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Post by kds on Mar 19, 2024 12:46:19 GMT
Spring officially begins today. Well, tonight at 11:06pm EDT.
In the Baltimore region, the official coming of Spring doesn't mean a whole lot. The weather for the first half of Spring tends to vary widely.
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Post by Kapitan on Mar 19, 2024 12:51:48 GMT
After a couple of months with weather mostly in the 50s or above and no snow, we're now looking at temps dropping into the teens overnights and maybe six inches of snow to celebrate the spring. Minnesota...
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Post by kds on Mar 19, 2024 17:16:39 GMT
Looking at the extended forecast, I see a lot of days in the 50s, with colder nights, and quite a bit of rain.
Yay, spring.
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Post by Kapitan on Mar 22, 2024 11:37:59 GMT
Happy spring: we got about 2" of snow overnight and it's still falling. That's not so bad, but they say we'll get more than 6" on Sunday-Monday. Especially this time of year, I hate to get measurable snow. That said, we've had so little this year, I feel bad complaining too much.
The 10-day forecast is worse now than it's been most of the winter: just slightly above freezing for the daily highs, and in the teens or twenties overnights for the daily lows. While that's worse than most of this winter, it's actually still quite mild for winters here.
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Post by Sheriff John Stone on Mar 22, 2024 11:54:44 GMT
Also cold here, without the snow. 23 degrees right now. It's supposed to get progressively warmer as we approach Easter Sunday, maybe highs in the high fifties.
It's very tempting to go out in the yard and do...something. At least rake or clean up. There's flowers sprouting and buds on some perennials and trees. The grass is green(er) and clumping so I'm close to firing up the old lawnmower (I can hear the neighbors as they're looking out their windows saying "That idiot is at it already!). The Easter flowers vendors are now out along the roads under their tents. I'll probably pick up a couple of hyacinths and tulips and add them to the yard.
Spring is here!
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Post by Kapitan on Mar 24, 2024 13:19:26 GMT
Our biggest and hopefully last snowstorm of the season is moving in now. The flurries are falling, but the forecast for Minneapolis calls for up to a foot today and another 6-8" over the next day or so. If that happens, it will be more in one storm than we've had cumulatively all season.
I'm hoping the temperatures stay just a little higher than the forecast has them, which will make it more rain than snow. But I am not very optimistic about the odds. Looks like I'll be breaking my back shoveling over the next few days. I can't say I'm enjoying spring so far.
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Post by Kapitan on Mar 25, 2024 11:20:36 GMT
I more or less got my wish: while the radio tells me we had 8.4" of snow that fell yesterday and overnight, there were only about two or three inches of snow on the ground this morning. Very, very, very, VERY heavy wet snow! You would not believe how hard it was to shovel such a small total.
The temperatures lingered right around the freezing point most all day yesterday and overnight, so while it did indeed snow pretty much the past 24 hours straight, it half-melted as it landed. Glad I'm not driving this morning.
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Post by kds on Mar 25, 2024 17:30:02 GMT
Our first Spring Weekend was a chilly one. No snow, but it was cold and windy.
We're supposed to see some nicer weather for this coming weekend. Thankfully, and mercifully, we don't really have a ton of Easter obligations. My sister is going to see her husband's family, so we're not getting together with my family until next weekend. And, we're actually not getting together with my wife's family for Easter.
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Post by Kapitan on Mar 27, 2024 13:11:01 GMT
The official tallies have us with about 15" of snow over the past few days, which basically doubled our year's snowfall. It's funny, because there was never more than about 5-6" on the ground at any one time during all of this--the snow just kept melting. (Thank goodness.)
After a cold day today, it looks like we'll return to more normal spring weather in the next 10 days, in the higher 30s, 40s, and finally 50s. While we needed the moisture to get us out of our drought, I'll be glad to return to more comfortable temperatures. I can't get over that we've had 70-degree temps a couple of times already this year and yet it just snowed 15".
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Post by Kapitan on Mar 31, 2024 11:18:18 GMT
Happy Easter, all. (Except any Orthodox friends, whose Easter is a little over a month away.)
My family got together a day early to schedule around yet another in my dad's endless series of medical procedures. While my yard was still about 85% snow-covered when I left, my parents' place had been snow free for about a week, and temps were in the 50s. It was a very nice day.
I couldn't get over the changes in the family's celebration. When I was a kid, we might celebrate at home with my immediate family or with one of my two sets of grandparents. But regardless, Easter meant we were up early, clad in (usually new, always uncomfortable) Easter dress-clothes, and in attendance at Easter church service--sometimes sunrise service. Then it was home or to one of our grandparents' homes for a relatively formal meal, all of us still in our church clothes.
At my parents' suggestion, we gathered at their house on a Saturday. No church, obviously (it being Saturday). No dressing up. We grilled brats and had a casual buffet meal, spread all over the house. Where was a half-asleep, stuffed-into-a-new-sweater me singing "Jesus Christ is Ris'n Today" to a blaring organ or brass ensemble's accompaniment!? My parents have loosened up a lot over the years...
Oh, and by the time I got home in the early evening, my front yard was nearly snow-free, too. An Easter miracle!
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Post by Sheriff John Stone on Mar 31, 2024 12:36:41 GMT
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Post by kds on Apr 8, 2024 16:39:49 GMT
After a wet and chilly week last week, it only took one nice day for my lawn to spring (no pun intended) to life.
Well, my front lawn at least. The lawn in my backyard is patchier than usual. I suspect that the large oak tree that we just removed was drinking up a lot of the rain water. Now, when it rains, we get big puddles and the yard turns into a quagmire.
On another note, Easter is finally over at my house. We had to wait until this past weekend to see my side of the family, as my Easter did Easter Sunday with her husband's family. I've posted before that Easter's not really a holiday that I much enjoy. I really don't even hold any nostalgia for it. If I didn't have a kid, I'd honestly be fine skipping it all together.
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Post by Sheriff John Stone on Apr 9, 2024 12:38:15 GMT
I cut the grass for the first time on Sunday. It looked worse than it actually was. I thought it would be thicker, wetter, and clumpier but it was manageable. The weed wacking was probably more tedious. I raked the grass clippings to avoid that "film" over the lawn. Pulled some weeds. Then I planted a few hyacinths. Today? I can barely get out of my computer chair!
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Post by kds on Apr 9, 2024 12:46:13 GMT
We have a nice weekend lined up, so I'm hoping to get out on Sunday to tend to the lawn. I need to cut the grass, and clear off some of the debris from our tree incident as well. I'd have done that by now but I hurt my back...while napping on the sofa. But, today, it's feeling better than it has in a long time.
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Post by Kapitan on Apr 9, 2024 13:01:43 GMT
I'd have done that by now but I hurt my back...while napping on the sofa. I hate to laugh, but ... Something like that was my moment of clarity: "Oh, I'm middle-aged now." Sometimes when I was in my early 40s, maybe 5-6 years ago, I was sweeping the floor. Not bending over, not lifting anything, not twisting in any strange way, just sweeping. And suddenly I'd somehow hurt my back to the point that I could barely do anything but lie flat, or stand up straight and walk, for a day or so. Aging is rotten (but beats the alternative). You guys and your lawn work, though! Granted, we had a blizzard not much more than a week ago, which makes a difference. But it'll be a while before things are sufficiently dried out to begin yard work. If I were to rake up the dead stuff now, I'd tear up the lawn completely. But we're going to be in the 60s much of this week and 70s this weekend, so it won't be long now. I'll need to get some seed, too, as there are more dead patches than I like to see. (Last year's--well, really, the past few years'--drought took a toll on things.)
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