This week...took down Christmas decorations  in 70 degree weather wearing shorts...blew out some fall leaves on New Year day and today will be shoveling snow with temps dropping to 16 by tomorrow morning. That's Virginia in the winter!(http://www.aesopsretreat.com/forum/richedit/cliparts/7.gif)

Our temps finally rose and we were supposed to return to the rainy blahs...
Power went out about midnight last night, and we woke up to another 2-3" of snow on the ground, LOL

At least the power outage was short lived and was back on before we awoke.

Hope you're okay, we heard the Virginia area got like 14" of snow!

Yes... we were the bullseye this time. Lost power from Mon 9 am until midday Wednesday. Our soon to leave governor was a total failure. The roads were not treated...it sucked. They tried to blame the new guy who has not taken office yet! Typical democrat blame others. I lost most of our food, water leaked out from the fridge and freezer. Thankfully none of my family was stuck on 95 all night. Hubby left for work the day before it hit. But our son was driving home from the midwest but never got stuck or stopped. Just took twice as long to get home as normally does.

What a time for a power outage sunshine!  Our snow hasn't returned here yet but the roads down in southern Oregon were very bad for the kids to travel back home, so they stayed an extra day.  They actually went skiing locally which was nice. 

I am actually glad to see the back of 2021 for many reasons and I'm hoping that 2022 will be a much better year for us all.

2022 sucks here so far.  Got another half inch of snow last night and even with the sun on that little bit on the concrete won't melt. Coldest temps in a very long time, might even be a record to hit the next few days for us.

Literally every single isle at my Giant grocery store with cool or frozen food is empty...unreal. Like a third world country. No bananas, very little apples. Never seen anything like it. No bagged salads. Very little produce.  I have photos but would have to resize them all. The chip isle is all pork rinds and fritos. No milk eggs cheese.

So sorry to hear that sunshine - that really makes life difficult.  Hope the grocery stores get their deliveries fast and then you'll have to fight the shoppers who have all run out.  We went to the market a few days ago and noticed the shelves were half empty and what was there went up in price.  Many shoppers like myself had their glasses steamed up from masks blocking nose and mouth!  What used to be a normally pleasant task is now torture!

I wear my mask again, too, not mandatory but so many are sick now. Hate how my glasses steam.

We still have to wear them at work and we have to wear safety glasses too.  I started using anti-fog wipes on mine...it helps for a few days at a time.

Still empty shelves. I'm gonna take another look tomorrow see if we have any food. No reason for this.  The roads have looked great since Thursday.

That is outrageous!  And I think a lot of it is manufactured hysteria.  We were at Costco on Sunday and they had no supply issues whatsoever.  We also visited a local independent grocer on Saturday, where we stock up on our meats and fish and their shelves were full and the store packed with people. 

Our ABC liquor stores are the same way...just saw pics  of empty  shelves online.

Still have many empty shelves...another snow storm  may be on the way Sunday. I am well stocked once again.

shelves in suburban Chicago are in pretty good shape.  TP and paper towel purchases are being limited to one per.

pint of strawberries -$1.77,  green pepper & cucumber 50-cents each.  grass fed, organic beef and plant burger has been on sale.

been a pretty mild winter, so far, by Chicago standards.  Latest date for first snowfall ( >1" ) ever was just after Christmas.  We got a wimpy 3".

no sub zero temps.  the worst weather seems to go north or far south of us.

• Major winter storm to wallop parts of the U.S. with heavy snow, rain over long weekend (https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/major-winter-storm-bring-heavy-snow-rain-mlk-weekend-rcna12212)

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We're supposed to get 5 more inches tomorrow but turn to rain after 10pm.  Our stores are slowly getting the shelves stocked. I really do not want to shovel any more snow.

75 million Americans under alert for winter storm, chilling temperatures
https://abcnews.go.com/US/75-million-americans-alert-winter-storm-chilling-temperatures/story?id=82283443

A massive storm just left over a foot of snow across North Dakota and Iowa.


we dodged this storm, too.

didn't get 1/4" last night.

plenty of sunshine today, solar panels chugging along  (https://www.aesopsretreat.com/forum/Smileys/classic/cheesy.gif)


looking to see sunrise earlier than 7am and sunset later than 5pm.  still 10-14 days away

We had our big storm at the beginning of the year which was bad enough to close down portions of our main highways.  Our kids had to wait  it out to make the long 2 day drive home.  Today we had fog and very cold weather. It was a good time to make it to the store which is less than 10 minutes away as the shelves weren't empty yet although there were big gaps on the shelves and what they had available  was certainly higher in price. 

Snowfall this season is less than half of normal but when was the last time we had less snow by this date?

So far looks like 4 more inches of snow out there...topping it off with heavy sleet and freezing rain to heavy rain around 10 pm.  Our shelves were almost back to normal. I went to Walmart at 7 am and it was like Christmas time in there and empty shelves again.

still hardly any snow.

December was much warmer than normal - record warmth +6-something degrees for the month

January is running -3 degrees colder than average.

But, cold dry air from polar region, so no snow.

Lake Michigan ice coverage increasing with January’s freezing temps, and more single digits are ahead

If you haven’t yet spotted ice shaped like thick pancakes or built up in sculptures along Lake Michigan, there may be more opportunities ahead.

Ice cover is ticking up as temperatures cool, and Lake Michigan could see peak coverage close to its long-term average, according to the latest projections from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory, which records and models Great Lakes ice coverage.

As of this week, about 15% of the Great Lakes surface is covered with ice. Lake Michigan’s coverage — over 16% — is just below average for this time of year.

In parts of the region, a balmy December gave way to freezing January days. Lake Michigan’s surface temperature was still slightly above average heading into the new year and at 38 degrees around mid-January was hovering right above average, like the other lakes.

“With the cold weather we’ve seen, we’ve seen significant ice growth,” said James Kessler, physical scientist with NOAA’s Great Lakes Environmental Research Lab. “Now we’re sitting pretty close to average for Lake Michigan.”


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