Our latest storm is wrapping up, though more snow is still expected. We more than doubled the season snowfall total so far (which was paltry by local standards), even if the calendar says spring. 😉

The biggest storm was Sunday into Monday, when we got about 10 inches (255mm) of wet, heavy, "heart-attack" snow. Last night there was a brief time when we got light rain, compacting the snow somewhat and making for treacherous driving conditions, and today we've received about 4 inches (100mm) of "wrap-around" snow as the large low-pressure area moves off to the east.

It looks a lot like Christmas out there, but upcoming expected warmth means that at least some of this may melt by Easter.

Posted by: @stargazer

Our latest storm is wrapping up, though more snow is still expected. We more than doubled the season snowfall total so far (which was paltry by local standards), even if the calendar says spring. ;)....

It looks a lot like Christmas out there, but upcoming expected warmth means that at least some of this may melt by Easter.

Wow! Odd that our autumn, so far, was almost the reverse of what you have been describing. March has been unseasonably warm, hotter in the first 2 weeks than it was last Summer, except for two or three heat waves that hovered around the late 30's to 40 degrees C mark, at worst. Now, it is becoming how I see traditional Easter weather, here. Perhaps cloudy or even stormy on Good Friday and clearing beautifully by Sunday morning. I can't really imagine Good Friday snow of any kind. 

Though I've been in Greece, Istanbul & Gallipoli, & around the Aegean Sea, & the weather there, between 14-25 April of 2015, was slightly chillier than it was in Sydney, later in autumn, there never was the slightest hint of snow, nor was there any in Paris or on "Flanders Fields", near the Belgian border, the following two days.  

Spring has sprung here in SW Ontario. While there were wannabe flurries last weekend, nothing much developed, 'though our chance for snow is present for a few weeks yet. I keep saying I still hope for one more good snowstorm. But that is unlikely.   And we certainly cannot plant any annuals or seed the gardens until later May, as there is a risk of frost until then.

The grass is green (that lovely, healthy spring green) and growing. Time to get the riding mower out to see how it fared over the winter! The bulb flowers are out everywhere: crocuses, daffodils, hyacinths, tulips are well on their way. Snowdrops are finished.

Our daytime temps over the next week range from high single digits (Celsius) to mid-teens, with some good rain on half those days. At nighttime, however, we are hovering around freezing, either a bit above or a bit below ... except for tonight, which is forecast to be warm for this time of year here at 10°C / 50F, with thunderstorms.

Spring has arrived here as well. Over an inch of rain (30mm) fell the other day, helping to reduce the ongoing drought. It certainly greened up the grass and the trees are budding and starting to bloom (and contributing pollen to my allergies!).

The high last Saturday was 86F/29C, but frost advisories are up for the next few nights. Ah, spring indeed!

This past weekend had a variety of weather.  Friday and Saturday were generally pleasant, allowing us to see Northern Lights both nights and enjoy a backyard fire with friends.

The heat was on Sunday, with a near-record high of 88F/31C. Then in late afternoon, a cold front blew through and brought thick wildfire smoke all the way from British Columbia. The air became thick and hazy, and had a burnt smell. One reporter said "The air tastes like wet paper towels."  My nose is certainly complaining!

So the sun was dimmed and orange, and only a couple of the brightest stars were faintly visible after dark. Right now the sky may be clear but there is a low gray haze over everything. The air quality warning is "unhealthy for everyone."

But a wind shift later today is expected that will clear this out for now, but a lot more smoke is expected over the summer.

Here in Christchurch NZ it's late autumn, and we've been has dealt quite a few frosty mornings already, although I don't recall this as normal. The last of my autumn flowers have perished in the -6 frost. This is unusual, but we're told that temperatures will be above average this winter. This, I remind myself, is why I have so many warm winter clothes. Warm clothes are not just for outdoors, but for inside the house. We don't have central heating, and I usually heat only the room I'm in, to help keep the power bill down. Some people have log burner fires, and a few have gas fires or old open fireplaces. 

A frosty morning turns into a sunny day, which is lovely inside. 

@coracle: Here in Christchurch NZ it's late autumn, and we've been has dealt quite a few frosty mornings already, although I don't recall this as normal.

It isn't quite normal when for the past 2 weeks we've had quite the drop in May temperatures from a sharp Antarctic cold blast. Weather seems to travel from West to East, the opposite direction to the sunrise. So, I expect that you would have had a sharp cold snap, that in our case, just across the Ditch, is only just drying out, with a bit of a sprinkle of snow, on Sunday/Monday in the allegedly Snowy Mountains in Southern NSW.  

Like you, we don't have central heating, though we do have reverse-cycle air conditioning, if it gets too cold. Warm clothes & a throw-over or rug & maybe heat pads or hot-water bottles, or just going to bed early, might help to reduce electricity consumption. Unfortunately, warming up heat pads in a microwave oven might cause the microwave to explode, which happened once in our staff room, when I was still working, some years ago & so leave me very dubious about using heat pads. 

