Last night before I went to bed the radar was looking really good for snow. This morning it was pretty clear that the storm over performed with what looked like at least 4 inches of snow.

We finally get a winter weather advisory for 2 to 4 inches of snow tomorrow night. Of course the neighbors have to get their snowblower ready for that..

We managed to time our evening walk just right today. We got out there just as the snow was beginning to fall.

finally a snow storm but it’s going to miss us to the south. It’s good to see one not cutting up well to the west at least.

There had been a chance of snow in the forecast for today but I wasn’t expecting any accumulation but we ended up with a nice surprise. Everything is white. Even the roads!

It turned out sunnier and warmer today than I expected with the high in the mid 50s.

It turned out pretty nice today. The sun came out and the temperature spiked into the low sixties.

The forecast had been mentioned snow flurries for today but the radar wasn’t looking too promising at all. With Alberta clippers there’s not much moisture to work with since they’re moving so fast from the northwest over the cold and dry Canadian plains. Once in a while it’ll pull in moisture from the Atlantic soon enough to increase the snow but this wasn’t one of those cases. Today was the common scenario where they’re off the coast before they really get to tap into the Atlantic.

We have had our first snowfall of the season finally. It wasn’t much but it’s something.

This storm was one of those with a lot of hype but things had to work out just right for it to live up to that hype. The energy transfer had to be to just the right place to throw the snow back into our area in central PA and it worked out this time. We had some decently heavy snow in the first part on Sunday giving maybe three of four inches.

The usual suspects, you know the Facebook “meteorologists” that post pictures from models of the most favorable looking runs to hype and beg you to download their apps were hyping the hell out of this storm. You know when they start calling it extreme and catastrophic that they are full of shit. It was a very decent storm for this part of December here but even before it got here I told Molly it was going to at least mix with sleet.

I knew there was a chance of some light snow today but I was still pleasantly surprised to see it accumulating a bit while I was doing my first WOD of the day. I thought being so early and borderline, above freezing temperatures that it would just be a few flurries. It was snowing pretty good and actually gave us a dusting of snow cover. It’s melting now but it was nice to see everything white for the first time of the 2020/2021 winter season here in northwester Lancaster County.

This morning is a dark and chilly morning. There’s a light rain but with the temperatures in the upper 30s it feels like it could be snow. It feels chillier than it is because we really haven’t had all that much cool weather yet. The weather though is bringing back memories of hanging out with the guys at the mountains for the first week of buck season. Hell, I wouldn’t be surprised if it is snowing up there near Hazleton or will change to that just due to the higher elevation.

Basically all winter we had the storm systems running up to our west keeping us on the warm side of things or the occasion way to far to the south and east storm if there was actually cold air in place. Oh well, I am not complaining because there’s no point in it. Gotta take what mother nature gives you. Hopefully next winter is better but for now I am ready for spring.

When I woke up this morning it looked like there was a little bit of light small falling. I couldn’t tell for sure since it was dark out but it looked like there was a slight flicker to the street lights like I normally see when there is snow falling. It didn’t add up to anything. All day long though, it’s been a raw, dreary spring day. Temperatures in the low 40s with just enough rain falling to keep things wet reminds me of the weather one should expect on the first day of trout season here in Pennsylvania which would normally open about a week from today.

Here we are, another week and another week of not snowing here. The models had showed a possibility a while back but that storm stayed well to the south. We barely even got some clouds from it. All day the radar has shown a nice precipitation shield over the Carolinas and I’ve been thinking why can’t that be a little further north? We actually have some cold enough air in place this time that we could have had a decent snow but the storm was suppressed by it.

It’s no secret this winter has hardly been one at all. I mean we have flowers blooming in early February and the ground never really had a chance to freeze. The thermometer on the front porch said 13 this morning. I think the lowest I saw in January was in the upper teens. Impressive cold for no snow on the ground, Of course before this quick cold shot we had a warm rain storm.

Someone that used to live nearby planted lots of flowers in an empty lot a few years ago. I think he may have moved away since I didn’t see him taking care of the flowers at all last year where in the past he was always out there. The bulbs keep coming up and it’s a nice thing to see the flowers each year. Driving past their yesterday we noticed the flowers so I had to go check them out today.

I did the first WOD earlier. That was deadlifts and burpees. Not bad. The burpees slowed me down a decent amount do to space and not having room to trip over the bar safely. The deadlifts went really well. I chose 225 pounds for basically 4 a minute adding another burpee each minute and they felt light. I’m happy with that considering I haven’t been deadlifting or lifting anything heavy for that matter in a few months.

