Hard Freeze Warnings For Both Sides Of Lake Pontchartrain

Everybody is singing from the same songbook and I decided to error on the side of caution.  I've had 2 pipes burst during previous freezes and I don't want that hassle again.  I completed all of my home preparations today rewrapping the water line coming into my house & covering all of the water outlets with insulated faucet covers.

The top view is before I rewrapped the pipe with the bottom with the new foam covering and the faucet covering.   Our local office of the NWS is really bullish on the hard freeze.  here's their predictions for Friday & Saturday mornings.

This will easily be the coldest since the great Christmas freeze of 1989.  I will cut back my hibiscus plants tomorrow and move all my potted plants inside my He-shed Thursday afternoon before the chill arrives.  This afternoon's computer model does not deepen the East Coast trough as much as yesterday.

Do you see what I see?  The vortex over southern Canada today dives to Ohio on Friday and lifts back into Canada on Saturday.  The bottom view is valid for next Tuesday with a weak feature keeping us chilly.  This fast progressive pattern tells me the core of the cold will go to our north & east.  My key cities to watch are San Antonio & Houston.  If they dip into the teens, then we'll see a hard freeze here.  But if the stay around 30, then it would tell me the Local NWS forecast is too cold.  Still, can you take a chance?  Nope.

We have another 24 hours before the real chill arrives.  Thursday might even see highs above normal (64) for the fist time in a week.  But it won't last.

My son's house in Longmont just dropped from 47 to 6!   It's coming Gang.

Today was a dismal day that has gotten worse now that a cold drizzle is falling with some fog developing.

The coming cold will not break record lows, but it could break some low high temperatures. Zack Fradella had a nice billboard on his noon program.  Finally, it's here.  The Winter Solstice occurred at 3:47 PM.  Here are some graphics as to why we get cold.

Because of the tilt in the Earth's axis as we orbit around the Sun, the northern hemisphere is tilted away resulting in northern latitudes seeing little or no daylight.   No sun equals no heating equals extremely cold temperatures.  Might not make you feel better, but now you know why the cold is supposed to come during December through February. Stay tuned!