Hmm... This looks like a cold winter indeed.

[nuranar]

jordannamorgan just posted about the cold snap her part of Florida will be having, and that reminded me that my mother mentioned that our forecast said we'd be getting cold again later this next week.




(This is coming after a December in which we've had three snow events - not just Are-those-swirling-specks-snow? flurries, but honest-to-goodness accumulation - when for this part of Texas, three snow events constitutes a snowier-than-average winter.  Plus, December is usually warmer than January and the first part of February, when we usually get what snow that comes.  And, although we've had a lot of sunny days since our snowy Christmas Eve*, we only got above 50 on the 30th, and our lows have regularly been below 30; usually a cold snap lasts a day or two, and we steadily warm up to the mid/upper 50s before another front comes through. A lot of the snow from Christmas Eve stayed around for two or three days, with traces still visible on the 29th when more fell; that was definitely unusual.)

So I'm thinking Hmm, if she says we'll be getting colder, we must be back in the low 20s again.  Our low for December was 22, back on the 5th.

Ha. Not quite. Cut-and-paste below:

Wednesday: A 20 percent chance of showers. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 48. South wind between 5 and 10 mph.

Wednesday Night: A 30 percent chance of rain. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 28. Windy, with a south wind 5 to 10 mph becoming north between 20 and 25 mph. Winds could gust as high as 30 mph.

Thursday: Partly sunny and windy, with a high near 32.

Thursday Night: Partly cloudy, with a low around 15.

Friday: Sunny, with a high near 31.

Friday Night: Mostly clear, with a low around 16.

Saturday: Sunny, with a high near 37.

15?!  ACK!!  And the lowest high in December was still above 40!  Days entirely below freezing do happen, but it's usually wet and yucky and doesn't get a whole lot colder at night.  Helloooo Arctic airmass!  (No, I won't die, and I know it. :p  But notice this is another cold "snap" that doesn't go away quickly, even with full sun. Most unusual.)


Ooh, this is interesting; it's our "climate narrative" for December, verbatim from the National Weather Service:

FREQUENT COLD FRONTS KEPT TEMPERATURES BELOW NORMAL THROUGHOUT MUCHOF DECEMBER. AT DFW AIRPORT...THERE WERE 19 DAYS WITH HIGHS IN THE40S. THE NORMAL HIGH FOR DECEMBER IS 59.1 DEGREES. THE MONTHLY MEANTEMPERATURE WAS A FULL 4 DEGREES BELOW NORMAL...PLACING AS THE 11THCOLDEST DECEMBER ON RECORD.

ON MULTIPLE OCCASIONS...WINTRY PRECIPITATION ACCOMPANIED THE COLDWEATHER. SNOW FELL ACROSS PORTIONS OF NORTH TEXAS ON DECEMBER 2 ANDACROSS PORTIONS OF CENTRAL TEXAS ON DECEMBER 4. MORE EVENTS FOLLOWEDFROM CHRISTMAS EVE TO NEW YEARS EVE.ON DECEMBER 24...RARE BLIZZARD CONDITIONS IMPACTED AREAS MAINLYNORTHWEST OF THE DALLAS/FORT WORTH METROPLEX. SOME LOCATIONSRECEIVED AS MUCH AS 9 INCHES OF SNOW...FROM JACKSBORO...TO BOWIE...TO NORTHWESTERN COOKE COUNTY. WINDS GUSTED OVER 50 MPH...WITH DRIFTSAS HIGH AS 3 TO 5 FEET. PORTIONS OF HIGHWAY 287 BETWEEN DECATUR ANDWICHITA FALLS WERE IMPASSABLE FROM CHRISTMAS EVE INTO THE MORNING OFCHRISTMAS DAY. FOR DALLAS/FORT WORTH...THE OFFICIAL SNOWFALL FOR THEEVENT WAS 3 INCHES...SMALL IN COMPARISON TO TOTALS JUST 50 MILES TOTHE NORTHWEST. BUT THIS WAS THE FIRST MEASURABLE SNOW ON RECORD FORCHRISTMAS EVE...AND MANY AREAS HAD CONSIDERABLE SNOW REMAINING ONTHE GROUND THROUGHOUT CHRISTMAS DAY.ADDITIONAL SNOW EVENTS FOLLOWED ON DECEMBER 29 AND 31. PORTIONS OFMONTAGUE COUNTY MAINTAINED SNOWCOVER FROM CHRISTMAS EVE THROUGH NEWYEARS EVE.FOR DALLAS/FORT WORTH...THE 3.2 INCHES FOR THE MONTH WAS THE 2NDHIGHEST TOTAL ON RECORD FOR DECEMBER...BESTED ONLY BY THE 5.5 INCHESRECORDED ON DECEMBER 9, 1898.

DESPITE THE ABUNDANT SNOWFALL...THE PRECIPITATION TOTAL FOR THEMONTH WAS BELOW NORMAL. IT WAS THE SECOND CONSECUTIVE MONTH WITHBELOW NORMAL PRECIPITATION...BUT DFW AIRPORT ENDED THE YEAR ABOVENORMAL.

Wow! We set a record for December snowfall, and are only behind a record set back in 1898!


I've got MacLean on the brain, mostly thanks to Jordi already. (Yay for more MacLean movies!) It doesn't help that Daddy put down "Ice Station Zebra" as an answer to the category "Things That Are Cold" when we played Scattergories on New Year's Eve.  So I'm thinking this may turn out to be our Ice Station Zebra winter. :P

 

Comments

[jordannamorgan]

Yikes. We had lows in the upper teens during the '89 freeze--but I don't remember it, and I wouldn't want my memory refreshed. Upper 20s/low 30s is more than bad enough!

And wow, maybe that -1 was related. We do tend to get the tails of weather systems that have already trained through Texas, so it's possible!

[rvqavalon.livejournal.com]

Dear Ginger,

It is four degrees here right now. And while it may seem that I'm trying to one-up you, I actually am very sympathetic and kind of wishing it were fifteen degrees here right now. Because fifteen is pretty cold, but four is when the snow starts squeaking when you walk on it.

Love,

Katie

[nuranar.livejournal.com]

Haha, no, that's just fine. (And we had squeaking snow at the Fort Washita Event of Infamous Memory, so THERE! *g*) You don't routinely deal with 100+ summers! It's the contrast that gets me.

[nuranar.livejournal.com]

EWW. That would be pretty disastrous for y'all.

I'll betcha it was! It must have been a humdinger of an Arctic front to stay that strong all the way down here AND there.

[suededsilk.livejournal.com]

Brrr! That's cold! But snow is good.

So I'm thinking this may turn out to be our Ice Station Zebra winter. :P
*snicker* When you're old and grey you can sigh, gaze off into the distance, and wax eloquent as you tell your kids and grandkids about the Great Ice Station Zebra Winter of 2010 2009.