Back to the normal pattern for this winter. We got to have a rain storm over night again but it was relaxing hearing the rain fall outside. It sounded like fairly heavy rain every time I woke up. I’m guessing we had over an inch. Imagine if that had been snow! At least it’s not 33 and rain. Those are the worst winter storms when it’s that close to being snow yet it’s only rain and just feels so raw and cold outside.

The temperatures today over performed by 10 degrees over the forecast with it getting into the 50s instead of the 40s for the high. A good chunk of the day was sunny too! Had we known we would have gone caching but we had other things we needed to do. Then again there was still a lot of wet icy sleet where the sun doesn’t shine and we wanted to go the the river trail where the sun is blocked by the hill a good part of the day.

Another storm moved through and another cold front but so far other than the one shot in December there hasn’t really been any arctic air masses like we’ve had the past few years. I hope global patterns shift and we can get that in time for some snow and cold this winter but who knows. Yesterday we ended up with maybe a half an inch of wet snow with maybe an inch of sleep and freezing rain on top of it with temperatures getting above freezing for the night.

A cold front moved through finally today after a week or so of warm weather by January’s standards. The temperatures will be a bit below normal but nothing extreme like the past few years. We’ve had a few cooler periods this winter so far but nothing major. The wind to me is relaxing today. It just sounds like we’re having the occasional strong gusts. Not that steady wind like you sometimes get.

Well any trace of last weeks snow is long gone now. Yesterday It was warm and humid with a threat of showers that never did happen. Even had some sun poke through the clouds at times with temperatures in the 50s. Last evening it began to creep up with south winds. Around midnight I woke up and peaked at radar. A line of heavy rain was developing just to our west so I got up hoping for a thunderstorm.

The original forecast predicted maybe an inch of snow but things timed themselves right that we ended up being under a heavy snow band. I’d eyeball and guess maybe 3 or 4 inches of snow was there this morning before it started melting. The snow was sticking to everything and I just loved how it stuck to this tree with the sun lighting it up. Wet Snow On TreeYesterdays wet snow stuck to the trees and everything.

The original forecast was for around an inches of snow today but the storm overproduced a bit. It’s always a nice surprise when that happens. I was on the rower watching it out the window and it was snowing pretty heavily and even started sticking on the patio It’s not too cold and its calm out. It really would be a great evening for a nice walk in the woods. Sadly there are no woods nearby to walk in.

Last evening an Arctic cold front moved through with at least where I was at producing a nice snow squall with a dusting of snow. Kept hearing the wind all night and it kept reminding me of hunting season at eight bees, our place near Hazleton PA. While I didn’t hunt myself because of my poor eyesight I did go to the mountains during hunting season with my dad as I was growing up.

As forecasted for a few days now It’s snowing heavily this morning. It was one of the nice storms that didn’t start out as hours of virga. It was more less from nothing to moderate snow and started laying immediately. Really though it’s a wasted snow storm like most this year where it’ll change to ice then rain but you gotta take what you can get. Not every year can be really well performing winters like the past few have been.

The past two days we’ve had snow then a mix and then rain. Really yesterday was mostly sleet and freezing rain. until the afternoon then it got above freezing and has been since. It was nothing major. A few inches of snow and sleet then a pretty think coating of ice on the trees and other untreated surfaces. If this setup had occurred in January it would have been a big mess because the cold air damming was holding strong yesterday.

Yesterday’s high was in the mid 60s, that would be 60+ degrees higher than the low 5 days earlier. The only reminder of the cold few days before were the patches of snow left over in the shaded areas but by evening only a few remnants of piles were left. in hindsight and I’m kicking myself for not thinking of it yesterday afternoon I should have opened a window to let some fresh outside air in the house.

There hasn’t been much snow this year. We’ve been ending up on the arm side of storms but today things worked out so snow formed on a cold front. By later in the day the snow was coming down fairly heavily and we wound up with 3 inches or so by my best guess. Tomorrow should be interesting with the Arctic front moving through the area. with luck we’ll have some nice snow squalls.

Much like pretty much all of the storms so far this winter I’m sitting here listening to the rain pouring down with temperatures in the 50s

Well we had some snow that quickly changed over to sleet then rain with temperatures in near 40 over night. But hey, at least it was a cooler temperature than most storms this year. We always seem to be on the warm side of things this winter when there’s a storm. The Arctic front on it’s way though. We’ll have highs in the teens on Monday and lows tonight in the mid single digits and also Monday night.

