Sat Late Afternoon

We had a lot of thawing today. Still a long way to go. I was able to free the wind vane and anemometer, so we're able to get wind readings again.

Allen

Fri Late Evening

Sigh. Sick of it.

Thur Mid Afternoon

The main weather page has been taken off-line. We lost internet connectivity this morning. No internet means no data updates. Hope to be back up soon.

If you're interested, US 42 and highway 53 are in pretty good shape. The interstates are fine.
Allen

Wed Early Afternoon

Our power was restored at 11am. Fingers are crossed. The birch trees are bowed to the ground. Wind sensors inoperative. Thought I heard a shotgun fire in the woods a half-mile away. It was actually tree limbs crashing. More power outages are possible. Keeping the generator ready.

Allen

Tues Late Evening #2

Some chatter about "thundersnow" or "thundersleet" on some of the blogs.

Here's some evidence that we had some lightning west of us this morning. This is from my lightning detector at 6:45AM.

Tue Late Evening

Many of the weather blogs are predicting the worst ice in Trimble county. Need I remind you that we are very, very close (northeast Oldham) to Trimble county's latitude?

Does it bug anyone else when we watch Louisville TV that we hear all about other areas but Oldham gets ignored? I heard a big statement on one of the media outlets tonight about northeast Jefferson county and the "suburbs," including southern Indiana and Trimble, with NO mention of Oldham. We ARE still on the map, aren't we?

Sounds petty, I guess. Every region gets ignored from time-to-time. Just wish they'd notice that we're here a little more often AND that our weather is so different from Louisville.
Allen

Tue Mid Afternoon

We're getting significant icing, but it hasn't been enough to bend my River Birch trees. They're very flexible and I use them as a guide as to how heavy the ice load.

There's the persistent "click, click" on the windows. This picture is my truck with a good crust of ice on it.

I've been watching the wind vane and anemometer on the weather station. I expect them to freeze up. I'll have to go out and break the ice off if that happens. If I see a "calm" reading and a locked wind direction I'll know they're frozen.

Allen

Tue Early Afternoon

The ice has started. Many objects becoming encased in ice. Trees reported bending in Lagrange. Pray the power stays on.
Allen

Tue Mid Morning

It snowed.

Looks like we got 4 or 5 inches. There is more on the way and there's a chance of some ice accumulation. Our lights flickered once this morning. There have been reports of power outages in areas south of Louisville.
Allen

Sun Late Afternoon

We got a quick 1/2 inch of snow this afternoon in the first band that moved through. Light, fluffy flakes with that one. The second band is moving through now with a more grainy flake.

Subdivision roads are hazardous. Reports on US 42 are that snow is collecting on the sides of the lanes and it gets a little more heavy moving north from 53.

Interstates look good at this time judging from the traffic cameras.

Allen

Fri Mid Evening

Our roads have been treated with brine. Looks like we might have some snow overnight.
Allen

Thu Late Evening

Warm and sunny today. We almost hit 50 degrees around 3:30 this afternoon. Another mild day predicted for tomorrow before colder air moves in.
Allen

Wed Mid Afternoon

58 days till spring!!!
Allen

Tue Late Afternoon

We had several periods of snow today. It was enough to dust the ground with white. Some lightly traveled roads got some slick spots but generally there were no travel problems. The sun came out later and even those isolated slick spots melted away.
Allen

Mon Mid Evening

A few scattered flurries and show showers passing through this evening.

We finally have our forecast and advisory script running again on the main page. I think it was a glitch with the NWS.

I had a great time meeting and chatting with John Foster of the Oldham Era today. John asked to do a little feature on my interest in weather and the station. He also pointed out that our soil station shot up to about 128 millibars (extremely dry) after the extreme cold the other day. So, soil moisture readings after severe cold are likely very wrong. Our guess was that the sensor is iced up. It'll correct itself after a little thaw. Oh, well. Nobody's going to be planting anything soon, right?

