Natural History Notes



Thursday, December 20, 2012

cold wind

It's now 3:30 am and the temp has dropped 35° since 9:30. Can't really call it a norther since the wind is from juts north of west, whipping along at 26mph. About the closest I have heard to Laura Ingalls' description of the continuous howl of the  blizzard in The Long Winter. On the wind map, the black hole of low pressure is rapidly approaching Chicago.



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Wednesday, December 19, 2012

weather...

So last week we went from near 80° on Sunday to 18° on Tuesday morning. Gradually it warmed up until yesterday and today were absolutely balmy again. Today at DFW, according to the weather service:

... Record high temperature set at Dallas Fort Worth today...

A record high temperature of 78 degrees was set at Dallas Fort Worth
today. This breaks the old record of 73 set in 2008 and 1978.


So here is the next front. 73° now at 9:30 pm, forecast 34° in the morning, and 21° Friday morning.

I hung out a load of sheets this afternoon, after ascertaining that rain was not in the forecast. Oops. About an hour ago I heard what I first assumed to be leaves being blown down as the wind changed. Then as it got louder, I changed my mind.

Earlier in the fall this happened, and I thought about teetering out to the deck on my uncertain ankle, and just let the clothes get an extra rinse. But this time I figured I could handle it, and I did get them in all right. My hair was kind of drippy, and the last sheet was pretty soppy. Of course it stopped almost as soon as I got in. Just a very narrow band. The drought continues.


About 9pm the wind got really loud for a bit, but it has scaled back now. The hint.fm/wind map looks like all the air in the south central plains is getting sucked down a hole between Topeka and Tulsa.


Winter comes back for at least a quick visit. And the forecast for Christmas is low fifties, and another couple freezing nights. More winter than last year, anyway.

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