[ghporter]

OK, Thorzdad wins…

Our low tonight is supposed to be 17. Keep in mind that this is South Texas…

[Thorzdad]

2° / -13°

Got a little snow overnight. Not enough to matter, really. But, it seems to have been enough to erase to ability to drive in many peoples’ minds, as the news is reporting numerous crashes and pile-ups on the roads this morning.

[Laminar]

We had over 22" of snow in 6 days. That's more than half of what we typically get over an entire winter.

-15 degF with a -43 degF windchill on Saturday.

I finally bought Blizzaks for the truck this year and have been enjoying them immensely. Snow drifts up over the hood are still no match, it just keeps going.

[Laminar]

Snow was deeper than the dog so I had to make a cutout where he could go potty.

[subego]

Rain in the forecast next week.

[Thorzdad]

A cold rain.

[Laminar]

Got another 5 inches last night. I have a package from Digikey that's been delayed three times so I made sure to scoop a path from the street to my front door. I'll have to snowblow the rest after work, no way I was going to run the snowblower at 5am and no way was I going to hand scoop more than that.

[andi*pandi]

We finally got snow, then it rained into slush... blech to shovel and then ice. Then more rain, and this weekend a nice little dusting to cover the grey winter. Dog is having no issues, she loves rolling in snow and sticking her nose into snow piles to sniff for hiding critters.

[Thorzdad]

Was expecting freezing rain overnight. Never got cold enough, so we just have rain, which is a-ok with me.

[subego]

It was in the 50s today.

[ghporter]

Last night’s low was supposed to be something like 49, but it didn’t go below 61. It’s currently 70 with an expected low tonight of 41. We’ll see…

In 1996 of 1997 (it’s been a while, it might have been ‘98), San Antonio saw February break 100F. And a couple weeks later we had a hard freeze. So there’s no telling just what flockery February has in store for us this time. On the other hand, I have a BIG patch of yard that has bluebonnets growing on it, lots of them. Nothing flowering yet, but I expect to have a sea of beautiful flowers in March.

[Thorzdad]

I was born in early February in Indiana. My mom used to tell me that, when they brought me home, she wore a sundress and dad was in short sleeves.

[andi*pandi]

*french toast alert* *french toast alert* *french toast alert* *french toast alert* *french toast alert* *french toast alert* *french toast alert* *french toast alert* *french toast alert*
WE ARE PREPARING. Will it be a foot of snow, or just a few inches?
*french toast alert* *french toast alert* *french toast alert* *french toast alert* *french toast alert* *french toast alert* *french toast alert* *french toast alert* *french toast alert*

[subego]

14°/5°

Of course I’m going to be stuck working outside.

[Thorzdad]

18°/9°

At least the snow is done. Gonna be in the 40s tomorrow.

[ghporter]

Friday was pretty nice, starting with a low in the low 60s and topping out in the low 70s. But Friday night a front blew in (literally) and the HIGH yesterday was about 55. Today topped out at 56, but it wasn’t windy, and tonight’s low is supposed to be 44…but it’s supposed to be in the 80s by Thursday. Yeah, it’s kinda bizarre, but it’s not too freaky for San Antonio.

[Laminar]

Originally Posted by subego 

14°/5°

Of course I’m going to be stuck working outside.

Your cat costume should keep you warm.

[subego]

A prototype cat costume for playing outdoor shows in the autumn was pretty warm. Looked like a fursuit so we dropped the idea. Still have them.

[subego]

30° swing today. Ended up at 60°.

[subego]

It’s 67°.

[Thorzdad]

71° here

[Laminar]

Currently 77°. Forecast says snow and 12° tomorrow night.

[andi*pandi]

In the 50s all week. Too warm for snow, so rain it is.
This winter we have had very little snow. That big blizzard we were expecting turned south.

[Laminar]

8 all caps

[ghporter]

The highs were in the 80s the first part of the week, we had a high in the low 70s yesterday, and a high of 52 or so today. Tomorrow, the high is expected to be 76F, and next week it's in the low 80s.