Did anyone get to see the allegedly expanded Auroras Borealis or Auroras Australis, associated with a sharp Solar storm last Sunday, I think it was? It was still rainy here, & rather heavily, so we didn't get to see it, being a little too far north, anyway, I expect. 

Speaking of the weather... 

This is from our local meteorologist's FB page:

BREAKING: This severe thunderstorm has been classified by the Storm Prediction Center as a rare "derecho" windstorm, with a NASA damage connection from Space City, Texas all the way to Cape Canaveral, Florida! The damage path of wind reports on this map, which started in Austin, Texas, stretches for over 1,000 miles!!!

A derecho is a storm that produces wind damage for at least 400 miles and includes several well-separated gusts of at least 75 miles per hour. Wind speeds in Cypress, Houston, and Baytown reached speeds up to 100 mph at times.

Additionally, an EF-1 tornado with 110 mph winds embedded within the derecho has been confirmed in Cypress, Texas.

Over the past month we have had a fair bit of frost in the early morning hours, although that was more in the first part of May. This past week, we have had higher than normal temperatures here in SW Ontario, but thankfully that has cooled down to more seasonable last night, which will continue for a few days now, dropping to mid-teens (daytime) next week, yay, and even cooler at night! The longer we can hold off the heat, the better, imho.  

We had our first campfire of the season last weekend, and our second one is on tap for this weekend, when all our kids will be home, another (bigger) YAY! Our plan is to cook homemade hamburgers over the fire in our cast iron pan, in the cool, fresh night air with the stars bursting out all over on high.

We have had a decent mixture of some great rainy days amidst sun other days, so all the vegetation is growing well and very lush.  

We were told this morning at 6.00 am that at Orange, on the west side of the Blue Mountains, New South Wales, the temperature was -9C. It felt almost as chilly here, on the Eastern side, and it isn't even winter yet. We've had 6.00 AM temperatures as low as 4C or 7C last week, including snow at Perisher Valley in the Snowy Mountains. 

It looks like spring is springing nicely in North America, but I wonder how Starkat is, & how she managed with that Texas storm she was telling us about? 

In my city we're getting patches of cool rainy weather and patches of sunny days that start with frosts. The latter are more cheerful, if very cold to start with, because the sunshine warms my living rooms. On grey days the heating goes on earlier. 

Posted by: @waggawerewolf27

Did anyone get to see the allegedly expanded Auroras Borealis or Auroras Australis, associated with a sharp Solar storm last Sunday, I think it was? It was still rainy here, & rather heavily, so we didn't get to see it, being a little too far north, anyway, I expect. 

I had the opportunity to see some very nice auroras, despite living in an inner-ring suburb of a metro area (population around 3.5 million) that had no shortage of light pollution.

Auroras were reported and photographed nearly-worldwide, and many people saw them for the first time in their lives. Vivid displays were even reported in the tropics (areas like Puerto Rico, at 18N, and New Caledonia, at 26S). Spaceweather reports that the last time auroras were seen in New Caledonia may have been in the Carrington Event in 1859.

@starkat, news of that derecho has been reported here too, and I'm  glad you're all right. (I was camped just south of the Boundary Waters-Canadian derecho of July 4, 1999, which fortunately crossed a lot of sparsely-populated area. No smartphones back then; all we could do was listen as radio announcers described the advancing storm in rather apocalyptic terms).

Our current weather is very typical for this time of year, except we've had a lot more rain than usual, which is helpful given the several-year drought just past. We too have had several backyard campfires. Unfortunately, the heavy rain means millions of mosquitoes; I'd gotten rather spoiled as the drought greatly limited their numbers.

We just got hit again. This time we lost power. I ventured out to get food. The storms are alarmingly fierce right now. It looks like we are between El Niño and La Niña and I suspect that's what's causing it. One of the local meteorologists pointed out that these types of years are typically when Houston and the Texas Gulf Coast gets hit by storms. So this should be an interesting hurricane season.

@starkat: It looks like we are between El Niño and La Niña and I suspect that's what's causing it. One of the local meteorologists pointed out that these types of years are typically when Houston and the Texas Gulf Coast gets hit by storms. So this should be an interesting hurricane season.

We were supposed to be in an El Niño phase already, here in Australia, but last time I looked, BOM was saying that La Niña had returned, instead. I hope your hurricane season isn't too "interesting"

Northern Hemisphere astronomical summer is soon to begin (the solstice is next week), and our weather got the memo. This weekend we expect our first 90F (32C) readings of the season, with high humidity to match.

This spring has been a very wet one, and everything is lush and green. This is a contrast to the drought we've had the past few years. (In fact, today's Drought Monitor is the first in several years to show no drought at all - not even the lightest reading, Abnormally Dry - anywhere in Minnesota).

Last night saw a line of strong storms roar through north-central Minnesota, bringing several tornadoes, baseball-sized hail, heavy rains, and straight-line winds exceeding 60 mph (97 km/hr) that toppled many trees in the cabin country just north of the Twin Cities. My location avoided the worst of the storms, but saw an impressive display of mammatus clouds which was soon followed by a spectacular display of continuous lightning in every direction once dusk fell.