The weather

Chuck White · January 15, 2012, 09:18:46 PM

Now this is getting to be like the old fashioned winters that we used to have -24°F at 7:30 this morning.

Weather reports say upper 30's to mid 40's later in the week.

SwampDonkey · January 15, 2012, 09:28:27 PM

Well it only dropped to -6 and had a high of 6 today. Right now it's -1.

Magicman · January 15, 2012, 09:30:28 PM

Looks like it is sawing tomorrow, rain Tuesday, and sawing Wednesday. ;D

SwampDonkey · January 15, 2012, 10:03:12 PM

Now wait now. How come rain gets a day of it's own? I always saw in the rain. :D ;)

Magicman · January 15, 2012, 10:49:53 PM

Because when I had a real job I had to work in the rain. Now I don't and I don't. ;D

Bandmill Bandit · January 15, 2012, 11:47:04 PM

I guess we can say winter has finally come to Alberta as winter should be. It is -22*C (-8*F)now and supposed go to -27*C (-16*F) tonight. Next 10 ish days look pretty ugly as of tonight.

In this country we tend to pay for nice weather and that is what we have had so far this winter. The last time we had a winter similar to this was the winter of 73/74.

Went to minus 30s*F and worse for almost a month and then warmed up to the -teens*F for a couple of weeks and snowed & blew almost none stop, then cleared and went back in the deep freeze till early mid march before it finally broke. The drifts were so deep an hard you could drive a pretty good sized tractor on them and the snow piles along the roads were so deep that you had to stop at every intersection and get out of your car to look if some one else was coming into the cross road. If we would have got one more snow and blow every body would have been stuck till the melt. As it was the melt came with a vengeance that spring too. We went out to milk one late march evening and it was about -34*F ish and there was a weak Chinook Arch showing the west.

2 hours later when we were done the chores it was about +32*F and sure looked like rain was coming in from the north west. By mid night it was around +40*F and was completely socked in, raining pretty steady and quite hard. By the time we got up to milk at 5 AM, about 1.5 inches of rain had already hit the snow and turned the snow to more water than I had ever seen in my life at that point. The run off creek in the pasture west of the barn is in a pretty gentle gully that is about 1/8+/- ish mile wide and about 40 feet deep at the point behind the barn. Water was about 12 feet from the corral fence behind the barn and that fence was about 100 feet from the barn. Ice had clogged the 8 foot culvert in a brand new road a 1/4 mile south of the yard and essentially turned the road into a dam about 45 feet high. The water started to go over the road as I was feeding the cattle on the hill we always fed on just above the road and about 250 yards north. It took about 5 minutes till the road let go and about 10 minutes more the culvert was gone and the dam was drained down to a pretty big torrent 6 to 8 feet deep that pretty much covered the bottom of the gully. When the road let go the roar was deafening and the ground where I was standing was actually was vibrating. about a Half mile west was another gully about the same size with the same size culvert and it let go about the same time. There was a about a 70 ish foot wide gap in the road at both places and when it got a bit more light I could see the culvert at our place about a half mile south lying just a few hundred feet from the river caught in some brush against a cut bank in a hill of gravel about 20 feet high that wasn't there the day before. The other culvert was about 2 miles south and east lying where the bridge used to be and what was left of the bridge was lying about a half mile east of that about 10 feet from a Hog barn in a farm yard.

Some of the farms along the river were standing in as much as 6 feet of water. But it was the ice that did the most damage. Took out bridges, culverts and roads for miles. A few farmers lost some hogs because the flood beat them to last load but most had time to move stock to higher ground when it started to rain hard.

One neighbor got the last his moma cows and baby calves moved up out of way just as he heard the roar from the road letting go at our place. he said it was about 10 minutes later that the bottom rail of the gate into his nurse paddock was under water. That would have been about a foot deep and about 150 yards from the door of his house. He said the water rose about another 6 or 8 inches and then held steady till about noon when the rain let up and there was no more snow to melt. 2 days later you would never have known the water had been there except for the marks it left behind.

My Grandpa said it was about same kind of winter and spring that caused the flood that hit in 44 and killed my dads cousin trying to save several of their sheep and almost my dad trying save him.

I just hope that isnt the type of spring we get this year. cycle indicates we are OVER due for a bad one in the not too distant future. AND it ISN'T because of GLOBAL warming either!

SwampDonkey · January 16, 2012, 04:02:35 AM

Can't fault you one bit.

thecfarm · January 16, 2012, 07:59:52 AM

Sounds like the flood we had in 85. I had -11 sometime in the night. Than warmed up to about 14 around noon and dropped down into the single numbers. Was -2 here this morning,all ready up to 9 above.

