The official tally was 7.9 inches (201mm) - the most ever so early in the season and the second-largest October snowfall (behind the Halloween Blizzard - yes, the locals use capitals 😉 of 1991).

This storm was a good example of how you can get a lot of snow even if the temperature is above freezing (around 35F/2C in this case). The short answer is that the reported temperature is just a snapshot of one bit of the air column the precipitation falls through.

Due to the cooling effects of snow our temperatures are running about 25F/14C below average.

It was cloudy this morning, but there was a peculiar yellow tinge  to the light. It turns out that wildfire smoke from a massive fire in Colorado is filtering the sunlight, so even through the clouds it's a strange color.

I went to the grocery store today (along with most of the rest of my city) wearing a shirt, sweatshirt, and winter coat. 

The next few days look like this, freezing rain, wintry mix, snow, freezing drizzle, wintry mix, snow, wintry mix, freezing rain, rain, freezing rain, rain, rain/snow, rain. 

Tomorrow's high: 28F. Yuck. 

I'm afraid I will never understand you cold-weather lovers. I'm gonna be one of those people that retire to Florida or something. LOL 

Brrr!
But you're only in Autumn/Fall!

In New Zealand we are well into Spring, and in my east coast city we have had a lot of the weather patterns that give us very warm windy weather followed by cold and rain.
This weekend is a long weekend (Labour Day today) which marks a turning point in temperatures and I usually change to summer sheets about now!  I know it's approaching summer when I wear sandals for the first time!

Your forecast indeed sounds gloomy, fantasia...many of the things that make cold weather unpleasant rather than enjoyable.

As I've grown older I've noticed a change in my weather preferences.  Contrary to other "seniors" I know (like my parents and their friends), I haven't found the need to keep the house warmer. In fact, my tolerance for heat seems to be lessening.

But my tolerance for cold may be as well. Frequently, I don't have to be out in cooler weather (say, 20F/-7C or colder) before my knees begin to remind my I'm not 50 anymore. 😉

28F is pretty cool for this time of year.  Here, recent highs have been barely above that, and they're talking about how highs around 32F tie records for the coldest October 27 on record. (Our record low for tonight is 13F/-11C), but we aren't likely to reach that).

coracle, it's fun to read posts about spring as we're beginning to hunker down for winter in these parts (daylight saving time ends this upcoming weekend, and so Sunday begins several months of days when the sun sets before 5 pm).

Posted by: @stargazer

coracle, it's fun to read posts about spring as we're beginning to hunker down for winter in these parts (daylight saving time ends this upcoming weekend, and so Sunday begins several months of days when the sun sets before 5 pm).

Weird patterns in Sydney weather. We had an increasingly warm spell of weather through spring. The crops were growing nicely, & all was well. But last weekend the weather changed. On Sunday, in particular, we froze. Literally. Monday was a gloomy awakening with temperatures as low as 15 degrees Celsius at 6 AM & it stayed that way all day. It hasn't been much better today. 

A cold front of hail, thunderstorms etc flattened beautiful crops nearly due to be harvested next week, from Walgett & Moree,  east to Burren Junction & Narrabri. The weather isn't about to improve for at least a week or more. Can't win a trick, not even at Halloween.

Speaking of Halloween, this year there is supposed to be a full moon on October 31st/November 1st here. It will not only be a blue moon but also a proper Hunter's moon. What is the significance of Hunter's moons & Harvest moons, I wonder? No, I'm not intending to howl at the moon this year....  

Posted by: @coracle

Brrr!
But you're only in Autumn/Fall!

Posted by: @stargazer

Your forecast indeed sounds gloomy, fantasia...many of the things that make cold weather unpleasant rather than enjoyable.

We ended up setting a record both for cold temperatures and also getting 1.3" of snow this early in the year. The bulk of the ice missed us and went south instead and we had mostly snow and rain. There was ice, but not much.

Now we're warming back up to much more seasonable temperatures. I think it's supposed to be around 50F today.  

Our cooler weather is also expected to give way to warmer weather (maybe up to 60F/16C) next week. Still time for another backyard fire before winter.

Posted by: @waggawerewolf27

Speaking of Halloween, this year there is supposed to be a full moon on October 31st/November 1st here. It will not only be a blue moon but also a proper Hunter's moon. What is the significance of Hunter's moons & Harvest moons, I wonder? No, I'm not intending to howl at the moon this year...