John asked another smart question about soil moisture as he wondered if the reading reflects whether or not I have run a water sprinkler. The answer is that I never irrigate over the moisture sensor, so it is a pretty accurate reflection of the soil moisture in this general area. In the summer, I have the dead grass over the soil station to prove it.
:-) Allen

Mon Late Morning

Here in NE Oldham County we got about one inch of snow overnight.

The forecast is temporarily missing from our main page. It should return shortly. Until then you can access it at this url:

http://forecast.weather.gov/MapClick.php?site=LMK&map.x=188&map.y=64&TextType=2

Sun Early Evening

We had a few snow grains on the back of Beau, our Cocker Spaniel, a little over an hour ago. Nothing at the moment but Louisville is reporting light snow. NWS is predicting an inch for us tonight with slick spots likely tomorrow morning.
Allen

Fri Late Afternoon

On a cold day like today you can really appreciate having electricity. That plume of steam north of Sycamore Run is the Trimble County Power Station. The steam is always more visible during cold weather. But, I've always wondered about that dark matter beyond the steam (visible in this picture drifting toward the left) and what kind of pollution it might contain. Their web site makes it out to be a pretty "clean" plant, but there is that stuff in the sky. Hmmmm.

And, have you ever smelled the unmistakable odor of coal burning in our air? I have.

Below is some info from their web site just in case you're curious.
Allen

• 
  
  
  

Trimble County Station (coal-fired)

• Began commercial operation in December 1990, with a net generating capacity of 495 MW. Current generating capacity of 514 MW.
  
• One of the most environmentally sound and technologically advanced coal-fired generation plants in the nation.
  
• Its capacity increases the reliability of LG&E's electric service and boosts the company's ability to support economic expansion.
  
• Its pollution-control equipment includes a high-efficiency electrostatic precipitator and a state-of-the-art wet limestone scrubber that removes more than 90 percent of the sulfur dioxide from the flue gas. The station's generating unit can operate only when the scrubber is running.
  
• In compliance with Clean Air Act requirements for sulfur-dioxide removal for the year 2000.
  
• Burns up to 200 tons per hour of coal which is transported in 1,500-ton barges.
  
• The natural draft hyperbolic cooling tower provides efficient cooling of river water for reuse in the generation process.
  
• Plant site includes a 114-acre wildlife preserve composed of wetlands and forested areas.
  
• Illinois Municipal Electric Agency owns 12.12 percent of the plant, and Indiana Municipal Power Agency owns 12.88 percent.

Thursday Mid Morning

We hit -4.3 degrees at 7:02 this morning.

Wed Early Evening

The leading edge of the cold front started passing through a little after 5pm. Gusty winds made driving difficult and we got a burst of snow, too. Looks like the snow will be ending in just a few minutes.
Allen

Wed Mid Morning

The temp has been rising since our low overnight of a little less than 13 degrees around 3am. A low of 4 is projected for tonight.
Allen

Tue Late Evening

Predicted low from NWS was 16. We're already there at 10:20pm and still dropping at more than a degree an hour. I think they underestimated this cold air mass.
Allen

Tue Early Evening

The temp has been dropping steadily since 3:21 this morning. It's 21 now and NWS predicts 16 overnight. With cold air flowing down from the north I thought I'd put the national temp map on the front page.

Fire in the fireplace and a cup of hot chile tonight.
Allen

Mon Late Evening

Sunset was at 5:41pm. Have you noticed the longer days already? Driving home with lots of light left around 6:30pm. Think spring! I appreciated Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels comment in his inauguration speech when he referred to our current economic recession as "a frost in April."
Allen

Mon Late Afternoon

Smells like snow outside.
Allen

Sun Early PM

NWS has issued a special weather statement for extreme cold weather in the coming week. Technically, it's for counties north of us in Indiana. But, well, you know how that southern Indiana stuff tends to come our way. Stay warm.
Allen

Sat Mid PM

We had some power problems on the station tonight. So some data may have been lost and readings incorrect. But, we're good now. Sorry.
Allen

Sat Mid AM

We were awakened at 6:20am by a huge, rolling thunder clap. Sort of unusual for January but not too rare. It sounded like spring, but we know better.

