Late Janurary Winter Storm

You can tell we got our paper this morning. That's the only thing that spoils this view.

Even a little slush in the lake.

St Francis always enjoys a little snow.

Well......this is more than we had a Christmas. W ended up with just what was forecast for Little Rock. Officially at Mike's Weather World we received 1.25 inches of sleet and .75 inches of Snow. The sleet started in the wee hours Friday morning just as forecast. Heavy sleet fell during the afternoon. As the upper level low tracked across the state Friday evening we picked up a little light snow. It did get cold with a low this morning of 23. Clouds will keep it below freezing today with clearing and teens expected overnight.

North Arkansas got the brunt of the storm with Northwest areas getting several inches. Highest totals I've seen were 11 inches near Mountain Home. Winter's only half over, so we could see more snow in February.

In my next posting I will share any photos I might receive from the far northwest.

Winter Storm

We are getting our first true winter storm of the season. So far it has been a little freezing rain and a lot of sleet. I'll have photo updates later in the weekend.

Astronomy

See Spot....see Spot on Sun....hot Spot hot. A couple of interesting posts on Accuweather's Astronomy Blog. This picture of recent sunspot activity came from a link at the Astronomy Blog site. The picture at the top of my page is of the Orion nebula in visible and infrared.


Weather has been boring here lately and definately too warm. Maybe a change is on the way in the next week or two. There is rain and snow in the forcast for Thursday night, but it's too early to tell.

Cold Spell Ending

After several days of well below normal temps we are now back to more normal winter weather. It was a shame there was no snow to go with the cold. We had lows on Fri, Sat and Sun of 9,15, and 11. We may see some rain later in the week and into the weekend.


Don't worry about the Wease.....the water was only a foot or so deep.

Not quite as cold as forecast

A cold and bleak Saturday morning. This had definitely been the coldest weather in a number of years here in Arkansas. Central Arkansas has missed out on some of the extremes. Cloud cover overnight kept our temps in the mid to upper teens with a few snow flurries early today. Mike's Weather World reported a low of 9 on Friday morning, but only 16 this morning. Forecast is for near 10 tonight...but we shall see. An old rule of thumb for temperatures in Arkansas....it seldom gets below 10 degrees unless there is snow or ice on the ground. That's why Northwest Arkansas has had lows around zero for the past few mornings. I'm not complaining....the season is still young and I'm still hoping for a decent snowfall or two. I would hate for this to become another Winter of my discontent.


Here's a link to the Weather Service on the past few days of cold. And today there is even sleet being reported in central Florida. Accuweather has several links to this extreme winter outbreak. This morning there are freezing temperatures as far south as Brownsville, TX and Orlando, FL.

Brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

This is what it will look like here by Thursday morning. Unprecedented cold is headed our way along with some snow. Right now it looks like we will only get up to an inch of snow in central Arkansas with more in the Northwest and the Northeast. Temperatures will fall sharply overnight Wednesday and continue falling throughout the day Thursday. Strong northerly winds will cause blowing snow. This will be a very dry snow. Usually the snow to water ratio is about 10 to 1. This system will be in the range of 20 to 1. Friday night will be the coldest with a low here in west Little Rock near the 5 degree mark.


Last night was the coldest of the year with a low at my house (and the airport) of 13-degrees. The high this afternoon was only 30. The low this morning in Fayetteville was 5 above with the cols spots being XNA (Northwest Arkansas Airport) at minus one and Gilbert on the Buffalo at minus two. We may get a little above freezing tomorrow afternoon...then it will be below freezing until Monday afternoon.


This is by far the coldest spell in our area in at least the past 25 years. It reminds me of the winters we had in the late 70's.


Yes, you know I have to say it --- Global Warming?????? You be the judge. Record cold and snow in China and Korea. Cold and snow in Spain. Cold in Great Britain. I understand it's even cold at Al Gore's Tennessee mansion.

Happy New Year

A New Years Eve new moon only occurs about every 20 years. Last night's could be seen here once the clouds cleared out about midnight. Wow...has the past decade flown by or what. Seems like only yesterday we were all worried about Y2K and nothing working the next morning. Now we can start a three year worry that things once again will stop working.


As for the weather.....one word here -- boring. 40's and 20's....40's and 20's. I appreciate the cold weather, but where is our snow! It appears I am being punished for all the previous years of gloating that "we got more snow than Dallas". Our day will come again and the eyes of Texas will stare coldly and enviously at our snow covered rooftops.


There are flurries in the Sunday forecast....but that doesn't excite me. At least cold weather should continue for the early part of January.