Nice, Auntie!

Meanwhile, after a fairly mild autumn (including a recent record high), winter abruptly arrived in the past 24 hours, with a cold rain changing quickly to wet snow driven by winds up to 60 mph (97 km/hr). The Twin Cities area received only 1-5 inches (25-125mm) of snow, but areas north and northwest of here received much more than that. The winds and snow caused some semi-trailer accidents that closed Interstate 94 in north central Minnesota for some time yesterday.

Temperatures will be well below average over the long (US) Thanksgiving weekend, with more plowable snow coming this weekend, and temperatures dropping to around 0F (-17C) - and wind chills around -20F (-29C).

The first real snow and cold of the season are here!

@stargazer Temperatures will be well below average over the long (US) Thanksgiving weekend, with more plowable snow coming this weekend, and temperatures dropping to around 0F (-17C) - and wind chills around -20F (-29C).

The first real snow and cold of the season are here!

Nice to see world weather is humming along nicely.      Just as abruptly, this week's weather heated up to at least 35 C, with yesterday's temperature peaking at 36C. At midday yesterday a hailstorm put a spanner in the works, knocking out power, levelling trees & disrupting our metropolitan train service, making an evening commute a hellish experience, due to halted trains, unable to continue, & then overloaded buses, packed in like sardines, with hot, sweaty and worried commuters. My daughter barely reached home before 8.30 pm, in what seemed an epic experience, having left her work at 4.00 in the afternoon. She had to catch such a sardine express which took another hour to travel between Parramatta & Blacktown, where the driver took a bow & was clapped for at least finally getting there despite all the traffic lights being stuck on red. 

There is a very high risk of fire danger, now Summer has officially started. 

Posted by: @jo

But no doubt we will get back to snow soon enough!

And, as expected, the snow is here again. What a magical winter wonderland I awoke to this morning. About 8" fell, with more coming today and overnight tonight. Utterly beautiful! The heavy snow-laden skies are alive with anticipation.  

And the temp is well below freezing, so this should hopefully stay, for a bit, anyway. Our many coloured outdoor Christmas lights are festooning the porch railing, a couple of large bushes, and our 13' high 'Charlie Brown tree' ... we call it 'Charlie' because it began that way, but has since become tall and full and lush, and now blanketed with this beautiful snowfall.

The winds were very strong yesterday, so we battened down anything that could fly away. Winter is here, woohoo! 

The snow has been falling (off and on, but mostly on) since my post above on Friday. The rural landscape is gorgeously pristine white. Loving this, and it's only the end of November! There are chances of flurries all week long, with daytime temps just below freezing; nighttime temps around -5C (23F), sometimes a bit lower. We sure are hoping this winter is like year's: lots of snowfall that doesn't melt for months ... similar to the good 'ol-fashioned winters I grew up with.  

We also received snow most of the day yesterday, totaling perhaps 5 inches/125mm of light, fluffy snow (amounts varied quite a bit in the metro area). This is on top of the snow we received earlier in the week.

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

Niiice, stargazer!  

And since I last posted (the end of November), we have hardly had a day without at least some snowfall. Last night and today's was even more, plus it was a tad wet, so we awoke to a winter wonderland this morning. This is to continue overnight, with snow squalls tomorrow. The temperature does not drop near freezing anytime soon, so this white stuff is staying. Hurrah!   Chance of flurries on the weekend; more snow on Monday.  

@jo Winter is here, woohoo! 

Glad to hear it! Truly. Down Under, Summer is here! And yes, we've had some days of more than 40C, in what promises to be a very long & hot summer! We are supposed to get some rain, and I hope we do, though so far, these promises haven't  come about, even if clouds linger of a morning. No matter how much it inconveniences some, & can make life awkward, cooling rain is a blessing that I must resist the temptation to complain about. There is nothing worse than a drought, & plenty of lightning in dry storms add to bushfire peril. We've had a really nasty one only last weekend, or thereabouts on the Central Coast at a small place called Koolewong, where 16 houses burned down.  

Wow, 40C! Tomorrow our temperatures will struggle to reach -17C (0F), with overnight temperatures around -26C (-15F) - and that's with the urban heat island effect. Areas north of here will be a lot colder.

We've had measurable snow on something like 15 of the last 17 days - though usually not a lot at a time. Winter is certainly making up for the past few mild winters we've had.