I'm going to stop naming these blog entries with the date since the blog software does all that automatically anyway. I'll go with the day of the week and rough time of post.
Allen

January 9, 2009 Early Afternoon

We got a dusting of snow yesterday but all gone now. The forecast predicts snow but it's almost never, never right. Seems predicting snow in the Ohio Valley remains a total crap shoot. We'll get none or we'll get a foot...but the weatherguys won't know until they're shoveling a foot of partly cloudy out of their driveway. :)
But, I'm glad they try. It makes for interesting entertainment.
Allen

January 8, 2009 Midday

This is our bamboo plant near the front porch. It puts on a nice display every winter.

The solar radiation has melted any remaining snow from the streets. But we are COLD. Just 25 degrees at midday.

Allen

January 8, 2009 Mid Morning

We got another dusting of snow last night. Quite windy overnight, too, which blew the snow across the roadways casing a few slick spots. We're in the lower 20's this morning with light winds but it feels much colder than that. I guess because of the snow cover.

A few deer tracks in the snow and the finches are chattering around the bird feeder.

Looks like we'll have abundant sunshine today and that's always welcome in January.

January 7, 2009 Late Evening

Precip on radar but doesn't seem to be reaching the ground.

Wind has been light today but we got a gust of 31 mph at 7:16pm. Unexpected and got our attention.
Allen

January 7, 2009 Mid Morning

We had a dusting of snow. No driving problems, yet. Temps are in the lower 30's.
Allen

January 6, 2009 Late Afternoon

This was taken mid afternoon along US 42. It was much more foggy in Oldham County than Jefferson.

January 6, 2009 Mid Morning

We flirted with ice but it never developed. By the time the precip moved in around 5am our temp had never dropped low enough to cause problems. Just rainy and dreary today.
Allen

January 5, 2009 Early Evening

Tonight WintryMix Lo 31°F

Tuesday FreezingRain Hi 39°F

According to the NWS forecast we will be getting the same weather as Louisville. That seldom happens. My experience has been that when it comes to ice or snow we almost always get it worse. I hope Oldham roads don't get slick tonight, but we'd better plan on it.

Current temp is 31, so we're already 3 degrees colder than Louisville.
Allen

Here's the current advisory as of 6:43PM -

...WINTER WEATHER ADVISORY IN EFFECT FROM MIDNIGHT EST /11 PMCST/ TONIGHT TO 11 AM EST /10 AM CST/ TUESDAY...LIGHT FREEZING RAIN AND SLEET WILL MOVE INTO WEST CENTRAL KENTUCKY DURING THE LATE EVENING HOURS...EXPANDING INTO SOUTHERN INDIANA AND THE NORTHERN BLUEGRASS REGION AFTER MIDNIGHT.

ALTHOUGH PRECIPITATION WILL BE LIGHT...TEMPERATURES ARE EXPECTED TO REMAIN AT OR JUST BELOW FREEZING. THIS WILL RESULT IN LIGHT ICING ON AREA ROADWAYS...ESPECIALLY ELEVATED SURFACES AND BRIDGES.ROADS MAY BECOME SLICK AND HAZARDOUS PRIOR TO THE MORNING COMMUTE.

THE COLDEST TEMPERATURES WILL REMAIN ALONG AND NORTH OF THE OHIO RIVER. SLEET MAY MIX IN WITH THE FREEZING RAIN ACROSS SOUTHERN INDIANA...ESPECIALLY WITH THE ONSET OF PRECIPITATION. FREEZING RAIN WILL CHANGE TO JUST RAIN TUESDAY MORNING.

January 2, 2009 Late Evening

First post of 2009! And...uh, not much to say. The weather has been spectacularly bland. Sunny, beautiful and surprisingly warm. Actually, that's not bland. That's great! Shopping for a garden tiller. How's that for thinking spring?
Allen