Your Weather 2023

[flowerbug]

aside from the plentiful rains in California and snow in the Rockies this has been a pretty non-eventful early winter few weeks.

today i've even seen a shadow perhaps for the first time in a week. bits of blue sky! amazing flying UFO sighting perhaps today but i have to be sure not to be blinded by looking at it too closely in wonder.

 

[digitS']

California is really being swamped by storms. Eight or Ten inches of rain along parts of the coast expected and the mountains will be smothered in snow ... Makes me concerned that @ninnymary may be experiencing some anxiety.

The non-event here is the very unusual warm weather after the first days of Winter. I'm not talking about a major meltdown type of warm weather just the near-freezing/near-thawing that's been going on for 2 weeks. And, it looks like it will continue another week. Now is the usual time for the coldest weather for the year. Of course, we have had rather remarkably warm Winters over the last couple of years, even one with no sub-zero Fahrenheit.

The snow, that has been here since the first week of November is still here. I had it piled 3' high at the corner of the driveway and that hasn't melted. I broke the handle of one snow shovel trying to break up the ice the plow left beside the car. Apparently, the road asphalt is still frozen. There's lots of fog this morning and frost. We are supposed to have some more rain which will put the gauge at 1/2" for 2023. The nearest mountain Snotel station shows the snow is not going anywhere and water equivalent is staying above average. Good News There!

Steve

 

[ducks4you]

Sorry about your snow shovel. I'm not allowed to bring it up anymore, BUT, I came to this property 22 years ago with 2 plastic snow shovels, which had served me well for several years in town, when I shoved alone. DH and DD took them out, banged them on the driveway and destroyed them both in one afternoon.
I now have the heaviest metal snow shovels I could find.
This one is similar to mine that I use for ice, although mine is very heavy and probably a little bit better. You can attack or push it under any ice and it stands up.

Steel Snow Pusher with Fiberglass Handle - Bully Tools, Inc.

Easily push heavy piles of snow and ice from walkways and driveways using the Bully Tools Steel Snow Pusher.

bullytools.com

 

[ninnymary]

Hi Steve, we are doing ok here in Alameda. The west and east ends have experienced some flooding in streets. We are in the central part of the man made island.

We had flooding in our basement apartment about 15-20 years ago. But I don't think it's rained as hard as it did back them. My neighbor also put in french drains when they build an apartment basement so those two factors could be contributing to why we have experienced no flooding.

There is some drying time in between storms for us.

Last year my daughter's basement in Sacramento flooded but we installed a sup-pump. We went up there yesterday which was a clear day to check and it seems that the pump work because there was just a tiny area that was moist. There were small branches in her front yard that we picked up and the electricity came on when we were there. Don't know how long it was off. My daughter is currently out of the country so no one is there. We did see a couple of fallen trees on our way there and many broken branches in the neighborhood. Sacramento has tons of trees.

It rained all last night and today it's dry. Supposed to rain again tonight and clear by noon tomorrow. Good thing since we have to go to San Francisco airport to pick up our other daughter and her family.

No anxiety here. I started my pepper seeds a few days ago and doing a lot of research for our upcoming trip to Italy.

Mary

 

[digitS']

I now have the heaviest metal snow shovels I could find.

Mine was even older than your 22 year-olds, Ducks'.

That fiberglass handle should have been of help. I was hammering on ICE in about a 12" ridge, trying to break it up. Accomplished that except for a couple inches at the bottom but ended up with a loose handle.

Turned out, it was broken. There was another handle for some use or another that had sat for several years and it fit! Large bit in the drill motor and some patience (along with some abuse of an old screw driver taking blows from a hammer ). With most of the wood chips out, I could drive the handle down and secure it with a screw. Had to use nearly as much force to fit the plastic grip on the other end and the old shovel can be in business again.

The plastic shovel with a longer handle is more comfortable for me to use. It's much lighter than the old metal job but it would have been useless in breaking ice. A week ago, I was out with a big metal pry bar knocking down the ridge from about a 24" height. The snow plows really caused more trouble than good on our road after super good work on the nearby arterial ~ frequency and timing, fixed values for a worthwhile effort.

Steve

 

[Branching Out]

We have hardly seen the sun for the last three weeks, but today the rain is supposed to stop and the SUN is supposed to come out from 9am to 4pm--yay!

 

[flowerbug]

i've been shovelling with a broken plastic shovel for a few years now. the metal one i normally scrape ice with is also partially broken, but i can use it until it breaks (and maybe after too ). i try not to throw anything away until i've gotten the full use out of it as i can. the handles are often still good for other uses too.

 

[flowerbug]

We have hardly seen the sun for the last three weeks, but today the rain is supposed to stop and the SUN is supposed to come out from 9am to 4pm--yay!

it's been at least six forecast days of full or partly sunny that didn't turn out. yesterday we had a few moments of blue sky in between many clouds and perhaps three minutes of light strong enough to give a shadow. then the clouds came back. our next forecast for moslty sunny day is next Saturday with a little blue sky chances for Friday, but at this point i'm not counting on either. get my hopes up then dashed. nope. i'm not falling for that again. now i just check the forecast for storms and wind speeds.

 

[flowerbug]

a sunny day at last that was forecast and happened! (one out of seven is great odds...)

the upcoming forecast is looking warm enough for even overnight temperatures that i wonder if i may get some outside gardening done sometime this next week or two.

i'm not sure how deep the ground is frozen so that is the limiting factor as i'm not busting sod and hunting down quackgrass roots through frozen ground - i do have my limits...

 

[Dahlia]

We have hardly seen the sun for the last three weeks, but today the rain is supposed to stop and the SUN is supposed to come out from 9am to 4pm--yay!

Today we finally have sun again! Yay! It's sunny, beautiful and 53 degrees! Gonna go play disc golf!