Yeah, "If you don't like Texas weather, wait a few minutes" is really a thing, but that thing is swinging wider, and more wildly all the time.

[Thorzdad]

Originally Posted by ghporter 

Yeah, "If you don't like Texas weather, wait a few minutes" is really a thing, but that thing is swinging wider, and more wildly all the time.

Doesn’t practically every state claim that? I know it’s been a saying for Indiana weather for at least as long as I’ve been alive.

[ghporter]

Yeah, it was a thing in Michigan when I was growing up. But it’s getting more like “wait a minute” instead of “wait ten minutes”, and that’s my point: it’s getting more variable, and more widely variable.

[Thorzdad]

Hard freeze tonight.

The weather last week (other than Thursday’s hailstorm and tornadoes) was nice enough for flowers around the neighborhood to start blooming. Oh well.

I just want nature to get this crap out of its system soon, so we can have nice clear skies for the eclipse.

[subego]

Little hazy, but we might get a clear eclipse. 95% in Chicago.

[andi*pandi]

Not in the totality but probably going to go out for a walk at 330pm and see. We have one pair of special glasses.

[subego]

Totally clear! Not much luck with a photo

[Laminar]

I tried the eclipse glasses over the phone camera trick and got a little circle with a little nibble. Didn't really get dark here but it did get weirdly cold.

[andi*pandi]

I tried the phone trick w similar blurry results. Some people were at the park also with pro cameras and posted some pretty amazing shots to our town fb.

[subego]

It didn’t really get dark, but was on the edge of strange. Like a colorless near-sunset at the completely wrong angle.

[reader50]

CA was too far off the track to be worth the trouble. I missed it.

Was there any odd animal behavior?

[subego]

Nothing to report here.

[ShortcutToMoncton]

We got total cloud cover just a few minutes before totality. But then, complete darkness with a beautiful 360-degree sunset! Pretty cool.

[subego]

Where were (are) you? NS?

[Thorzdad]

I had never experienced a total eclipse until yesterday. It was so freaking cool. The moment right before totality, when it got super cold and the light was just...weird...was neat. But, watching the sun completely disappear, then whipping-off the eclipse glasses and seeing the corona was utterly breathtaking. An image I will never forget.

The “diamond ring” effect as the sun started reappearing was crazy intense. I’ve never seen such an intense, bright, and clear light like that.

Here in Indy, we didn’t get middle-of-the-night darkness. No sky full of stars. We almost never see many stars here, even on moonless nights, so I guess the lack of stars was to be expected? We did see Jupiter and Venus. All our neighborhood streetlights came on, too.

[Laminar]

We got up to about 83% totality. Didn't look dark or weird, but did get cold.

[ShortcutToMoncton]

Originally Posted by subego 

Where were (are) you? NS?

Southern ON. Got totality for just 3 mins.

[andi*pandi]

we were 93%, it did not seem dark or cold. Dogs did not seem bothered. The birds were a chatter though.

[ghporter]

I got wonderful video of it getting really, really dark here. Nothing really of the sun, since we had pretty thick clouds for most of the period of totality. I did get to see a “crescent sun” through the clouds - with my eclipse glasses, of course. Photos through the eclipse glasses show a bright spot in the middle, and since I did not get the chance to purchase a real solar filter for my SLRs, that was about the only way to even try.

We had at one point foolishly considered getting lodging in Kerrville or Fredericksberg to watch the eclipse, but room rates had exploded even as early as last October’s annular eclipse. The airport in San Antonio reported some stupid number of arrivals (something like 700k?), mostly people coming to join the crowds in the rural and “quaint” Texas Hill Country. They generated traffic jams on the order of hurricane evacuations, on roads that don’t see April 7th and 8th vehicle numbers in several years. We sat at the end of our driveway…

ShortcutToMoncton, where in Southern ON? I grew up in the Detroit area and spent a bit of time between Windsor and Toronto. The eclipse path was about as far southeast of my sister’s home in Monroe MI as it was northwest of mine in San Antonio, TX.

[Brien]

Originally Posted by subego 

It didn’t really get dark, but was on the edge of strange. