Who said it is winter

[85MH325]

No snow on the ground here in eastern Iowa yet... and day time temps have consistently been in the high 40s and low 50s since before Christmas. However, winter has finally arrived with an ice storm overnight... have a few tree limbs down in the yard, but because of the glaze of ice, they're staying there for a while. Five to eight inches of snow was yesterday's prediction but this morning, it looks like we're down to 2-3" total predicted for the storm today and tomorrow. I'll take that, followed by Mon-Weds highs in the mid to high 30s. Not bad for January in eastern Iowa.

[azflycaster]

Very nice in the Keys...

[Pahaska]

I just returned from 2 nights at Blanco State Park. Small park, half-full, but I counted 2 B+ and 5 class B during my walkaround. All SOB, except me. I camped under live-oak and some huge pecan trees. You cross the Blanco River on a low-water bridge to get to the camping area. There is a one-way emergency exit in the event of high water.

The weather forecast was for 3 warm and dry days. The night before I left, the same forecast popped up with 20% rain for all 3 days. They were right. The skies wept pretty constantly except for about 4 hours that I sat out front of the AI and read in the sunshine. The warm part was right. I actually used my AC to get the humidity down a bit and used it on the way home this morning. Should break a heat record today. Slept both nights under a sheet with no heat.

There had been a big hailstorm a week earlier. The ground was paved with green live-oak leaves. The live-oaks are green all year and drop their leaves in the spring.

[InterBlog]

Monday is a federal holiday and so we are hoping to head out this weekend for a short excursion, even though we are due for cold front #19 or so and the lows will once again be in the 30's (I wish someone would track and number cold fronts - I think it would be psychologically easier to manage our yo-yo weather if someone formalized it).

Live oak trees drop their leaves in spring because the emerging leaves essentially push the old ones out. This is something that many non-native Texans don't realize. How many times have I seen newbies chop down their live oaks in spring because they assume that dropping leaves indicate that the tree just died? Ouch.