Question of The Day. Sunday 19th of December

[Norachan]

Good morning.

It's so cold here today. The temperature got down to minus 10 C last night. I woke up at 5 am and turned all the heaters on, but it took until midday before the indoor temperature got above 12 C. All my cats are huddled together in a big furry pile and I'm wearing double layers of winter fleeces.

What's winter like where you live? Do you get a lot of snow or does it just get very cold?

I live up in the mountains so we always have at least three months of snow and sub zero temperatures. I don't mind it though, it's worth a bit of cold to see the nice winter scenery.

 

[vince]

Winter weather around here is relatively mild in winter, despite being so far north. There are some low hills to the west that cause the air to rise and drop its snow there. It snows, but doesn't stay all that long. Typically, it stays above 0 F, but cold snaps down to -10 F. or so do occur.

This year has been an exception. It hasn't gone below the mid-twenties and most of the precipitation has been rain this season, accompanied by high winds.

 

[di and bob]

We have the winds here too, two days ago over 70mph! It's been really mild this winter, avg highs in the '40-50s, lows in the twenties, a full 20 degrees above normal. We can't get any moisture at all, i have had to haul water out to our new trees, we got 13 hundredths the other day, the first moisture in a month. We USUALLy have snow, but none this year, just a light dusting a couple of months ago. Right now we are in a cold snap, it is 10 degrees F right now, highs still expected in the 50's today. January is not known for snow, so hopefully, we get some moisture in March during blizzard season!

 

[Mia6]

Cold and snow

 

[di and bob]

Send some snow our way!

 

[NY cat man]

Our winters vary; some are relatively mild while others are cold and snow from October to May. The coldest that I have seen was -14°F one morning, but because of our location near lakes Erie and Ontario, we seldom get any really cold weather. The downside is that we also get lake-effect snowfalls that can be measured in feet.

 

[denice]

It is usually milder than what you might think it would be for Ohio. I am in Central Ohio so we don't get the Lake effect snow and we also don't get the snows that are sometimes generated by systems over the Ohio River. Every so often we have a snowy winter or get caught in an Arctic Vortex so it is very cold.

 

[Jem]

I'm in Northern Ontario Canada. Need I say more?

Our winters are all over the place. They can be mild to absolutely freezing, sometimes lots of snow and sometimes not. With rain/freezing rain or sleet randomly thrown in the mix. You just have to roll with the punches...our weather can change drastically week to week or even day to day. The northern winds are...I can't think of a terrible enough word....

November is wet and damp with some snow that usually doesn't stay.
December is usually more mild with some snow accumulation...but we get rain as well.
January is usually a bit colder and the snow really falls.
February is usually the deep freeze month.
March we get more snow but the start of more mild weather comes back.

Although that seems to be the usual pattern month wise. It's not unheard of that we skip fall and winter starts in October and we pretty much miss most of the spring, with random snow falls in April and still having snow that needs to melt come May.

 

[misty8723]

I grew up in the snow belt along Lake Erie, we had cold and a LOT of snow most years, but knew how to handle it. Now, I'm in North Carolina and it does get cold, but rarely below freezing. We typically have one or two minor snow events a season. Everything shuts down and it melts pretty quickly. In January 2000 we got 20 inches of snow overnight. It wasn't supposed to be a big deal but just kept falling and falling (we were ground zero for that one). That month we ended up getting about 26 inches total and low temps of almost 0. They claim it could happen again - but probably not in our lifetime.

One year, I don't remember which it's been several years, I had gone out to lunch with my husband. It started snowing while we were in the restaurant, not much just light snow, but when we came out traffic was backed up as far as you could see. I decided I was going to go back to work, get something to take home, and leave for the day. My boss said "do what you have to do," so I said bye and left. It took me 2 hours to drive 5 miles. Many people were trapped in their cars overnight, or wherever they happened to be. One of my co-workers spent the night at her daughter's school. I was very grateful I did get home, even if it took me 2 hours.

