Weather update

We awoke this AM to temps in the upper 30's!  Gee, that's above freezing.  This is easily the warmest morning since soon after we arrived here November 18.  High pressure is already here (30.35) and progged to continue to build over the next few days.  That means Susun's Idaho Falls friends will arrive at Mesa Gateway Airport Friday with temps in the low 70's and enjoy a classic mid-winter Sedona interlude with temps there pushing upper 50's to maybe even a peek at 60 degrees.  No rain is in the forecast for many days.  Maybe that "dry & warm" NWS mantra is coming home to roost afterall.

Here's a weather factoid we found this morning.  As of right now, 49 states actually have snow on the ground.  Florida is the only one without any snow sitting on the ground.  La Nina and that big chunk of hot water in the North Atlantic are combining to kick the stuffing out of the South and Northeast.  La Nina meanwhile has caused billions of dollar of damage in Australia, submerging entire towns, destroying 10-million metric tons of wheat and shutting down practically the entire coal industry there.  The Aussie flooding woes continue and could even get worst with this La Nina.

Up North, Idaho Falls has been enduring a protracted deep freeze.  Temps there haven't plunged to double digits in the minus territory but they have stayed steadily either side of zero for what seems like a very long time.  Today they might get a break as temps are already pushing into the teens this morning.  When you've been subjected to a long period of zero degrees, the teens can actually feel warm.  It's all relative, ya know? (Keep an eye on that Greenbelt webcam is you wanna see what our frozen northland hometown looks like.)

Last night this blog post was entitled "It gets cold FAST."  Here's the blurb we coughed up yesterday evening:

Here's how it goes:  It's nice & toasty warm in the late afternoon. (It reached 53.)  We go out and prep a campfire.  We get it lit and life is good.  The sun goes down and so does the temperature.  By and by, the temperature goes a LOT lower REAL fast!  Pretty soon we are standing around the campfire realizing that the flickering flames are NOT warming us up.  That's when we all skee-daddle inside.  When we get inside, we whoop and hollar and say, "WHOA, It was COLD out there tonight!"  WOW, Yeah, it WAS cold out there tonight.

Even though the temp only dropped into the mid-30's, it just flat felt like it was freezin'!  Anyway, when you come into a nice, cozy straw house where the heat has been turned on for an hour, all is well once again.  Da cold don't matter no mo no how.

Cheers, jp

PS--For the record--the campfire got lit at 4:50 pm and we are in our "warming hut" well before seven pm!  Heck, that's barely two hours of campfire time.