We had some early snow this year. November 15th We had around 6 inches of it accumulate. I kept telling Molly that it would happen. It’s too early. Conditions have to be too perfect but yet it dumped heavy snow during the day most of the day and it even accumulated! Why can’t it work out like that in January or February? That put a damper on our geocaching plans or possibly going to the Poconos for a night.

It seems like some of our biggest snow storms tend to be around Presidents’ Day. My best guess would be it’s because there’s still plenty of cold air available but there’s lots of energy and heat trying to push north. Either way a snow storm certainly won’t be the case this year. We went out to enjoy the nice mild day and go for a nice walk on the Northwest Lancaster River Trail and it was actually hot.

Another year and more arctic air. This time it stayed below freezing from December 27th through January 7th. with most of those days having highs n the teens and lows in the single digits. This seems to be a common thing the past few years. Wonder what’s causing that. These patterns seem to be locking in the past few years. It’s finally warmed up a bit so we decided to head out for a nice walk on the Northwest Lancaster County River Trail to check out the ice on the Susquehanna not to mention get some fresh air.

One of the first things we saw when we got to the trail itself was this small spring. February 17, 2003 brought I nice major snowstorm to the area. It was my first one since moving here to Mount Joy. The storm was known as the Presidents' Day Storm The thing I remember most about it is how cold it stayed. It started snowing and just seemed like it kept on going.

This storm did produce a tornado in York County. When it got here you could definitely see that it was rotating. Well actually it more less just skirted my house but it was cool looking. Here’s what it looked like as it moved away to the north east. It was a really impressive looking storm for around here let alone in winter. Departing thunderstorm showing rotationThis is a photo of a departing thunderstorm showing rotation.

Things aligned right for us to get a snow storm and snow it did. It was cold throughout the storm and no mixing issues like I am oh so used to growing up near Philly watching that changeover line moving inlaid from the coast. It was hard to measure this snow if not impossible so I would just eyeball it and say a little over two feet fell here in Mount Joy.

Another week and more snow.. This should bring the Lancaster county area their heaviest snow of the year so far with six inches plus of the white stuff. It’ll be a wet snow compared to the very fluffy powdery stuff we’ve had for the past couple of years. I’ll enjoy watching it fall. We’ve already received a half inch or so here in Mount Joy Pennsylvania from snow showers. No bitter arctic temperatures with this storm either.

Well it looks like we’ll get maybe 2-4 inches of snow here. Not really something to complain about but more would be nice. To our east and north east they may again get 6 inches or more. We’ve had very little snowfall here this winter with plenty of wasted cold air here in Lancaster county. Maybe next time.

It is looking like we’ll be getting a couple of inches of snow here Tuesday into Wednesday. I can’t complain about that.. It’s funny how the past couple of years the heavier snow has been to our east over towards Philly and New Jersey and to the south. Growing up in Bensalem it seemed like there was always more snow in the northern and western suburbs of Philly while we were always close to that dreaded mix line and seemingly always received at least some sleet mixed in.

Woke up this morning to a coating of snow. I’m beginning to think that’s all ’re going to get this year which is the complete opposite of last year. We’re doomed to wasted cold air this year so far. December was cold and dry. Only flurries and not much rain either. I think we may have had one or two rain days.

December was a cold month and fairly dry month. Harrisburg ended the month with the average temperature 4.1 degrees below normal. Pretty interesting how the blocking held up through out the month and even had a close call with a snow storm. It will be fun to see where January goes.

Yesterday we had a good snow storm. Very little wind occurred with it but snowfall rates of maybe 2 or 3 inches an hour happened Friday night. I saw it snowing heavier than I remember seeing it snow before. By the end of the storm we had about 20 inches of snow on the ground. Not bad considering the storm was forecast to be better just south of us which has happened more than once this year.

This season so far has been pretty good for snow.. Saturday was our third snowfall of the year and Lancaster set anew record December snowfall at 16 inches. Southern parts of the county received 20 inches or more and northern parts received as little as 8 inches of snow. Here at home we got about a foot. Rain for Christmas though will probably help melt a lot of the snow away then early January looks to be warmer.

The cold has been building in Alaska for a while now and it has mostly stayed where it is. It looks like it will head straight down into the Midwest and north east US.. We’ll probably get below zero here but the NWS isn’t forecasting that yet. I imagine it’ll be pretty brutal just a bit north of here where there is snow cover on the ground and if it clears up at night.

We had a nice moisture rich storm system move from the gulf coast up the East coast.. The system is currently causing snow and major ice in the new England states. Here we were in the mid 50’s all day yesterday with rain and then in the evening the rain became heavy. ended up with 2 - 3 inches of rain in the area. My Davis vantage pro measured 2.06 inches of rain here.

