Puddleglum, I must admit, I get quite a chuckle from your Marshwiggle-ish weather posts.

'Tis fun reading about winter trying to come to most folks' areas. Here in southern Ontario, we're struggling with a mild season thus far. We have had a few flurries now and then, and even a bit of accumulation, which promptly melted away the following day. So sad. It will definitely be a brown Christmas for us. *weeps* Having said that, January can be our winteriest month, so I'm hoping it (and maybe February too ... even March) will make up for the lack of beautiful white stuff we have—or, rather, don't have —now.

Aaand, happy Winter Solstice everyone (early this morning 12:30 a.m. EST). This quite make me sad, though, because I quite like the shorter days and longer nights. I find them cozy and beautiful, with the night sky so readily available very early (instead of waiting until 10 p.m. )

Its the same as every winter here. Temperatures ranging form 40-70F daily, and never going below 35, though we had one day when it was 26 for a couple of hours before the sun came up. We had a very little bit of rain (God knows we need it) last night, but not much.

Ok so it's almost Christmas...

Where's the snow???!!!!!

More rain yesterday. A little flurry earlier today but not enough to stick. This is depressing.

They don't even have snow back at college. What's worse, the snow mobile trails are closed in Old Forge due to the lack of the white stuff. When you're missing snow in parts of the Adirondacks, you know it's bad.

Snow in El Paso again. Little more than flurries where I am. The west side of the city got about 3 inches. The storm is supposed to move on by end of the day so no 'official' white-Christmas. But we had quite the blizzard conditions yesterday. And coming home between the pecan orchards just south-east of El Paso, the ground was snow-free and the tree all had snow...on one side of the tree. Gotta love it.

Wow, more snow in El Paso than in Minnesota. Go figure.

It may be 40F/3C here by Monday. It's even too warm for the ski places to make snow. Yikes!

Winter will come, eventually. Last year at this time we had nearly 4 feet of snow on the ground.

Minnesota has ski places??? I thought it was pretty flat. I've seen Michigan and the bunny slopes in Colorado are bigger than their main ski runs.

(j/k)

We've gotten snow twice this year but it's already gone save for the few places the sun doesn't hit. On Tuesday I leave for Colorado for a funeral and they just received a foot of snow by the same storm that hit El Paso this weekend.

Too true, Fencer; by Colorado standards the ski areas here are bunny hills. However, only the southern and western parts of the state are as flat as you may be thinking about.

What a difference a day makes! Yesterday, the day after Christmas, it was an incredible 48F/9C here - about 25F/14C over the average. People were out golfing and hiking in the heat.

Today is still above average - about 30F/-1C - but with a raw north wind. It's a measure of how soft this winter has made me that I'm thinking a windchill around 0F/-17C is cold.

I must agree with stargazer about the ski hills here in Minnesota. They are rather tame compared to elswhere. But to be fair we have had a few accidents. Mostly due to recklessness. But then is it really a ski hill without someone on crutches about
As for the weather. I am still waiting for the jolt of reality to hit. Be it sub-zero temps, or snowfall by the foot. In any case I intend to be ready. blankets in the car, with emergency flashlight, shovel, etc.
Ah well. at least I have some projects in the shop to keep me busy when we get snowed in.
Also several boxes of undevoured christmas cookies for energy when it comes to shoveling

Ah, Minnesota sure experienced a not-so-white Christmas this year. Earlier today, we did get some snow, but most of it has melted by now, as did the layer of ice on the roads. I feel glad that a truck did not hit our neighbors' mailbox.

This doesn't mean it won't snow for the rest of the winter though. Minnesota has very changeable weather all year round.

As well we know my good centaur.

the young wiggle, and I spent some time shoveling the white stuff off the sidewalk. I try to get at it before too many walk over, even if it's only an inch, or so. It tends to remain as ice.
Looking at the weather channel, I see it is supposed to reach a high of twenty on monday. I suppose we can officially say that our winter has begun.

Oh snow, where are you?!

Green Christmas this year. Looks like it's gonna be a green New Years too... this isn't helping our deer population problem. I think I saw it coming though as the geese migrated late this year.

I vote the Canadian Goose be made Head of Meteorologists in Narnia. (and the US too ) They're never wrong.

If one knows what to look for they say that you can tell if it'll rain by the way the trees hold their leaves... I haven't seen that one fail either If a leaf is flipped inside out count on rain within 24 hours.

But I'm missing snow

Ugh! We're experiencing temperatures in the low 40's for the next few days. That's Celsius by the way.

wolfloversk;

I would say that I might agree with you about geese, but for one thing.
Today, after being out, and about in the snow, (yes we did get enough to annoy, but that's it), I noticed, (I think it's called a gaggle, most likely wrong) of geese in flight.
Oddly enough, they were flying north. Or at least trying as the wind has been blowing steady around 22mph all day. Ever watch birds almost hovering while flapping madly? In going in, and out in an hours time I saw them circling the block at least three times, only to try heading north again.
They may know the weather, but geese, at least these, need a sense of direction

Ever watch birds almost hovering while flapping madly?

Oh yes, Lake Ontario produces a lot of wind.

That's funny about the geese, perhaps they're looking for feeding grounds.

We saw salamander activity today they should be lying dormant right now, but the lack of snow appears to have messed up their hibernation cycles among other things.

It's gonna get cold this upcoming week, but it's supposed to go back up on the weekend. I miss snow.

Salamanders are nott he only critters who seem thrown off by this weather.
News told us of a bear wandering about. poor brute became a threat, and had to be dispatched But it only shows how poorly some of the wildlife is dealing with this.
There have also been warnings by the State Dept. of Natural Resources about going out on the ice to go fishing. Granted some of the Narnians who are good swimmers have no worries. Beavers, otters, and the like. But some of the humans tend to be a little recless. I hear of a few driving their recreational vehicles out on only a few inches of ice