Back to January...

After a very spring-like feel to the air today (75 degrees), the reality of January return big time later tonight lingering into most of next week.  WeatherBell’s Joe D’Aleo mentioned cold air often comes in several surges and that will be the case over the next 5-7 days.    It could be as bad as the December freeze, but computer guidance RIGHT NOW is showing no worse than 20-25 for the North Shore and 25-30 south of Lake P.    That would be slightly warmer than the December freeze.   Never the less, I have prepared my yard for the cold,  draining all my outside hoses, placing insulation covers over my faucets and getting my potted plants back into my heated shed.   The coldest mornings should be Sunday and Tuesday & Wednesday of next week.   But before the cold arrives, a line of heavy showers with some thunder will sweep across SE LA/MS between 10 PM & 1 AM tonight.   After that, we should have no significant rain for the next 5 days or longer.   Get your sweaters and heavy coats ready as strong northerly winds will make it feel even colder.  Heck, we keep getting cold so we just as well should have some snow…but models are showing no moisture around when we are cold enough to snow.   Bummer.   I’m kind of getting into this cold air stuff, as long as we have some breaks back into the 60s & 70s.   Some of the coldest record lows happen between January 10^th & Feb. 15^th.  Once beyond mid-February, the higher sun angle usually prevents any pipe busting cold spells.

 

While we have our cold “problems”, you gotta feel for the folks in parts of California who suffered losses from the fires of Fall to mudslides of Winter.    Saw one aerial view that showed a beautiful house up on a hill with a swimming pool before the mudslide to an after view of no house and the pool now buried in mud.   Images like that remind me of the before & after pics of beach front homes in a hurricane.   Same could be said of tornadoes, earthquakes, wildfires and wars.    Between Mother Nature & man, the destruction is mind boggling.  Man has often built in harm’s way and ignorance should not be an excuse.   Building on the beach, you have to elevate your structure.   Building on a hillside or the side of a forested mountain, you must prepare & be ready for fires.   It’s hard to watch people suffer, but that is not likely to change.  Stay tuned!