November 20th and there’s a nice looking snow squall stretching across the state of Pennsylvania. It goes from Northwestern PA to Philly and is pretty solid looking. The heavy band of snow is pretty much staying over the same areas with snowfall rates of up to 1 to 2 inches an hour. It would be nice if it shifted 30 miles south now. Looks like it’s crossing I 81 near the Schuylkill and Berks county border.

So much for the flurries I thought we might get last night. The ground is white. even the street has snow covering it. It’s too bad the band didn’t sit over us, some of the counties to the north of us were under a winter weather advisory for three to six inches of snow. Pretty impressive considering it’s not even December yet. It’s been an interesting fall so far. Remember the storm in October that produced heavy snow in the mountains and even an accumulating snowfall in the Philly suburbs.

After last week being a mild week we had a fairly strong storm system move through Saturday. It was close to 70 that day with a tornado watch in effect. While a line of showers developed and moved through the area it was not near severe limits. We had some heavy rain and a bit of wind. Sunday was cooler with some wind. Nothing major. I was sort of surprise by that considering our pressure made it down to 29.

It’s always a sign of winter coming when the leaves are turning but It’s even more exciting when the NWS is starting to talk about lake effect snow. State college is saying temperatures should support lake effect snow into Tuesday after the arctic from moves through. I’m not looking forward to the rain but arctic fronts can be fun.

May 12 and two nice nor’easter in the past week. This has been an cool weather week for sure. They produced tornadoes in the Midwest and in the south and heavy rain in the mid Atlantic. They even had some snow today in the laurel highlands of Pennsylvania today. This most recent storm would have made an awesome winter storm. I think it would have been a great snow maker. It’s not too fast moving and keeping temps in the 40’s in May here would lead me to believe there would have been enough cold air for snow in the winter.

It’s a pretty cold morning today for the end of February. My vantage pro2 recorded a low of 14.1 and the coldest it’s recorded this year has been 8 so it’s not that far off. Yesterday was chilly too. The wind made it feel even colder. It’s just a little more wasted cold. Today we should see a clipper move through the area but most of the snow will be to the north.

We ended up with an inch or two of snow this morning before the precipitation shut off. I can’t really complain, its more than I had expected.

Well no big shocker here but another week and another potential ice storm in southern Pennsylvania. State college seems to think up to 1 to 3 inches of snow then it switches to sleet and freezing rain. They’re thinking southern Pennsylvania could receive more than a quarter inches of ice accumulation. They have put us under a winter storm watch. Don’t get me wrong. Ice is interesting but snow is better and more fun and we haven’t had much of that this year.

Yesterday gave two very nice surprises. First one was the clipper left us more than an inch of very fluffy snow accumulation. It just kept snowing with nothing showing on radar anywhere near us. My guess would have to be the precipitation was below the radar beam. Last night about 9pm we decided to run to the store to pick something up and the moon was out. It had cleared up in time for the lunar eclipse!

This has been a stormy winter for some areas so far this season and it’s continuing as I write this. Another storm cutting up into the great lakes to keep us on the warm side while the rich get richer with more snow and some severe weather to the south. Rain for us and maybe heavy rain. Why couldn’t it be like 2003 when we had a heavy snow storm? Oh well, at least there is a slight chance of a thunderstorm tonight.

Well this last storm was one of those times where the cold air just hangs tough at the surface. We ended up below freezing here until about 11am with freezing rain. Some of it was heavy. Cold air damming sure is fun to watch in action. It was a good thing state college issued the ice storm warning. The roads seemed to mostly stay wet but it was really accumulating on the trees and wires and other things.

This time last year we had the most sleet I have ever seen. We ended up with about six inches of very compacted sleet and snow. We had some rain mixed in there too. it was heavy to shovel it. It was funny to see the people on the news trying to dig there cars out of the icy mass after everything refroze. We did ours while it was still fairly mild.

Sunday ended up being very windy with temps dropping into the teens as soon as the sun set. We bottomed out around 10 here. Monday it only made it into the 20s and back down to 16 last night. We had a little light snow this morning and then more snow will move into the area later and change to sleet and freezing rain then over to plain rain tonight. Once again it just seems like wasted cold.

Cool.. snow flurries out side now. This is a nice surprise but not really anything to get excited over but it’s something. It would be too warm for any real snow today anyways. Tomorrow we get a quick shot of arctic air but it will be pretty much wasted cold again. I love snow but just don’t see anything really happening this year with snow. Bring on spring and severe weather!

