How's the weather?

[Mrs Henley]

It's freezing here and snowing!
It's uh .. (if i am right, it sucks with the celcius here and the fareheit in the US) 21 degrees, but we're here near the sea (The Wadden Sea) and with the breeze from there it's so dang cold here!

So people in the warm and sunny (or at least not that cold as here) states, be prepared I'm coming your way!

[Prettymaid]

C'mon then Mrs H, we'd love to have you! (But it's pretty cold here too!)

[Mrs Henley]

Hahaha I wish I could go!

[fred]

Today The Sun Is Shining in Mine City.But stiil is frozen,-3

But i loved this wheather.

[Mrs Henley]

Sunny but cold.
Hope it's in Groningen today a little bit warmer than here.. (although Groningen is just 30-45 minutes away from here..)

[TimothyBFan]

Here we go again!!! School is closed today because of another snow storm that started overnight and temperatures are dropping fast. By tonight It is suppose to be below zero and there is a Blizzard Watch for tomorrow. Can hardly wait!! Weren't the kids just home for 2 1/2 weeks over Christmas break? Enough of winter already!

[TimothyBFan]

This is an article from the Indianapolis paper from right before Christmas about the little town that I live in and the bad snow we always get. At that point we had already had 32 inches of snow. I'm sure we have more than doubled that by now! Pretty cool that we made the biggest paper in the state about it. Not so cool living with it tho! I highlighted a few things.


NEW CARLISLE, Ind. -- Dream of a white Christmas? Are you kidding?
Kids rarely have to beg for snow in this tiny "lake effect" town in Northern Indiana.

It just happens.
New Carlisle, the unofficial snow capital of Indiana, gets an average of 95 inches of snow every year -- nearly four times the amount of snow that falls in Indianapolis.
By Saturday, the day before the official start of winter and ending a week when a coating of snow and ice rocked Central Indiana with school closings and traffic nightmares, New Carlisle had recorded about 32 inches this season, and it takes an awful lot of snow to close the schools.
"If I had to guess, I would say somewhere over 20-plus inches might require a closing, but it's all in the timing," said Philip Bender, superintendent of New Prairie Schools. "It really depends when it falls. If it falls overnight, we can get to school with a two-hour delay."
Situated in a rare pocket east and south of Lake Michigan, New Carlisle has the distinction of getting hit with monster snows that blow off the lake in two directions.
"New Carlisle is in the not-so-enviable location of having lake-effect snow from a northwesterly wind and a westerly wind," said Rick Mecklenburg, the weatherman on WSBT-TV in South Bend, where they get 76 inches per year, almost 20 fewer inches than New Carlisle, even though they are just 10 miles to the east.
Longtime residents in this town of 1,500 recall there was once a sign on U.S. 20 that informed motorists of the town's distinction as the "snow capital of Indiana," but that sign is long gone, and nobody seems to know where it went.
"I have never heard New Carlisle being called the 'snow capital,' but it wouldn't surprise me," said Mecklenburg. "Not only is it the snowiest location in this county, but it is also the snowiest location in the entire state of Indiana."
Remember the famous blizzard of 1978? Indianapolis was shut down with 20 inches of snow. New Carlisle had 100 inches, according to local newspaper clippings.
And as far as those holidays that Bing Crosby sang about, well, New Carlisle and the South Bend area have a 67 percent chance of a white Christmas every year, compared with 30 percent for Central Indiana, according to the Northern Indiana Bureau of the National Weather Service.
In a town where downtown gift shops keep shovels and salt buckets handy, the curbside fire hydrants -- which get buried often in the winter -- are adorned with long sticks to keep snowplows away and help firefighters locate them in the event of a blaze.
Snow can fall so fast and so deep that state highway trucks sometimes have to push mountains of snow into the center of the highway until dump trucks can haul it away.
And almost every parking lot around town has its own mini-mountain of snow that typically hardens and refuses to melt until baseball season.
"Lots of folks with plows and shovels can make lots of money," said Augie Mauer, who heads the town street crew and helps track the daily snowfall for the National Weather Service.
Plowing the snow does not come cheap, especially to the school district -- which maintains parking lot "extensions" to store snow piles and spends $80,000 to $100,000 a year on snow removal, according to the superintendent.
By comparison, Central Indiana's rural Hamilton Heights school district spends just $3,000 to $4,000 per year, according to Peggy Jackson, budget director.
For better or worse, heavy snow always has been a part of life in New Carlisle.
Gladys Morse, 78, remembers the winter of 1940. She was 10, and her family lived on a farm when a blizzard struck. With no snowplows and little to stop the snow from drifting across the only road out, they were stranded.
"I remember seeing my dad hooking up the mules to what you might call a sled and then heading into town to get some supplies," said Morse. "Winter was considered a part of our lives, and we expected snow, usually lasting all winter, it seemed."
Sometimes a distance of a few miles can mean a big difference in perspective.
Peg Adams, a local retired schoolteacher, remembers the time her husband, a bank manager, had to deal with some unbelieving bosses who worked in South Bend and insisted that he open the bank on a snowy day in New Carlisle.
"The only way he could get there was to call a friend who had a snowmobile," said Adams.
Meanwhile, local kids rejoice every time it snows.
Last week, while most of the state dealt with an ice storm, New Carlisle had 31/2 inches of snow. As soon as school let out, kids began to show up at a town park to sled and snowboard in the bitter cold.
"Our children have fun with sleds, snowball fights, building forts, and various childhood games," said Morse. "Here at the library, we have many children come here after school to await their parents' return from work, and they really enjoy the snow."
Not everyone shares in the joy.
"Many of our senior citizens go south in the winter," said Morse. "I'm like lots of people. We accept the need to stay indoors."
Bender, the school superintendent who moved here two years ago from Evansville -- where they get a paltry 13.6 inches of snow per year -- said his family still is adjusting to the rough winters.
"When my family and I moved here two years ago, the boys that unloaded our truck made fun of our 'electric' snowblower," he said. "But so far, it has worked well.
"After having lived in southwestern Indiana all my life, I would rather have snow than the cold, dreary days of winter so familiar in the south. We eventually get tired of the snow, but it is a nice change."

[Brooke]

Wow! That is a lot of snow! Snow is very pretty, but does cause lots of problems.

We get some snow here in NE Missouri, but it seems like not as much as when I was a kid. Most of the time it misses us, going to the north or south of here.

Right now we have bitter cold. It was 3 degrees F this morning and is now a balmy 12. And windy! Brrrrrrrrrr

[eaglesvet]

TBF, that is pretty amazing that you could get 5X the amount of snow that another part of Indiana would get! And I like your school district's policy on snow days! For the first time that I can remember, our kids had a snow day this winter for a projected snowfall, before one flake had even fallen! I could hardly believe it! In my opinion, they should've opted to start school, and then gone for the early dismissal if the storm materialized (which it did.) That way, at least the kids get credit for the day in school.

[TimothyBFan]

I took these pictures out my windows this morning. It is 11 degrees right now with windchills in the -20's. It has quit snowing for a bit but it's suppose to start back up this afternoon and the winds are suppose to get worse. Needless to say, the kids are home again today.

This is my backyard





This is my utility vehicle-it was uncovered yesterday.


And this is poor Pickles-he is my bassett mix and so has very short legs-he stayed in Larry's path out to the garage from this morning. Hope Larry watched where he steps when he's coming back up the path this morning-Pickles may have left him a little something to step in.