Tuesday, January 26, 2010

The long view.

The weather forecast has become a special thing for me over the past year. Everyday, I like to record the temperature and conditions. It's been a great tool for looking back to remind myself what January last year was like. With spring on the horizon, I'm looking forward today.

The 10 day forecast from weather.com.



Not bad, but what about February? Will it be warm and seasonable? Or cold (as is typical) and blustery? The Farmers Almanac has a little to say about that. I'm in the Southeast zone.

FEBRUARY 2010:
temperature 46.5° (0.5° above avg.);
precipitation 4.5" (2" above avg. east, 1" below west);
Feb 1-4: Sunny, warm;
Feb 5-8: T-storms, then sunny, cold;
Feb 9-11: Showers, seasonable;
Feb 12-15: Sunny, chilly;
Feb 16-21: Rain and snow, then sunny, chilly;
Feb 22-24: Heavy rain, seasonable;
Feb 25-28: Snow showers, then sunny, cold.


So it looks like a repeat of last year. Warm days scattered among snow and rain. This weekend, we've got winter weather in the forecast again. My parents are supposed to be visiting again on Saturday. I'm hoping they can make it. They've got several large bags of 2-liter containers for me.

This morning, it's 32. Only 15 minutes ago, the thermometer read 30. Should be a nice day with sunshine and little wind. I'm going to bring some more firewood into the basement and spend an hour or two cleaning up from the flood I found yesterday.

11:02am - 43 degrees.

crocuses?



Larkspur



Cabbage, carrots.



Dianthus



Rudbeckia



A few stones around the shrub island. Many more to go.

8 comments:

Dave@TheHomeGarden said...

I'll happily trade weather forecasts with you! Snow coming this week and cold in TN.

Unknown said...

Sounds a lot like our weather. Not too bad.

Catherine@AGardenerinProgress said...

Your days look pretty similar to ours, but we haven't gone below the high 30's in weeks at night.
How accurate have you found the Farmer's Almanac predictions? Ours hasn't been too close so far to their predictions. I think I'll go see what they say about Feb here.

Darla said...

I'm wondering about Feb. too. I posted a small look back on blooms this time last year compared to now....

Tom - 7th Street Cottage said...

Dave, I want a little snow. It helps the summer gardens a lot.

Michelle, I could complain, but no one listens. Especially those where it's currently snowing and barely in the 20s during the day.

Catherine, I haven't seen a real trend towards being 100% correct. Like the first week of February, they forecast rain then warm. That's not what the 10 day forecast shows, but things could change. I looks at the FA as a guide, but rely mostly on the 10 day for making plans.

Darla said...

At least there are only 28 days in Feb!!!

Tom - 7th Street Cottage said...

Darla, my spring bulbs are all way behind. I had daffodils blooming this time last year, while the foliage is just starting to break the soil in most of the yard. I think the rain has held them back a bit. And that really cold spell we had didn't do them any favors either.

Tammy said...

Great idea about posting snippets of the weather directly on your blog for reference. I had thought about doing this in a notebook, but this is so much easier.