December 31, 2008 Early Evening

Caught this shot of the moon and Venus over the WAVE-TV tower. My photo skills are only average and was unable to show Jupiter and Mercury about to set in the lower right of the shot.
Allen

December 31, 2008 Mid Morning

Light snow flurries danced in around 8am. With the cloudy skies it's making for a cold and bleak morning. I'm thinking a warm fireplace will be a great way to ring in the new year.
Allen

December 30, 2008 Late Evening

The house is rumbling with some pretty strong westerly winds up to 26 mph so far and likely to increase. There are wind advisories north and west of us.
Allen

December 30, 2008 Mid Evening

If you were in Louisville today you might have noticed that the streets have been pre-treated with brine. Don't be alarmed. We aren't really expecting anything. The scuttlebutt seems to be that the threat of light snow late Thursday prompted Metro Louisville to pre-treat now instead of on a holiday. Probably a cost saving idea since holiday pay could kick in over New Years. Just a guess.

Nice, sunny, warm day here -- for December.
Allen

December 29, 2008 Late Evening

The clear skies have been wonderful for gazing at the heavens. Just before sunset we saw the moon escorted to it's lower right by Jupiter and Mercury. I don't think I've ever seen Mercury and knew that was what I was seeing.

Everyone was raving about last night's spectacular sunset. My capture is above.
Allen

December 29, 2008 Early Morning

A faint glow of dawn, brilliant stars and fairly heavy frost. A beautiful morning.
Allen

December 28, 2008 Late Morning

A windy night as the cold front pushed through. It's a bright, sunny, cold day. Bit of a shock after yesterday's record warmth.

Except for the dangerous ice a few days ago, we've been pretty lucky so far. Especially when you look at the rough weather in other regions. Makes me wonder what January and February have in store for us.
Allen

December 26, 2008 Early Afternoon

With the rising air temp over a cold ground surface, fog is forming.

Christmas Eve Sunset

Christmas Eve 2008

With spring-like winds it feels more like Easter than Christmas. The rain stopped around 2:30 or so this afternoon and our temp has started to drop. Merry Christmas everyone!
Allen

December 23, 2008 Late Afternoon Update

US 42 has been salted but there are slick spots.
Allen

December 23, 2008 Early Afternoon

The salt-like grains you see on our deck is the only precip we've had so far today. Temp continues to rise.

December 22, 2008 Mid Afternoon

The pond is ready for miniature ice skaters. The coldest temps officially reported overnight were 3 degrees in Etown and Lexington. We beat them with 2.4 degrees at 7:13am. We had a windchill of 17 below at 3:50am.

My brother sent a great quote from Mark Twain-

"Cold! If the thermometer had been an inch longer,we'd all have frozen to death."

December 21, 2008 Early Evening

Even the sunset looks cold. The solstice is here and it's officially winter. The weather is certainly right on cue. Bitterly cold with dangerous windchill. A low of 4 degrees is predicted for Oldham County but I wouldn't be surprised to see it go lower.

Radar is showing a few flurries floating through. The wind is really whipping up now with gusts around 30 mph.
Allen

December 21, 2008 Late Morning

Brrrrr! 18 degrees and wind chill of 12. It's 7 in Indy and those temps will be in here tonight.

There are a few snowflakes falling. It's mostly sunny but a couple of isolated cells are floating around the county dropping some flakes.
Allen

December 20, 2008 Early Afternoon

Changes on the web site are mostly finished. The page is loading faster although I'll continue to seek improvement there. I'm very happy with the new front page stats. I think it's interesting to watch the data update in near real-time.

For the sake of faster loading I dropped many of the little widgets and gizmos on the front page and will try to stick to the basics. I've retained links to this blog and, more importantly, John Belski's blog.

I hope you approve and enjoy the changes. Feel free to send feedback on either the guest book or email. Links are on the front page.

Happy Holidays! Think spring!
Allen

December 19, 2008 Mid Afternoon

Believe it or not, the sun came out a little before 11am and we've had quite a few hours of it so far. Thought I'd better take a picture of it because I don't think we'll see much more after this.