I looked at the radar than looked out the window and got a nice surprise. It’s snowing moderately and the grass is white. It’s just starting to stick to the sidewalks but the street looks just wet. It’s pretty heavy and fairly large snowflakes falling. My gut feeling was it would be rain or sleet. Maybe tonight I’ll have to go for a walk.

Pretty much like I’ve been suspecting we didn’t get any snow here. We got rain instead. I just didn’t see the temperature dropping fast enough for us. Besides that the storm was to form too far north and east to really give us anything. Maybe we’ll have better luck next time. There was a time when I would really get my hopes up for a storm like this to happen but I don’t do that to myself anymore.

There is at least a potential for snow in the Susquehanna valley Sunday into Monday. It probably won’t accumulate to much of anything but that’s the way it’s going this year. At least there shouldn’t be a lot of ice.

Wow.. I can not even comprehend this amount of snow but in the Sierra Nevada the NWS is forecasting the possibility of 7 to 10 feet of snow. I would love to experience that some day. They are also forecasting hurricane force winds. They’re saying snow will fall at six inches an hour and maybe up to eight inches per hour.

October 2007 will go into the books as the warmest October on record in our area and many other areas in this part of the country. Most of the early part of the month was very warm. We even approached 90 a few times. It was also dry. We even had to run the air conditioner a bit to keep the house below 80 for the guinea pigs. The other interesting thing is the fact that arctic sea ice has been below normal.

This strange winter is continuing. It started out as the winter that seemed like it would never get cold. This continued until late January when we got our first Arctic blast. We stayed well below normal for most of February then it warmed up for a few days. Once more we are in the Arctic air. It’s not to shabby for being march either. It stayed in the 20s today after a low in the teens last night.

Meteorological winter is over now. As a snow lover the winter wasn’t really a great one. We really didn’t get all that much snow but we did have one interesting snow storm that turned to sleet and ice then the temperature dropped and froze everything as solid as a rock. That was a fun storm to watch develop. December and January were both warm months. The ground never froze. I didn’t really think we’d get any snow the way the winter was going.

About 4 years ago we had the first big snow storm I remembered in a while and the first one I experienced after moving the Mount Joy. I remember two unusual things about that storm. It was very cold through out and the barometer stayed high. The temperature stayed around 10 degrees the whole time. I didn’t remember experiencing that before. It wasn’t windy at all and very quiet outside.

The snow I had hoped for yesterday into today wasn’t as much as I’d hoped for. It started as snow yesterday with the temperature falling into the mid 20’s. Last night it changed to sleet with a little rain mixed in and the temperature dropped to around 19. I got woken up a few times from the noise of the sleet hitting the windows. Thankfully we didn’t have ice. It looks awesome in an ice storm but it causes way too much damage.

We decided to check out the ice on the river today. It was really cool on the York county side of the river. There seemed to be lots of pressure pushing the ice against the western banks. We could hear the ice squeaking and cracking as the water tried to push it. There was also plenty of broken pieces of ice on top and pushed up along the bank. There were also a few louder cracks out further.

It’s been below freezing for a few days now. Actually it’s been getting into the single digits at night and teens in the day. We’ll be keeping an eye on the river for a while. Below will be a few pictures from today. River icethis is a photo showing ice across the Susquehanna River. River Ice Towards BridgesThis picture shows more ice on the frozen Susquehanna River.

Pretty much as I expected all week the snow we were forecast to get last night never got here. It’s been the way this winter has gone and probably will continue this way. I’m sure back in Philly the TV news hyped it all along. I can’t imagine they got much of anything either. I’m sure the people who ran to the store to buy milk and bread are pretty pissed.

It’s been cold for the past week or so after being mild all winter. I’m getting tired of it being cold with no real snow. We’re just wasting the cold air. Winter’s not over yet. Maybe we may still have some snow but I don’t have much hope.

It’s finally feeling like winter around here. The weather has been pretty mild except for the last week when we finally got near normal. It has felt cold just from not being used to it. Today an arctic cold front is supposed to move through the area. Doesn’t really seem that impressive for us but this year I’ll take anything we can get. Maybe even some snow squalls today. We’ll see what happens.

We got our first snow of the year today. It’s pretty late for that but it’s been so warm this year I was starting to believe we weren’t really going to have a winter. We didn’t get much, really only have a coating outside on the ground. Molly and I decided to go for a walk. What I always enjoyed about the snow is the peacefulness of it. It seems to always make it quiet outside.