Batten Down the Hatches
From the KYTV Weather page on their site:
"A major winter storm is taking shape for the Ozarks. Cold Arctic air combined with a potent upper level storm system could bring more snow to the Ozarks Thursday than the past two winters combined. A WINTER STORM WATCH has been issued for almost all of the Ozarks beginning late Wednesday and lasting through Thursday.
The Ozarks has not seen winter weather this early in quite some time. Residents should review winter safety rules and make plans should travel become hazardous. SIGNIFICANT AMOUNTS OF ICE AND SNOW ARE EXPECTED SO BE PREPARED!
A cold front is currently advancing across Kansas a bit faster than expected tonight. The Arctic air is lagging this boundary by about 100 miles but once the temperatures begins to drop it will do so rapidly. Thunderstorms are already forming along the cold front with some storms being capable of producing small hail and brief gusty winds. Additional storms are possible later today and those storms too have a chance of producing large hail and damaging winds. Cold air will begin catching the rain late Wednesday evening in the far northwestern counties of the viewing area. The shield of ice will advance slowly southeast with time reaching Springfield around 3am. The ice will continue moving southeast and reach West Plains and Mtn. Home AR. by mid to late morning. At that time the cold air will become deep enough to change the ice over to snow northwest of I-44. Not only could there be heavy accumulations of ice but also snow on top of the ice. Speaking of temperatures highs on Wednesday will reach the upper 60's but begin falling early evening and cooling to freezing around 3am. Temperatures will never recover on Thursday dropping to the low 20's by late afternoon. In addition winds will blow out of the north at 15-25 mph making the day really miserable. The cold air will stick around through the weekend with highs in the 30s and lows in the teens."
This is looking alot like the Great Ground Hog Day Ice Storm back in '89 or so. That was awful! A freak warm front blew in and by 9 am on that day, Feb. 2nd, it was close to 70 degrees, by nightfall it had dropped to nearly 30 degrees and sleeting to beat the band. By midnight everything was covered in a thick coat of ice and it was in the 20's and still falling. I remember it well because I spent a good chunk of that entire night out in my drafty old barn assisting my goats who, possibly because of the extreme barometrics, all went into labor. All of them were within a week or so of their due dates, so I was ready for that part...but not for the extreme weather! That was a hell of a night!
When it was all said and done I had a quartet of baby kids dozing in a makeshift enclosure on my back porch/laundry room because it was too darn cold to leave them out in the barn, even with their mothers-had one lil' buck with frostbit ears already. I had a trio of freshened and exhausted mama goats bellowing to be milked and I had been up all night doing the work of three people between keeping the woodstove stoked, tending to other critters and being a reluctant doula to my goats.
Oy!
I will admit it did look mighty purty come dawn-my world was encased in ice that glittered like glass in the morning light. But that was a hell of a month. It got cold and stayed cold, like single digit cold, for weeks. I think I spent the rest of that February in my Carhart insulated coveralls and barn boots.
I know weather guys have a shakey reputation, but honestly, these Ozark forecasters rarely make a bad call, if they say shit's fixin' to happen, you best pay attention!
They've been talking this one up for a couple of days now, so I've had time to do what I can to prepare. We got enough groceries, propane and toilet paper to hunker down til Monday at the least. Stocked up on hot cocoa and coffee. Got all the gutters cleaned out-finally!- and did all the other preps for cold bad weather inside and out. Now if the power doesn't go out for extended periods of time, we'll be alright. That's what worries me the most. No power means no water pump working which equals frozen pipes!
Another bummer is that my eldest has 2 Christmas parades this Saturday to march in...that's a wait and see sitch. If we're iced in, even a ballsy 4 wheel drive ain't gonna get us out of this hollow. We're stuck for the duration.
This is the earliest that I can recall that we've got winter weather this extreme.
So, I may or may not be posting here after today, depends on how weird it gets.
I think my persimmon seeds were right!
"A major winter storm is taking shape for the Ozarks. Cold Arctic air combined with a potent upper level storm system could bring more snow to the Ozarks Thursday than the past two winters combined. A WINTER STORM WATCH has been issued for almost all of the Ozarks beginning late Wednesday and lasting through Thursday.
The Ozarks has not seen winter weather this early in quite some time. Residents should review winter safety rules and make plans should travel become hazardous. SIGNIFICANT AMOUNTS OF ICE AND SNOW ARE EXPECTED SO BE PREPARED!
