What was your weather like on Groundhog Day? The sun came out here so the groundhog would have seen his shadow. But on our somewhat sheltered porch it was a low of -9°F and it briefly hit a high of 12.7°F. Interestingly enough this was after a few days of mild, springlike weather.
It was a different story in the Chicago and St. Louis areas. They were both hit by the massive storm that afflicted the Midwest. Kaitlin and Torben got a couple of feet of snow and worked from home that day:
Andy’s brother works at Washington University in St. Louis and said the university was closed for the first time in 15-20 years. Instead of snow they received something worse…3-4 inches of sleet, i.e., ice. Snow is better.
What was your Groundhog Day like?
Yes, I knew it, but am careful not to snicker. We’ve sent the jet stream south as part of the LaNina winter, so all the cold and bad weather is out your way and we are complaining in mid-40’s weather. It was sunny today,too.
I love pictures of snow like that, thanks for sending them. And for the news about NM, Chi, StL.
I went to the library when I was downtown just to get out of the cold. I won’t be wearing gloves anymore, just mittens. Our low tonight will be -15. I live in NM where Jean who writes this blog, lives.
AE,
Thank you for not snickering. 🙂
BHB,
I too wore mittens when we went to the store tonight.
With the heat in the apartment on all day we did manage to get most of the ice melted off the inside of the windows. If this happened more often it would remind me of our apartment in Ithaca, but this is unusual enough that it’s fun. And in Ithaca we used to walk the half mile to and from from work, with a good stiff breeze. We were a lot younger then.
Sunny, bright, crisp and cool. It was wonderful walking around.
rummuser,
As I said, it was sunny and cool here too. We’re about where the yellow smiley face is on this NASA map:
So we missed the big storm but a large part of New Mexico is having trouble heating because utilities can’t keep up with the demand for natural gas. Big organizations are closing down for the weekend to help the situation and they are opening emergency shelters so people don’t freeze. It is warming up and the high tomorrow is supposed to get slightly above freezing.
Cathy,
Yes, I realized Groundhog Day isn’t celebrated in the southern hemisphere… I thought of you and Evan when I wrote this post. It’s always fun to compare weather. I still prefer winter to hot humid weather, assuming there is indoor heating.
no groundhog stuff here
but my friend in Ottawa said he wouldn’t have seen his own shadow in her neck of the woods.
hot, overcast, muggy ++, not much sun either
Most homes in NZ do not have furnaces for all through house heating. Although ‘heat pumps’ are quite popular nowadays. I think it was in the 70s/80s that underfloor heating was quite the rage which often incorporated cooling for summer.
Many house do not even have proper instullation (?sp) but all new house have it even in the walls.
This house is old…the instullation is nil and there is certainly no in-house heating system. It has two fireplaces which I have never used and won’t!
I have a few plug into the electric wall socket portable heaters. One is an oil one with a thermostat that is useful. I close up the rooms not in use and hope that the day I have to go into them for anything, I am not cold…
ok it never really gets cold up here but you have heard about acclimatised [more useless spelling methinks] 🙂
sorry my spelling brain has closed down for the week! It’s Friday night and there is absolutely nothing to watch on the box other than some type of rugby game and a variety of blah other programmes on my old TV that doesn’t really manage many stations!!!!
Cathy,
I still remember my 6th grade classroom. It was in a new school and had radiant heating in the floor… I loved it when we had a chance to sit on it. Have never had the luck to experience that since then.
Portable heaters do make sense in your situation. We have one small electric one which would come in handy if the gas ever goes out for us. I can believe the thermometer goes very low where you live, but that humidity can suck the heat right out of you!
My spelling is the worst, but my computer has a speller so I’ll help you. instillation, acclimatized
I love hearing about NZ & how talk is different, along with words spelled differently. programmes, a plug into the electric wall socket, watch on the box
Jean, heated floors? My 6th grade had old oiled wood floors. It was the same school where my father went. One of the teachers was the same too.
bikehikebabe
in NZ it is common to use an ‘s’ instead of a ‘z’ in things so acclimatised is what we would use
underfloor heating here is a series of wires or pipes which the hot air flows through therefore the floor and carpets are always nice to walk on.
sorry ‘plug into a electric wall socket’ – isn’t quite right but yes the heater/applicance has a cord with a 3 pin plug which you put into a socket.
‘box’ is just slang for TV [television] ‘blower’ is slang for telephone but is not common slang though…
certain age groups use different words as well…which throw other people right off their perch “what on earth does that mean” – I get into trouble with “sayings” at Uni a lot of times because the kids are 30 yrs my junior on some occasions. Last year I said something about “young men sowing wild oats” and that caused me a huge amount of explaining and then I realised these same young men were somewhat shocked that an ‘old lady’ (in their eyes) could even think that!!!
hell, boys and girls – I am quite human, just older and wiser…I suppose their parents do not say these things either because they are in yet another generation!
bikehikebabe,
I think Cathy meant insulation not instillation. Spelling doesn’t matter, the important thing is we knew what she meant.
About grammar school. Yes, the floors in the old school, K-5 and 7-8th grade, had oiled wooden floors, and at least one of my teachers had also taught my mother and uncles.
Cathy,
The radiant heating in my 6th-grade school used heated water in pipes embedded in concrete. The concrete was covered with green vinyl tile. It clearly made an impression on me. 🙂
It’s always fun to hear the slang of other countries and other generations. Thanks.