bit much.

Hank, stay safe. The first snow of the year causes endless problems every year. I bet people make it even worse when the snow only comes every few years or so.