Mike,Peggy, and John trudging thru the snow
Not a good day for golf
I love these snow coated Christmas trees.
Claire and Laura snowshoeing
This photo was taken by the girls while skiing. This is the top of the gondola.
Here is a shot by John of a creek while snowshoeing.
Family photo looking east from the continential divide whild snowmobiling in Rabbit Ears Pass. They had picked up over 3 feet of new snow.
Homemade Chocolate Souffle
Hopefully we have seen the last of the 80 degree days. I woke up this morning to true November weather - Cloudy, windy and 47 degrees. Feels great. Here is a link to changes coming in the next couple of weeks.
What???? The sun disappeared...dark clouds moved in along with thunder and lightening...and then this strange wet stuff started falling out of the sky. I remember from the past that it is called -- Rain.
What's next...locusts???? We have near drought conditions in central Arkansas....several wildfires have caused some evacuations....and now earthquakes. Don't be confused...we're not talking about the New Madrid fault. This one is less than 40 miles North of Mike's Weather World. In the past week we have had more than 50 small quakes near Guy, just outside of Greenbrier in Falulkner County. It's not that unusual....back in 1982 the nearby town of Enola experienced swarms of minor tremors for several months. But today's 4.0 was the biggest in a long time.
Remember when we used to see clouds like this???? Can't remember actually. Unseasonably hot weather continues with very very little rain. El Dorado hit 99 one day last week and we topped 97. At least the nights are getting longer and overnight lows are touching the 60's. Maybe we will see a break before long. Even the hurricanes are staying way to our south or east. 
Topical Storm Hermine has formed in the western Gulf of Mexico and is headed for south Texas. This storm will bring much needed rain to Texas and since it is moving west of us it should increase our chances for rain this week.
We just couldn't stand another day of the hot, humid weather of Arkansas....so we packed up and headed in search of cooler climes. 
Happy 4th of July. It's not expected to be as hot this weekend...but it's still too hot for me. 
Way to tease us.......lots of thunder.....so much lightning.....and NO rain. Now the hot weather will really set in. Look for highs this week in the upper 90's to near 100. If we reach the century mark it will be the first triple-digit temp since the summer of 08. 
This shot shows the devastation caused by the powerful flood waters.
Here is the USGS site for a river gauge at Langley just down stream from the campground. Notice how the water rose from 3 feet to 23 feet in such a short period of time.
Two days later you can see on this composite that dust traveled all the way across the Atlantic and brushed along the coast of South America.
No dust here...yet...but plenty of hot weather. I agree with Pam that it is going to be a long - hot - Summer. Time for a refreshing trip to the beach. I hear there are a lot of values along the Redneck Rivera.
Today - May 31st - is the anniversary of the worst flood in the history of the United States killing more than 2200 people in Johnstown, PA. Other floods covered larger areas like the 1937 floods on the Mississippi which killed 1100 and left 600,000 homeless. And of course many hurricanes over the years have caused extensive flooding.
Want to bet who would win a fight between this guy and Weasley????
We had a nice severe thunderstorm late Tuesday afternoon with small hail, close lightning, and just over two inches of rain. That means no watering again for a few days. I think I've only run the sprinkler three times this year. Let's hope for another cool and wet Summer. The past few days have been extremely humid. I'm almost ready for Fall.
Don't you just hate elections. I was so glad when last Tuesday rolled around and it would be safe to answer the phone again. Something has to be done about the robo dialers used by candidates. I bet we averaged 7 to 8 a day during the primary campaign. The runoff in the Democratic Senate race will probably bring a return of the auto calls. We even got calls from Clinton and Obama. Nothing quite like getting home from work and asking if anyone called...and the answer is "Barack called for you". November is still a long way off....but look for lots of turnover.
A sure sign that Spring is in full swing....killer tornadoes over the weekend in Mississippi and the return of the hummingbirds to Chenal. We lucked out here with no severe storms. We did get 1.75 inches of rain which washed the rest of the pollen out of the trees.
Amazing...absolutely amazing. It's been a long time (if ever) that an volcanic ash cloud has caused so much disruption. Thousands of flights have been cancelled across Europe and between here and there. Here's a link to a story at Accuweather that shows the ash will be around for awhile.
I know, real creative. Not much going on right now in the weather as we move into Springs. I'm still getting adjusted to daylight savings time. What a stupid idea to move it up to March. Hopefully we will see days like above for the next couple of weeks.
Pam woke to a surprising 5 inches of snow this morning. You can check her blog site for more photos.
I know we won't see anything like this shot on my drive home last month.....but some area may see Winter weather on more time this season. As of Friday night the NWS is hedging their bet for central Arkansas and just mentioning a turnover to snow Sunday night. Extreme northwest Arkansas (Benton County) could see 5 or 6 inches.....Fayetteville 1 to 2 inches. Pam is forecasting maybe a half inch tomorrow evening. We'll watch for photos. Kelly looks clear at this time with just a cold rain. Springs storms like this are very hard to predict. A slight movement to the north or the south can mean rain only to heavy snow. The calender says Spring, so I'm ready for warmth.
We've had a variety of weather since my last posting. Top of the list was the outbreak of tornadoes Thursday evening. Above is a photo of the tornado that moved thru Saline County. As that storm moved into Pulaski County the funnel lifted back up into the clouds and sailed well above Chenal Valley. We did get a bit of hail in some areas. I knew there was a slight chance of severe weather, but no one expected a handful of damaging tornadoes. Here's a link to the NWS's recap.
You know I love snow as much more than most people....but I am also a man for all seasons. March is here and after the cold, cold Winter I now ready for Spring. Of course, with Spring comes severe weather. I'm not sure if there is a correlation between severe storms and El Nino.
We all know about El Nino....but combine that with what's called Arctic Oscillation and you get the kind of winter we're having. Here's a link to Accuweather's Joe Lundberg's blog. In that blog he has a link to some Arctic Oscillation charts and forecasts. As CCR said: "Looks like we're in for nasty weather".
Pam was the winner in this storm. DFW airport got over a foot of snow breaking 24 hour snowfall records. Pam ended up with some 6 to 8 inches of snow in her yard.
We drew a blank this time. Didn't even see a flake. We do still have 2 to 3 on the ground on northern exposures. I heard one of the idiots on TV this morning read a question from a viewer wondering if this was the most snow Little Rock had seen ever.......Not even close. When I have some time I will dig out some weather records for a few places in Arkansas. Just a few days before Claire was born we had a foot of snow. Still, It has been a decent winter so far. More rain and snow in the forecast for Sunday.
This is what 40 inches of snow looks like. This is our Cousin's house in northern Delaware close to the PA state line. They had 30 inches over the weekend...6 more overnight...and even more during the day. As you all know I am a BIG lover of snow - but even this is too much for me. Apparently this storm was the straw that broke the camel's back. Notice the photo above taken from the street (I think it's a street) there is a For Sale sign. There's moving to Texas where not everything is always bigger, just better.
Looking at Ben and Terry's pictures I'm almost ashamed to publish this shot of the back of our house from yesterday. Just 4 inches.
A very interesting result from this storm. As I told you in an earlier post we had about 5 inches when it turned to heavy rain. When the precip stopped and the wind picked up and dropped temperatures well below freezing the pine trees bent over and developed icicles. Here's a couple of pics and you can notice they look like claws coming out of the end of the limbs. Some were up to a foot long. It doesn't take much to entertain me!
More snow is in the forecast. Most should fall south of us. The say we may see an inch or so, but time will tell. This next system will probably bring a couple of inches to Pam and Kelly. I'm sure they will let me know. 
