Scratch 8C/46.4F as balmy. That is still the temperature expected for Friday (with abundant rain, which should wash away the remaining beautiful snow *weeps*), but it's going up even higher on Saturday, which will be our warmest day, to 11C/51.8F. I wonder if that might set a record. Sunday night the forecast is still for everything to drop cold again—like it should be in January in this part 'o the country, hurrah!

Notch another location with unseasonable heat, as it could hit 40F/4C here both tomorrow and Friday, with a chance of rain to help wash much of our remaining snow away. The big storm I mentioned earlier will apparently miss us, in terms of snow anyway, as it's too warm.

Forecasts still call for sharply colder temperatures next week, but with bare ground all around rather than a fresh coat of snow.

*faints at the thought of rain in January*

Whew, sounds hot to me. And humid too, ugh. Is air-conditioning a regular feature in houses where you live, IlF?

Yes except my family has never had it. we have a unit but we are renting at the moment and my father has taken 4 years to start building a house. It isn't usually humid in the southwest, of western Australia. Usually dry heat which is more tolerable. Today it is 14-31 C I am not sure what it is now about 23 c or something at 9am, which is nice for this time of the year. sunday the top is going to be 35 C which I am not looking forward to.

We are having a very warm week.... today I spent the day lying around inside the house feeling too hot to do anything.

Meanwhile we have joined Australia in having fires... http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/artic ... d=10858375

Oh I am sorry about the fires, there has been no fires near me at the moment. I actually haven't experienced a bush fire since I lived in queensland.

Got in a little bit ago from taking down the Christmas lights from the house. Figured best do it before they get frozen in place.
Looking at the weather channel the storm is already in the south-western part of Minnesota. Don't know how many inches we are supposed to get, but I'm figuring on leaving early for work to avoid the bumper-cars if it's freezing rain as they say.
Has anyone heard that the weather service now names winter storms? Guess what?

GANDALF

They really called it Gandalf?, I knew that cyclones were named but not winter storms.

Strictly speaking it's the private company that runs the Weather Channel that's naming winter storms, a move that's been a bit controversial in the meteorological community. The Weather Service (government agency) doesn't recognize this convention:

National Weather Service says no to naming storms

[/nitpick ]

Still, yes, TWC is calling it Gandalf, which is kind of funny since I went to see The Hobbit this afternoon with friends.

It's this storm that will bring a foot of snow or more to North Dakota and northern Minnesota; it was originally predicted to bring that much snow to the Twin Cities.

It's actually raining outside, with temperatures over 40F predicted for tomorrow before much colder weather moves in over the weekend.

I stand corrected. Thank you stargazer. I just wonder what name will come up next should they follow the alphabetical trend used for hurricanes.
Still raining here as well. Though I do suspect a bit of the white stuff in the morning.

A bit nippy out there. Only about 7 above, with the wind picking up. Should be about 5 below tonight, and still blowing. I think it's time to hibernate.
Did have one suprise. There was a sundog that hung about for more than an hour while we were out shopping. Almost a perfect rainbow around about a third of the sun.

7 above and 5 below sure sounds pretty nippy. Here nippy is 29.1F/-1.6c last night after 31/-0.6C and another subfreezing morning possible for tomorrow. No precipitation lately but there is some white stuff still on the very top of the local mountains.

sunday the top is going to be 35 C which I am not looking forward to.

Oh my! I wouldn't look forward to that either, IlF. Even this past weekend, which reached 15C/59F on both days with the sun beating down, was getting too warm for me. Everyone was saying how much like lovely April weather it was, whilst I'm mumbling about how 'hot' it is. Finally, during the night, the temperatures dropped and we're now sitting at a very comfy 0C/32F, with a bit of a wind chill, and snow expected this weekend.

Speaking of precipitation, Sunday morning we had a few hours of torrential rain (quite unheard of in January here), so much of the wet stuff that I was about to invite folk over for a swim in the backyard!

Sorry to hear of those fires, whoa! Glad you're not near them, IlF.

Yesterday, we kids got to use the hot tub in the rain, it was about 60F. Way warmer than we like, especially in January, but it did make for a great time in the hot tub.

It cooled way down during the late afternoon yesterday and through the night, so that is now a cloudy 30F here. We have a slight chance of snow for this evening, but as much as I would like for it to snow I didn't think we will get any.

SnowAngel

I could send a little cold your way, SnowAngel! It's a balmy 8F/-13C here at the moment. A little Canadian cold air is coming for the weekend; highs on Monday and Tuesday are predicted to stay below 0F/-18C with lows around -10F to -15F/-23C to -26C. That's normally not all that unusual here but it's been several years since we've had a subzero high thanks to warm winters.

January is normally our snowiest month but it's been very dry. And in an odd twist of weather news, Jackson, Mississippi (not really known for cold) has more snow on the ground than does Minneapolis. Go figure.

Today it was 50˚ Celsius (122˚ Fahrenheit) at the end of our backyard. The maximum temperature yssterday for the entire state was 45˚ Celsius (112˚) at Ivanhoe, and a cool 44˚ Celsius (111˚ Fahrenheit) here in Western Sydney. Some snow does sound great.