This was after getting 2.5 inches:

 

[Lari]

Chicago winters vary so much! Usually we get snow. Usually we get polar vortex days with ridiculously low wind chills, but you never know.

 

[Bri5]

We hit 90* yesterday. Bleh.

 

[game misconduct]

clear and sunny usually days warm enough to be in a tshirt and jeans only with temp drops during the late night into the low 50s

 

[neely]

Chicago winters vary so much! Usually we get snow. Usually we get polar vortex days with ridiculously low wind chills, but you never know.

Ditto! During a nasty polar vortex 3 or 4 years ago we lost heat on New Year's Day and couldn't get a HVAC person to come out. We loaded up Carleton, his litter box and carrier and spent the night in a hotel that accepted pets. I hope we never have to go through that again.

The temp was 29F this morning but it has been an exceptionally mild December for the midwest which makes me wonder what will happen in January and February. That's when we usually get subzero temps or measurable snow.

 

[Winchester]

Central PA here. We're all over the map with temps and snow, esp this year. So far, we've had about an inch of snow. We expect things to change in January though as that's usually one of our coldest months. We've had really snowy winters and fairly mild winters. We do not have the snow like we used to get.

 

[NY cat man]

Chicago winters vary so much! Usually we get snow. Usually we get polar vortex days with ridiculously low wind chills, but you never know.

I spent the winter of '67-'68 in the Chicago area. It was so cold in the barracks that the water in the toilets froze and we had to sleep in our wool uniforms, knit wool caps, pea coats, and gloves. Never again.

 

[susanm9006]

Both cold and snow from roughly November through April. It wouldn’t be unusual to have an accumulation of three feet of snow or more on the ground during the winter and below zero temps are also usual. But even after a heavy snowfall roads are usually cleared within a day so most of the winter you can do usual activities.

 

[Willowy]

This has been a very weird year. For this month, on the 10th we had a blizzard, and got around 6 inches of snow here. On the 15th, we had a full rain/wind/snow/ice/tornado/thunderstorm. Something like 2 1/2 inches of rain and 70 mph winds. Several tornadoes in Nebraska. Crazy. And it was around 65 (18c) degrees the day before the storm.

Right now it's 23 degrees (-5c) and sunny, fairly pleasant. This is pretty average for this time of year. In January or February, we usually have a streak of -20 (-29c) weather for 2 weeks or so, ugh. It can get down to -40 but not very often.

We never get as much snow as they talk about in Little House on the Prairie; the climate must have changed since then.

 

[Kat0121]

South Florida here. We do not get snow and it doesn't get very cold. It's going to start getting colder in January and February but it's our version of cold, which it probably mild for everyone else. It will drop into the 50's at night and into the early morning then warm back up again into the 70's after sunrise. If I need to go out at night or in the morning, a hoodie will be fine and not needed later in the day. I haven't seen snow in almost 20 years. I don't miss it at all. It's no secret that snow and I are not friends and we never have been. Someone who is a long time resident of this area told me that it did snow here once back in 1973. The flakes melted before they hit the ground. My DD lives in NC and they do get snow. Not much but they do get it. She's getting married there next December. I may have to deal with snow. The things I subject myself to for that girl.

I don't own a winter coat. I've never seen one for sale here. Online it shall be.

This is today's weather here. The AC is on and I'm not pleased about it.

 

[lizzie]

This has not been a typical year for us....I'm in SW MO...we usually have some of our coldest weather in December and January,and this year we've had several days in the 60's and 70's,and it's very dry.We don't normally get a lot of snow...nothing like growing up in NY.....and I'm afraid if we did,the state would shut down.Normally we do get snow..sometimes uo to 6-8",which is no big deal to me,and we do get ice on occasion.Not looking forward to that!

 

[strider rose]

winter for me is very cold since i am not from here originally ... it gets below zero at times and bone chillin