Work is continuing on the new web site. It will feature real-time condition updates instead of each minute. Plus, it should be offer much faster load time.
Allen

December 16, 2008 Mid Afternoon

The driveway is slick, subdivision streets have a few slick spots. Oldham County highways are wet just like Louisville. Wondering how driving conditions might change after sundown. So far, this storm hasn't packed much punch in our immediate area.
Allen

December 14, 2008 Late Evening

We have a winter storm watch and John Belski is predicting it will be a full-scale warning by tomorrow morning. (See lower right column.) I just drove highways 53, 42 and our subdivision. There's no evidence of pre-treatment. I know salt is in short supply, but in my opinion, brine should have been applied. Perhaps they'll do it overnight.
Allen

December 12, 2008 Late Afternoon

The temp has been falling this afternoon. A few flurries, too. Fuzzy little bird on the back deck has his head under his wing. Very wintry.
Allen

December 11, 2008 Early Evening

After a gray, cold day we got one flash of real beauty. Tonight's sunset in Oldham County was spectacular. My cell phone camera doesn't come close to doing it justice.
Allen

December 11, 2008 Early Morning

Looks like the precip never worked it's way this far north. So, we were spared a freezing rain and sleet event.

December 10, 2008 Late Evening

There's a chance of freezing rain for tomorrow morning. Our temp should remain stable in the low 30's, but we will likely drop below freezing. I'm not about to make a prediction, but we'll be getting up early to determine if it's going to be a slow, slow commute to Louisville. No need to to worry until you hear the ice hitting the windows at 5 or 6 AM, I guess. This is the kind of weather that closes schools in Oldham County. Take it from someone who's lived here for 33 years.

Here's what the NWS issued at 10:25 PM Eastern - This is posted under "Warnings and Advisories" in our right column.

...FREEZING RAIN POSSIBLE OVERNIGHT...

AN AREA OF LOW PRESSURE MOVING OUT OF THE GULF OF MEXICO WILL
TRACK NORTHEAST INTO EASTERN TENNESSEE BY THURSDAY EVENING.
MOISTURE WILL STREAM NORTH AHEAD OF THIS SYSTEM...ENTERING
KENTUCKY DURING THE OVERNIGHT PERIOD. AT PRECIPITATION
ONSET...LIGHT RAIN AND DRIZZLE IS EXPECTED.

HOWEVER AS TEMPERATURES DROP TO NEAR THE FREEZING MARK VERY LATE
TONIGHT...THE DRIZZLE AND RAIN WILL CHANGE OVER TO FREEZING
DRIZZLE AND FREEZING RAIN. THIS WILL CAUSE SOME ISOLATED SLICK SPOTS ON
AREA ROADWAYS...PARTICULARLY BRIDGES AND OVERPASSES.

AS COLDER AIR MOVES INTO THE REGION THURSDAY...ALL OF THE
PRECIPITATION WILL CHANGE OVER TO ALL SNOW BEFORE ENDING. STAY
TUNED TO NOAA ALL HAZARDS WEATHER RADIO...YOUR LOCAL MEDIA...OR
WEATHER.GOV ON THE INTERNET FOR THE LATEST UPDATES ON THIS
DEVELOPING WEATHER SITUATION.
--------------
If possible, I'll post here what conditions we find tomorrow morning. Keep in mind that we have a link on our top menu to the TV stations with school and work closing info. Just click on "Closings."
Allen

December 8, 2008 Late Evening

Wind: 11 mph from the S
Gust: 15 mph
Today's High Wind: 20 mph (10:25pm)

We're getting some strong southerly winds tonight. Almost like spring. Easy to believe that we might get a thunderstorm tomorrow as NWS has predicted as a possibility.

December 6, 2008 Mid Afternoon UPDATE

3:37 pm US42 has been salted and is in pretty good shape. Slick spots.

December 6, 2008 Early Afternoon - Driving Is Dangerous

The snow really picked up over the past hour or so. NWS has issued a winter weather advisory.

We left for a trip to Prospect but turned back when we realized how really, really slick US 42 was. Instead of lamb tonight, we'll be having soup and sandwiches. Streets in the neighborhood are snow covered since the pavement was so cold when the snowfall began. I'm predicting a rash of accidents because it's the first really slick condition we've had this season and we saw some idiots speeding down 42.
Allen

December 6, 2008 Mid Morning

This was the second night of temps dropping into the mid-teens. It's been low enough to freeze our little pond and turn the grass even more brown.

We drove home from Prospect around 7:30 last night. It was 26 degrees in Prospect. 20 minutes later, as we entered Sycamore Run, it was 17 degrees. It's another indicator of how different our weather can be from Louisville conditions and forecasts. We are higher in elevation by hundreds of feet and much farther north. I've found that if you want to know what the weather's going to do in the Westport area, you're better off listening to what's being forecast for southern Indiana. Often, when Louisville gets a "dusting" of snow, southern Indiana gets a lot more. And so do we! Oldham county residents who work in Louisville have had to explain to skeptical bosses for years that "we really DID get more snow!"
Allen