It has been rather nice here, except for Northern Hemisphere natives perhaps. So far we have passed the ides of January without too much heat and bushfire drama. One really nice thing to enjoy in summer, if you have access to a swimming pool, is the sting of cold water contrasting with the reported air temperatures. Swimming is a most therapeutic occupation, I am told.

We have had no accumulation of snow at all this winter. We've had cold and rain, but no snow. It's so sad! Everything looks so dreary with the cloud cover but no white stuff on the ground.

Not much of the white stuff here as either. With the warmer weather what we have will only melt further, leaving a nice brown smudge over everything.
Hard to believe in Minnesnowta.

I know what you mean, ramagut. The snow covers everything and can be quite pretty, rather than having to look at brown or gray for several months, which sometimes happens here in years of little snow.

Like this one. Minnesnowta indeed. Thanks to a storm this week, Amarillo, Texas (far to the south of us) now has a lot more snow on the ground than most of Minnesota does. Temps close to 40F/4C today are taking care of what little we have left.

You know it's a slow year when local weather people get excited about a storm (coming this weekend) that might drop as much as 2-4 inches (50-100mm) of snow. Normally such a thing is barely worth a yawn. But with over 4 months left of the possible snow season, anything could happen.

Well, I woke up this morning to about 2 inches of snow on the ground! It's beautiful! Such a winter wonderland! It hasn't melted off--yay! At least the roads are clear, though!

Lovely, ramagut!

One really nice thing to enjoy in summer, if you have access to a swimming pool, is the sting of cold water contrasting with the reported air temperatures. Swimming is a most therapeutic occupation, I am told.

Indeed! Summer is my least favourite season, but one thing I do enjoy is swimming lengths. It's great exercise with virtually no chance of getting injured. (Actually, make that two things: I love gardening too. )

Hard to believe in Minnesnowta.

Haha, great term! Here it's Snowtario.

The snow covers everything and can be quite pretty, rather than having to look at brown or gray for several months, which sometimes happens here in years of little snow.

Even though we have had a little-snow winter here this year, in our new-to-us area, there is a pretty much constant covering of snow, with a hint of grass, but it's mostly white. Even that little bit makes such a difference in appearance. When I was back in our old city last week, they had no snow at all—it was so dreary with just greys and browns.

You know it's a slow year when local weather people get excited about a storm (coming this weekend) that might drop as much as 2-4 inches (50-100mm) of snow. Normally such a thing is barely worth a yawn.

Hear-hear! It's so true, especially this year.

So, this winter continues to yo-yo. Most of the days are nice 'n cold (some even frigid), but once in awhile we shall pop up to the freezing mark (or even just above), when a bit of melting will take place, after which, when the temps drop to below freezing again shortly after, everything is quite slippery, to say the least. But then a small, fresh covering of snow comes, and the cycle continues. Today is one of those Arctic air, frigid-cold days.

Thursday we are expecting a significant amount of accumulating snow (yay!)—maybe up to 10". We shall see. We would love to see a good snowstorm around here!

There has been bushfires on the other side of perth today. I don't think they have done too much damage. Though it was extremely muggy outside and smokey when I left work.

@J I dislike summer and I don't really like swimming haha. Though your summer is much cooler then mine.

Glad you got some snow, ramagut! That storm I mentioned a few days ago missed us; I think I saw about 15 snowflakes.

Our warm January continues; yesterday it was 45F/7C. Almost warm enough to break out the camping gear. What little snow remains is in trouble - though this weekend should be colder.

All weather eyes in the US though are turned to New England, where a huge Nor'easter dumped 3 feet (1 meter) of snow on a town northwest of Boston, and it's still snowing. Winds were also impressive, exceeding hurricane threshold at times.

Too bad we can't send some of that Down Under to help with those fires.

Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday we were setting new high records here in KS. It was in the 70Fs all three days. I tried to take every advantage of the nice weather. Monday the kiddos and I just played around in the backyard, Tuesday we went to the zoo, and yesterday we went to the park and my son in particular played really hard. (My daughter just slept. ) Today it's cloudy and cool and we're supposed to get snow and rain all weekend.

Is anyone affected by the massive snowstorm in the northeast USA?

Oh my, IlF, have they been able to contain the fires?

Sounds lovely, fantasia (the 70° days)! Especially nice to get kiddoes outside in pleasant weather like that.

yesterday it was 45F/7C. Almost warm enough to break out the camping gear.

A few weeks ago, it was 6C/nearly 43F here, and I was thinking the same. Surprised I didn't see a few folks in shorts.

Today we have had a bit of snow, then freezing rain, then more light snow, which is supposed to get quite heavy tonight. The temp is hovering right around the freezing mark now, but tomorrow is turning bitterly cold, which will continue on into next week, with flurries forecast for every day.

Our weather can't make up its mind. We had snow a few days ago, then the next day it was in the 50s (F). The next day snow, the next day 50F. Yesterday cold but little snow, today 50F. Snow is supposed to start tonight again. It's crazy!

Did you end up getting more snow, ramagut?

How about you, fantasia? I remember your area was predicted with some snow on Saturday.

We had quite a major winter storm overnight, dumping about 8 - 10", and with the blowing and drifting, a lot more in places. Some of the drifts were spectacular! Like white knife-blades rising way, way up. So cool! It's cold too, although not bitterly so—around -10C/14F, without the wind chill, which drops the feel of the air significantly. It was fun being out in the village this morning with other residents as all of us were cleaning off our own driveways, then helping each other out.

However, my sister, who lives in Sudbury, texted yesterday and wrote that it feels a frigid -41 up there (-40 is where Fahrenheit and Celsius intersect)! That is just plain brrrrrrrrrrrr!

My husband tried one route to get to work this morning (country roads), only to find it blocked by large drifts. He then tried another one, and while he had to take these roads slowly and carefully, he found his way to town eventually, all in one piece ... always a good thing.

Even major universities were shut down today in the cities in southern Ontario.

This week continues cold, with flurries off and on.

We did get snow! A couple of inches! But, it warmed up the next day so it melted. We've been getting light snow on and off for the last two days and today the temperature dropped so now we have ice. The temperature is predicted to continue fluctuating.

Glad you got to see a little snow, ramagut! For a while you had as much snow on the ground as we do. Stay safe with that ice.

That's quite a storm, jo! Good to see your husband eventually got to work safely.

No snow to report here. The next big storm, which has set storm records in areas like Iowa and Chicago (up to 18 inches of new snow this past weekend) went south of here. Now it's headed east to those same areas that got hammered by the last big one. That's a lot of snow in a few days.

ETA: It was also Groundhog Day, roughly halfway between the winter solstice and the spring equinox in the Northern Hemisphere (hence the "six weeks of winter" is about the time to the first day of spring, and would be a bargain here ). There's a town in Wisconsin which does the groundhog thing, but this time the star decided to nip the mayor's ear.

Oh goodness, a big OUCH for that mayor! 'Though what did he expect ... to be kissed by the furry fella?

Our Ontario groundhog, Wiarton Willy, predicted an early spring, but I can't remember the last time he's been right, so ...

We are expecting more snow tonight, although not the amounts we saw on Sunday/Monday's storm. But I went out to shovel a path from our back door to the back garage door just now, and there was nearly 2' of the white stuff there! And it remains cold, cold, cold.

/edit/ A question posed recently: how much snow do northeners have to get before they need to shovel their roofs? (Hey, shouldn't the plural be "rooves"? lol) When we lived up north, we would have to take on this task, but I can't remember what the guideline was. And, of course, it makes a difference, too, if the snow is full of moisture or dry. My first guess was about 8", but then I checked online and sites suggest 6". What do the Minnesotans say? Or other northerners?