OneWithWood · January 17, 2012, 08:53:09 AM

The rain is coming down in sheets here this morning. I can see I will need to cruise the culverts this afternoon.

thecfarm · January 17, 2012, 08:56:33 AM

Seems like we are on a see saw with temps. Suppose to get above freezing just about dark and it might rain. Snowing now,but only should get an inch,than stop and warm up.

chevytaHOE5674 · January 17, 2012, 10:07:54 AM

18 degrees this morning with heavy lake effect snowing falling off the lake, 5-8" is predicted by dark tonight. We shall see.

JV · January 17, 2012, 11:31:59 AM

A week ago it was in the 40's and the temp took a dive to the teens or lower with fine blowing snow. It warmed yesterday and melted. Early this morning I heard thunder and heavy rain and the snow is all gone for now. Supposed to take a dive into the teens tonight with more snow. A warmup again in the 40's predicted for next weekend. My old bones can't adjust to the changes. :(

Bandmill Bandit · January 17, 2012, 11:39:20 AM

Yup winter is really here now. Temp is minus 35 and wind chill is minus 42 right now and suposed to go to minus 50 by noon and it dont matter which scale you look at thats just *DanG cold. wind is SE light but supposed to get up to about 15 to 20KM by noon.

SwampDonkey · January 17, 2012, 12:25:14 PM

Quote from: thecfarm on January 17, 2012, 08:56:33 AM
Seems like we are on a see saw with temps. Suppose to get above freezing just about dark and it might rain. Snowing now,but only should get an inch,than stop and warm up.

Same here, but most of the rain will be down country and rain meaning showers. Nothing here yet.

Had a flu fire last night, that was interesting. First time ever since I lived here for over 40 years. I got her swept from top to bottom by a local sweep. Gotta use some stuff to add every few days. Winter has been too mild for hot fires, so that's what happens when you don't open her up with the winter being too mild. ;)

Mooseherder · January 17, 2012, 01:30:28 PM

Did the Fire Dept. come for a visit?

AvT · January 17, 2012, 02:06:30 PM

Chimney fire...scary. If you ever have a fire throw half a cup or so of water in the stove and shut the door.. the steam will snuff the fire instantly.

It is -40 here today and my cat is pretty smart

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z5DdcvWfh64

SwampDonkey · January 17, 2012, 02:47:43 PM

Mooseherder I snuffed it out with my fire extinguisher. But, I did call them. Nothing they could do, I did it. All they do is the exact thing or drop something from the top with same stuff. Gotta recharge my fire extinguisher. It was never used in 30 years since it was bought, but it came in mighty handy last night. Fire alarms worked to. ;)

The house stinks with that smoke now, gotta clean here for days. Fun. :

Need some sleep first. I kept a low smudge all night, but you don't sleep when you can't use the damper and fan, always one eye open.

I get a kick out of pictures of cats and dogs stretched out in their favorite spot.

Jeff · January 17, 2012, 04:05:49 PM

Okay, I've had enough. It can get nice again. Freezing rain this morning followed by 6 inches and counting of heavy wet snow. The snow blower simply plugs as soon as you try to push into it and then sits and spins on the ice underneath.

Bandmill Bandit · January 17, 2012, 04:14:51 PM

Quote from: Jeff on January 17, 2012, 04:05:49 PM
Okay, I've had enough. It can get nice again. Freezing rain this morning followed by 6 inches and counting of heavy wet snow. The snow blower simply plugs as soon as you try to push into it and then sits and spins on the ice underneath.

Both kind of weather are bad, but what you are getting is worse then the brutal cold we have. at least we can still move (sorta if you can get some thing running) but when you have rain, lots of snow and just cold enough to freeze it all into and ice sheet underneath and on top that just nasty cause you cant hardly move at all even when you do have some thing running.

SwampDonkey · January 17, 2012, 04:18:51 PM

Wait until the mess freezes up and the auger of your blower pops the front end up when trying to blow snow. :-\

With all this ice around I end up hauling on my chaulk boots with ice picks on the bottoms.

Magicman · January 17, 2012, 05:10:05 PM

We have had a real soaker today. I do not know about inches, but I do know wet.

It should pass, but I don't know about how soft the ground will be for the sawmill tomorrow. I would hate to push that job, because I have a 100+ mile saw job scheduled for next week.

Autocar · January 17, 2012, 05:22:14 PM

Down pouring rain with high winds with lots of thunder and lighting this morning. Now its 38 degrees and dropping, wind still blowing but not as bad. I don't know to go mushroom hunting or ice fishing :D

SwampDonkey · January 17, 2012, 05:27:55 PM

Now that you mention lightning or thunder. The last storm we had a mild spell here and there was a lightning storm that took out a church that was vacant and not used. They were wondering for some time what to do with the place, won't have to worry now I guess.

thecfarm · January 18, 2012, 08:27:34 AM

I was cutting wood around 4 last night and went to get on the tractor and noticed some white freezing rain on the seat. Took my hard hat off and I could feel it then. Right on time .The weather man had that one right. Was still raining at 9. All we got was rain. 32 out now and windy.