Saturday, February 18, 2006, 9:00 am: More dramatic weather. Yesterday began with snow changing to freezing rain then to rain. Our high temperature yesterday eventually soared to 39 degrees Fahrenheit (F.) until just before 4:00 pm then it plummeted 10 degrees within one hour. It continued to drop until about 11:45 pm when it hit 3.7 degrees (F.). The temperature still continued its downward spiral throughout the night into this morning when it finally bottomed out at 7:38 am with a low temperature of – 4 degrees (F.).

The high winds and frigid temperatures came as predicted by the NWS. The highest wind gust yesterday was 31 mph at 9:45 pm. Today the wind is not quite as strong, but definitely very noticeable with the wind chill currently in the minus teens. Even many of the wild birds that frequent our feeder are absent this morning. Snow has drifted into the freshly cut paths I made yesterday with our snowblower. Once again, more work awaits me. I think I’ll put it off until it warms up into the positive numbers, which might take a few more hours. Fortunately I brought in additional firewood to keep us nice and toasty.

Our town’s snowplow has already been down our road a few minutes ago, so I have to go out and check to see how much snow and ice he dumped into our driveway. Our road was so slippery yesterday that the US Post Office didn’t deliver any mail. I thought that was part of their motto or creed; you know, “. . . neither the rain, sleet . . “ So much for postal employees dedication to their work. That’s life in our corner of the world.

Current values from our
Vantage-Pro weather station:

Temperature: -2 degrees (F.)

Barometer: 29.69 and rising rapidly

Humidity: 58%

Winds: NW at 6 mph and variable

Visibility: > 3 miles and high cloudiness

Precipitation: None

Wind chill: -14 degrees (F.)

Since midnight:

Low temp: -3.8 degrees (F.)

Low wind chill: -18 (F.) at 7:52 am
-26 (F.) during gusts

High wind: 26 mph at 21:01 am