Yup, white for us, too.  And drifts?  Hoo, boy, did we ever!  Snow came in early November, and didn't go away again, as it usually does.  Now, the ice is finally almost gone, although there are still piles of snow in parking lots, slowly melting, left over from being ploughed up from the first snowfall.

Looking forward to more sunshine now, as the mountain to the south of town blocks it out during the depth of winter.

Meanwhile we've passed midsummer here,  but February is often the hottest month. Today and tomorrow will be late 20s C, and the winds have been blowing strongly, spoiling the chance of sitting out on my deck under a sun umbrella!

Similarly, we often have a serious cold snap near the beginning of February (despite the arrival of Groundhog Day, which is close to the old cross-quarter day Imbolc, marking the approximate halfway point between the solstice and upcoming equinox).

This next week is no exception, though this has been a generally mild winter so it just seems colder. Lows will approach -20F/-29C and highs will be around 1F/-17C.

We received a few inches of powder snow overnight, enough to push this month into a tie for the 10th-snowiest January on record with about 25 inches/635mm. (Other months tend to be snowier since in a normal winter the cold Arctic air pushes the storm track south of here, sparing us the big snowfalls).

I didn't go outside today, but when I went to the garage to get something I was almost hopping on my toes because the concrete floor was freezy.

Posted by: @coracle

Meanwhile we've passed midsummer here, but February is often the hottest month. Today and tomorrow will be late 20s C, and the winds have been blowing strongly, spoiling the chance of sitting out on my deck under a sun umbrella!

Over the Ditch to your West, the weather is rather stormy, though hot enough for summer. We've been hearing dire tales of Auckland being drowned in a most savage cloudburst for New Zealand. That was last Friday. 

...Yeah I've been hearing from an Aussie friend in an art Discord that her workplace and a bunch of the local streets were flooded out. >.<

Just mildly chilly and soggy here.

But are you in New Zealand, yourself, where it is supposed to be summer? Or are you somewhere further north of the Equator, maybe in USA, Canada, or Europe perhaps, where it is still winter? 

It is still quite warm, but not unpleasantly so, here, in neighbouring Australia, or in this particular corner of it, at any rate. 

Uh no, not in your neck of the woods. I'm in the Southeastern bit of the US - officially it's winter here, but my region is also semitropical so it rarely winters much. We do get floods sometimes in my city, we're on a river, but we've gotten lucky thus far this year.

I've also seen some coverage of the New Zealand flooding on our news.

This morning was the coldest of the winter so far (-13F/-25C), a bit brisk but nothing close to how cold it can be this time of year. Northern Minnesota temperatures approached -40F/C.

We'd warmed up to a toasty -7F/-22C by noon, before the wind chill. But a big warmup is on the way, and we could be close to freezing tomorrow and into next week.

I'm not surprised at the flooding in Northern New Zealand, though it might not affect Coracle quite as much, further south. Geographically, Australia is New Zealand's nearest neighbour, riding on an enormous tectonic plate shared with India, itself often referred to as "the Subcontinent" though it adjoins Asia, where it crashed into the Himalayas. For three years in a row we have had increased La Niña conditions. We ended up with a triple La Niña effect last year, which caused us much flooding, in particular, in March, then later in the year. At the moment, over the other side of the Pacific, Chile is having a horrible time with bushfires, we've noticed, just like what happened in 2019 - 2020, due then to three years of the El Niño effect when we had severe drought, tight water restrictions, & bushfires from Southern Queensland to Victoria & South Australia, tragically on Kangaroo Island, mostly a nature reserve.  Now, the La Niña & El Niño effects are opposite Pacific current conditions affecting the Southern Pacific, & the countries bordering it, especially. 

I've wondered at the variations in winter temperatures in Europe & North America, in particular, when last Christmas we heard much about a widespread, almost catastrophic, but genuine white Christmas. Even the Acropolis in Athens, Greece, got a snowfall, in icy-cold weather, a day or two ago, when Turkey & Syria got that terrible double earthquake. Stargazer, in Northern Minnesota, which I imagine is a rather cold place, I can't imagine -13F/-25C as 'mild', when it sounds really dire in Australian terms, even for Tasmania, & the Australian Alps. 

We have had some lovely falls of snow over the past while. Until today ... when the temperature is reaching an unheard-of 14 or 15°C / 57-59F, at least for February. This is breaking the previous record from 1954 of 12.2C. This un-seasonal temp is short-lived, though, as the high tomorrow is 6C/42F, with rain turning to snow, then on Friday, -5C/23F. Bouncing all around.

How is that North Island weather now, coracle? Have things settled down somewhat?

That's some serious February heat, @jo! We've been above average but not by as much, and even received over an inch (about 30mm) of cold rain on Tuesday, melting a lot of the snow and setting a daily rainfall record.

We still have mountains of snow out there, and winter is expected to return next week, with a more-active pattern that will replenish our snow supply.

Winter has returned with a vengeance. Huge, wet snowflakes are falling now in the first wave of this potentially historic snowstorm, with 4-8 inches (100-200mm) likely overnight before the main event arrives tomorrow. Models call for anything between 14 and 18 inches (355-455mm) more by the time it wraps up Friday. It would be followed by brisk temperatures, with lows around -6F/-21C likely.

Southern Minnesota will get even more. Our current single-storm record is 28.4 (721mm) in the 1991 Halloween Blizzard, and that should be safe, but this may give it a run for the money.

We're still sometimes getting a little chilly here, but not badly. Lots of Wet weather. Brown grass but riots of little clover patches in the yard.

I am about to be flying out to visit my sib, and there will be more chill, and near-constant rain, although more of it being misting than heavy blusters. I have bought my first raincoat since I was little for the occasion - I was informed an umbrella would mark me as an obvious tourist.

After 2 lots of heavy rain causing flooding in the north of New Zealand, last week there was a cyclone, which has damaged roads, cut communications and power, and left whole communities unable to function normally. Cyclone Gabrielle is the worst one I recall here.

In the south we have missed the cyclone but had some extremes, such as 30 degrees one day and a cold change the next (15 degrees, pull out warm clothes!). Then I read about terrible snowstorms and other extreme weather in the Northern hemisphere, and I know it's not cold at all here!

Stay safe everyone!