Nothing wrong with howling at the Moon! 🙂

The Harvest and Hunter's Moon designations appear to date from colonial America (or Native Americans). While it's true the Moon rises later each night compared to the previous night, how much later varies widely throughout the year. The Full Moon nearest the autumnal equinox rises only a few moments later each night, thus giving farmers extra bright light to bring in their harvest. The very next full moon was thought to help hunters the same way, hence the name. Around the spring equinox, the effect is the opposite, with the moon rising 80 minutes or more each night. (I imagine the same effect is observed Down Under, with the dates reversed). You can read more about it here.

Incidentally, the current usage of "Blue Moon" is only a few decades old, and comes from a misunderstanding in Sky and Telescope magazine, of all places. There is a discussion about that here.

That is quite the snow, stargazer!! And thanks for the info on the Moon. (I have no clue why this is in bold. Nor why there is a large space below here. )

 

 

I go for a walk from 6-7 each morning (in the cool weather, not during the summer): this morning, as I stepped out the door, there was something falling from the sky, and it looked kind of white, but there were so few of them, I thought it might just be big drops of rain. Nope! Within a few minutes, snow had begun swirling and twirling down, and for the next hour I was walking in a snowglobe, whilst it was still dark. It was magical! The snow slowed down shortly after I came back in the house, so I think it must have fallen just for me during my walk.  

Many of our coloured leaves have not yet come down, and some flowers are still in bloom, so it is especially beautiful to see the pure white snow gathered on the trees and various plants. The chrysanthemums are particularly lovely.

Posted by: @fantasia

I'm afraid I will never understand you cold-weather lovers. I'm gonna be one of those people that retire to Florida or something. LOL 

Well, we will be retiring to the Yukon or somewhere north ( ), so it is a shame that we'll be that much further away from each other.

Posted by: @coracleBrrr!

But you're only in Autumn/Fall!

In New Zealand we are well into Spring, and in my east coast city we have had a lot of the weather patterns that give us very warm windy weather followed by cold and rain.
This weekend is a long weekend (Labour Day today) which marks a turning point in temperatures and I usually change to summer sheets about now!  I know it's approaching summer when I wear sandals for the first time!

Yes, over the other side of The Ditch (Tasman), that is what I did on the first Monday of October (Labour Day, here, as well), & yes I've been wearing sandals more, now.  But it has all changed since last Sunday, to today. It has been stormy, with lowering skies, on & off rain & ranging from freezing temperatures of 15 degrees Celsius, MAXIMUM, not just minimum to 21 degrees C Max. La Nina has arrived with a clap of thunder & a dazzling light show for "entertainment". Halloween last night was a washout, due to not only COVID restrictions but also the torrential rain that came down at nightfall. With the HSC on in full stress, our teenagers have more important things to do, after a very hard year for them scholastically. So we are back into winter pyjamas etc, though I decline to change the fresh summer sheets back so soon to heavier ones. And the pale moon, nowhere as huge as in the Northern Skies, wore a rainy, misty halo, amid the scuttling rainclouds, where it was the howling wind setting the scene.

@Stargazer

The Harvest and Hunter's Moon designations appear to date from colonial America (or Native Americans). While it's true the Moon rises later each night compared to the previous night, how much later varies widely throughout the year. The Full Moon nearest the autumnal equinox rises only a few moments later each night, thus giving farmers extra bright light to bring in their harvest. 

Thanks for the info, Stargazer. When we used to say Once in a blue moon we usually meant something like something that rarely happened, & if it did it was unexpectedly. It was only as an adult that I realised it could be the second full moon in a month though yesterday my Australian calendars seemed rather shy of saying so, even the National Geographic one which was probably imported from USA. Yes I did look on the site you linked to & I found it very interesting. Quoting from your answer, you say Colonial America, or Native Americans but it could well be both. I very much doubt that people in the Northern Hemisphere, would have left behind the lore of their own original cultures, & though the Native Americans did without such contact for centuries & millenia, doesn't mean they could not have had similar observations. Some languages, Japanese, I've heard, don't have words for blue or green. It all depends, it is hard to tell. The Aborigines measure the seasons quite differently to Europeans, with six seasons, not four, so there is very little correlation between what happens between the two hemispheres. We don't have a Hunter's moon in Autumn, to my knowledge, just Easter. 

In that link you quoted, there was a Monopoly card on it with a Geography question: What country would you be in if you were relaxing in Wagga Wagga playing your didgeridoo? I reckon I could answer that question quite well.