A cold front is currently advancing across Kansas a bit faster than expected tonight. The Arctic air is lagging this boundary by about 100 miles but once the temperatures begins to drop it will do so rapidly. Thunderstorms are already forming along the cold front with some storms being capable of producing small hail and brief gusty winds. Additional storms are possible later today and those storms too have a chance of producing large hail and damaging winds. Cold air will begin catching the rain late Wednesday evening in the far northwestern counties of the viewing area. The shield of ice will advance slowly southeast with time reaching Springfield around 3am. The ice will continue moving southeast and reach West Plains and Mtn. Home AR. by mid to late morning. At that time the cold air will become deep enough to change the ice over to snow northwest of I-44. Not only could there be heavy accumulations of ice but also snow on top of the ice. Speaking of temperatures highs on Wednesday will reach the upper 60's but begin falling early evening and cooling to freezing around 3am. Temperatures will never recover on Thursday dropping to the low 20's by late afternoon. In addition winds will blow out of the north at 15-25 mph making the day really miserable. The cold air will stick around through the weekend with highs in the 30s and lows in the teens."
This is looking alot like the Great Ground Hog Day Ice Storm back in '89 or so. That was awful! A freak warm front blew in and by 9 am on that day, Feb. 2nd, it was close to 70 degrees, by nightfall it had dropped to nearly 30 degrees and sleeting to beat the band. By midnight everything was covered in a thick coat of ice and it was in the 20's and still falling. I remember it well because I spent a good chunk of that entire night out in my drafty old barn assisting my goats who, possibly because of the extreme barometrics, all went into labor. All of them were within a week or so of their due dates, so I was ready for that part...but not for the extreme weather! That was a hell of a night!
When it was all said and done I had a quartet of baby kids dozing in a makeshift enclosure on my back porch/laundry room because it was too darn cold to leave them out in the barn, even with their mothers-had one lil' buck with frostbit ears already. I had a trio of freshened and exhausted mama goats bellowing to be milked and I had been up all night doing the work of three people between keeping the woodstove stoked, tending to other critters and being a reluctant doula to my goats.
Oy!
I will admit it did look mighty purty come dawn-my world was encased in ice that glittered like glass in the morning light. But that was a hell of a month. It got cold and stayed cold, like single digit cold, for weeks. I think I spent the rest of that February in my Carhart insulated coveralls and barn boots.
I know weather guys have a shakey reputation, but honestly, these Ozark forecasters rarely make a bad call, if they say shit's fixin' to happen, you best pay attention!
They've been talking this one up for a couple of days now, so I've had time to do what I can to prepare. We got enough groceries, propane and toilet paper to hunker down til Monday at the least. Stocked up on hot cocoa and coffee. Got all the gutters cleaned out-finally!- and did all the other preps for cold bad weather inside and out. Now if the power doesn't go out for extended periods of time, we'll be alright. That's what worries me the most. No power means no water pump working which equals frozen pipes!
Another bummer is that my eldest has 2 Christmas parades this Saturday to march in...that's a wait and see sitch. If we're iced in, even a ballsy 4 wheel drive ain't gonna get us out of this hollow. We're stuck for the duration.
This is the earliest that I can recall that we've got winter weather this extreme.
So, I may or may not be posting here after today, depends on how weird it gets.
I think my persimmon seeds were right!
posted by white trash republican at Wednesday, November 29, 2006
9 Comments:
HEY! Do you still have my email? I lost yours. But I want to ask you something.
Yep, I still have it.
Funny, I've been meaning to shoot you off an email all this week!
Will do right now!
Gotta love global warming. You can talk dirty weather to me anyday. I'm drawing up plans for our goat-house and I'm going to put it as close to the house as possible so I can put in electricity for heat without too much fuss. I can't stand milking with frozen fingers.
And them does can't stand being milked with half frozen titties, either! ; )
Ouch!
That winter it got so bad I finally put old sweatshirts on my goats to help them stay warm. That was a sight!
I had electric in the barn, but the place wasn't real weather-tight, so using any heat would have been a waste.
LOLOLOL...always love yur blog amiga. I was going to leave a comment bout the upcommin weather front..open the comment section and somethin immediately caught my attention bout frozen titties and cold hands...got my attention right real quick it did...then learned you were talkin bout goats...oh well.
..anyways...that weather front yur all about t'get is comin our way here in upstate NY. On Thursday...we're gonna set a record at 68 degree's...then all hell breaks loose...20's for the daily highs, high winds and good old lake effect snow...winter be here...
Good luck to you and the kids. Stay warm.
Did you see what happened to Seattle two days ago?
I'm going to be posting my sis-in laws story of 8 hours to go 28 miles...
Grew up in St. Louis and spent a lot of time hiking, camping, hunting, and canoing through the Hills. There are days I miss being away from the Ozarks...and...then there's storms like this one...North Texas will be bad cause folks here have no idea what to do in that kind of weather.
Being out in the country a way, that has been one of my concerns here. An ice storm can take down power lines and put my little road out of commission for days. I've considered putting in a propane fireplace against such emergencies, but right now I just have a couple of kerosene heaters and a couple of tanks of kerosene. I don't worry about the goats though. I don't have any.
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