Winter is here. A story of ice and snow.

[Pouring Rain and Blairing Music]

What’s snow? I haven’t seen it since my Southwest trip a few weeks ago. We’re finally having a storm in California though. Just rain and a lot of wind in the Valley. Snow in the Sierras though.

[Tender Branson]

Absolute brutality here right now (... and more snow is on the way):



A ski-bar on a mountain during a normal winter (top) ... and now (bottom):



Car "rescue" in Obertauern:

[Tender Branson]

Some small towns in Salzburg, Styria and Tyrol are currently not accessible because the roads are blocked with 2-4 meters of snow (that's 7 to 13 feet of snow) or due to heavy avalanche risk.

Helicopters are dropping food and medicine in these towns, where hundreds of tourists are also kept from driving back home for at least a week now.

A vacation of the other sort ...

[Ban my account ffs!]

You were complaining about a lack of snow!  That is quite an impressive and overwhelming amount though.

[Tender Branson]

You were complaining about a lack of snow!  That is quite an impressive and overwhelming amount though.

Yeah, but certainly not this amount ...

I like a good dump of about 2-3 feet though.

Anyway, old people say that they last experienced these snowfalls here in the 1960s and early 1970s, so this is classified as a "30-year to 100-year"-event by our climate scientists.

[DINGO Joe]

What will Tender Branson's ice mummy name be when he is found centuries from now?  Aside from his Dave Leip tattoo, what other identifying features/paraphernalia will be found with him?

[Ban my account ffs!]

What will Tender Branson's ice mummy name be when he is found centuries from now?  Aside from his Dave Leip tattoo, what other identifying features/paraphernalia will be found with him?

Lots of padlock keys.

Welp, now it's California's turn to get it:

Upwards of 100" (~3m) of snow expected in the highest elevations, with 4-5' at Donner Pass (Where Interstate 80 passes through).

[Tender Branson]

Good news for drought-plagued CA, I guess ...

[Lechasseur]

Here it was like 50°F (10°C) today, like it's been all winter, or all but. Obviously it hasn't snowed once this year. This is the hottest winter we've ever had here, it's not normal. Which followed the hottest fall we've ever had (it was probably like 80°F in October and in early/mid November it was like 70°F, which aren't normal temperatures here).

[RINO Tom]

I believe we are about to get slammed, haha.

[Obama-Biden Democrat]

No snow in Portugal, but temperatures are really low, particularly at night and early morning:

European "sunbelt" problems ...

Hahaha... Yep!

There are so many UK expats who have moved to Portugal and Spain because of the weather.

[Ban my account ffs!]

A major Arctic outbreak is going to take temperatures upwards of 50F below normal in some parts of the midwest next week.  THe models are still unsure and we're likely not to know just how cold it will get until it happens.  Already on a handful of occasions this winter, the models way underestimated how cold it would get in my hometown... on the scale of being 15F too warm.  They did it again last night with a low forecast at -23F and it got to -36F.  It doesn't understand the power of deep snow cover and calm skies to allow heat to escape into space.  It sounds weird to say "heat" at -36F but it's still a lot warmer than space.

The models are calling for temperatures at 850mb (about 5000ft altitude) as low as -45F across northern Minnesota and North Dakota.  With calm conditions, the surface would likely be colder than that due to snow cover and radiative cooling (as explained above).  Either way, it will likely get to the -40s in northern MN and into the -20s in Minneapolis and only a bit warmer as far south as Chicago.

The models are forecasting windchills across Wisconsin, Iowa, and Illinois down into the -60sF.  (-50sC).  Be sure to bundle up and plug in your car, folks!

[Cokeland Saxton]

It's snowing right now here in northern Indiana. The windchill is about -30F and total snowfall of 8 inches is expected. Single-digit weather is expected all week, with windchills below 0. The only exception is Tuesday morning.

[Dr. Arch]

10 inches in Wisconsin overnight tonight and into Monday afternoon, followed by record-breaking temperatures predicted to measure around -50 to -60 (with wind chill) for several days.