Meanwhile, here we are: A blue moon occurring on Halloween, with Friday 13th less than a fortnight away. Anything could happen.   For instance, there have been 2 earthquakes, one in Alaska through last week, & another yesterday, at Izmir in Turkey & on Greek Samos in the Aegean, quite heavy at 7.00 on the Richter scale. I keep wondering why we seem to get more earthquakes globally when there is a La Nina event happening. Both Turkey/Greece & Alaska are a fair way away. But La Nina is a global sort of event. Is there some sort of slow Global knock-on tendency over months? Or do earthquakes happen randomly when it is Halloween on the Blue Moon?

Just curious...  

@waggawerewolf27 Sounds like you're getting some Melbourne weather there!! That's one of the things that makes me feel so at home in the UK... our weather here is like four seasons in one day as well. (Or as my dad, Melbourne born and bred, always puts it: "If you don't like the weather, just wait five minutes!")

Posted by: @waggawerewolf27

In that link you quoted, there was a Monopoly card on it with a Geography question: What country would you be in if you were relaxing in Wagga Wagga playing your didgeridoo? I reckon I could answer that question quite well.

Yes, except the didgeridoo comes from the indigenous peoples of the Northern Territory and the Kimberley rather than southern New South Wales, but oh well, at least Australia got a look-in...  

@ CourtenayA

Yes, except the didgeridoo comes from the indigenous peoples of the Northern Territory and the Kimberley rather than southern New South Wales, but oh well, at least Australia got a look-in... 

Yes, you are right, but it seems that Northern Territory tribes had more contact with more southerly tribes like the Dharruk or the Gadigal (Eora) parts of Australia than you or I may have thought. Bush telegraph one would have thought.   I did a staff TAFE course on Aboriginal culture, back in 2012. It seems Didgeridoos were fashionable, elsewhere, before Arthur Phillip's mob turned up in January, 1788, allegedly. Besides, some "nations" are more related to each other than others, & there was a fair amount of trading going on between them. There was another thing, womenfolk aren't allowed to play them - bad luck they say. Secret men's business, you know . Obviously the Monopoly card made some assumptions it shouldn't have done.    

Meanwhile, how is UK, these days? Nice & cold, but no Christmas I hear? Unfortunately, how Narnian! 

Posted by: @courtenay

(Or as my dad, Melbourne born and bred, always puts it: "If you don't like the weather, just wait five minutes!")

That's a popular weather phrase around here as well, as our weather is currently demonstrating. Last week we were looking at snow; this week is a string of record (or near-record) high temperatures (around 75F/24C). This is great weather for getting outside before winter gets here - no bugs or humidity, nice clear skies, and long evenings perfect for stargazing (though the short days and low humidity means the temperature drops off rather quickly after sunset).

With the sun setting before 5pm it means we can have a leisurely fire without having to wait for it to get dark, like we do in the summer.

Posted by: @waggawerewolf27

Meanwhile, how is UK, these days? Nice & cold, but no Christmas I hear? Unfortunately, how Narnian! 

Oi, Christmas isn't cancelled yet... the new lockdown is supposed to end on 2nd December. Unless things haven't improved enough by then, that is. In the meantime, I'm going to live like a Narnian even if there isn't any Christmas...  

Meanwhile our summer is delayed... the spring weather has been cool and grey. So much for growing new things on my garden, or taking out the summer clothes.

Weather pattern will be La Nina this summer. 

It is Thanksgiving in the USA, which I understand is held on the fourth Thursday of November. I hope it is nice & cold, for you. We have been told that this will be our hottest November ever, with temperatures going as high as 50C. Much of November hasn't been too bad. There has been a cycle of a day or so of nice, increasingly warm weather, then days of maximum temperatures of 41C, 38C or thereabouts. The cloudy weather reasserts itself, & thunderstorms reduce the temperature somewhat. This weekend we can expect at least 40C & 42C. But then we are at the back end of Sydney. A band of extreme heat is crossing Australia, from the Kimberleys bearing down on us, from north west, in a south easterly arc of air currents.

I am not looking forward to yet another overly hot summer. At least this weekend is a vast improvement on this time last year. Then, we had a Charnish type sun, & for weeks on end, smoke clouded the sky all along the Eastern seaboard, from the Queensland border down to Victoria & as far east as New Zealand. 

posted by Coracle

Weather pattern will be La Nina this summer. 

I hope it hasn't finished in Australia already. A bit of coolness would be great.