Today we enter into the winter solstice, the shortest day of the year and the beginning of the Christmas holiday.
Many will begin their extended Christmas holiday this weekend through next week and this year there appears to be no travel hazards in Michigan and no heavy snow to worry about. My wife’s birthday is on Sunday to begin the festivities this year for my family. We have five kids and 10 grand kids with another on the way. My oldest grand daughter will be graduating high school in the next year and a half. So, my home will be a busy place over the next few days.
As we begin the new year I will be taking another meteorology course this one on the college level. College textbooks are horribly expensive running between one to two hundred dollars each though they may be purchased used at Amazon for half the price if you don’t mind highlighting and notes scribbled in the margins. I read these at home and will also be fighting through advanced algebra and calculus. I have taken learn at home courses in the past however the last time I was in the classroom setting was over 20 years ago and the kids I shared the room with were about half my age. Now I am in my 60s I would probably doze off in class and give the kids something to laugh about. It is never to late to teach an old dog new tricks and it is important to keep the mind active and learn new things as we get older.
One thing I have learned over the years is that the weather is a harsh mistress to predict and will often prove us wrong as she is always right as most of our wives will tell us, it is the way of women. It is best to smile with acceptance because women are more analytical than most men and are generally right.
There are still hints of light snow for this weekend through Christmas Eve generally the best chances of snow on the ground will be from US131 to the west. Temps will be cooler than we have seen over the past few days ranging from the 20s at night to the mid 30s during the daytime. Towards the end of next week temps will rise once again to around 40 with no bone chilling Arctic air in sight in the near or long term forecasts.
I really enjoy the Houghton webcam. At night the lights and all. You can even see the Christmas tree lit up. It is like a postcard or a scene out of a movie. So pretty and scenic. MV I like the falling snowflakes you have on the site. I had a computer I put that on a few years back.
The ground by me is lightly covered with snow. Just the grassy area. I heard on WOOD 8 the Kyle is leaving as of tomorrow. He is not leaving the area though.
Just got home. Getting light flurries. However, salt trucks are out in full force dumping tons of salt. Seems like overkill.
Has anybody seen Indy, I mean Rocky? He sure is on a long vacation!
Must be his make believe maps aren’t showing any snow either??? Even in the past when we were going through these warm ups, he would post those maps that would show GR getting 10 feet of snow in the next 16 days. Poor guy, probably drove to the Northwest Territories of Canada looking for snow!
All this talk of cold & snow in January…WHAT A JOKE!!! CPC has been SPOT ON all year!! No signs of cold and snow in sight! WHO KNEW?!??!
http://www.cpc.ncep.noaa.gov/products/predictions/610day/610temp.new.gif
http://www.cpc.ncep.noaa.gov/products/predictions/814day/814temp.new.gif
http://www.cpc.ncep.noaa.gov/products/predictions/WK34/gifs/WK34temp.gif
I saw that! Some of the models are showing a cool down mid January but the CPC still isn’t showing any major arctic outbreaks for another month. Very interesting!
Most snow your going to see is here on the blog. Nice touch MichaelV . If i have not said it before, thanks for all the daily blogging. This site rocks !!
Slim Matt Kirkwood thinks we will have above snowfall and cold for January and February now with a slow December that’s fine with me so no January thaw we will see? INDY!!
Kind of hard to have a January thaw when we are heading into the month with no snow or ice to thaw because it’s been above freezing for a month now.
No worries…50-60 more inches of snowfall “incoming” through April. Quite simply…routine.
Grand Rapids is on track to have one of its least snowy Decembers in recorded history (as of today only 1.9” had fallen) This low snow fall amount does not look good for anyone who wants this season to be above average in the total snow fall amount. Since 1892 in the years were December’s snow fall was less then 10 inches (41 years total) there have only been 4 winters that ended the season with above average snow fall (that is around a 10% chance) That said I would guess that this winters snow fall here in Grand Rapids… Read more »
Great stats Slim! Missed those while you were gone. It is almost shocking to see the snow fall total so low for December. Maybe someone should check in on the Rock guy/gal.
Ask mookie lol.. INDY!
Welcome to the “official” start of winter.
Slim
After today, the days start to get longer into summer! And still no snow storms in sight for weeks!
When the snows starts again and you go fishing then rocky appears back that can only mean one thing I’m starting to believe ..Lol Merry Christmas…INDY!!
Love the snow flakes falling MV!! Weather news Klye Kirkwood Wood 8 just said Winter comes back with a vengeance just over 2 weeks away who would of thought!! Have a great holiday weekend .. Drink some Sprite nog MV’S best on INDY! ….INDY!!
I was just thinking the same thing. It’s a nice touch.
May have to come here to see the snow fall on Christmas…LOL!!! It looks nice MV!!!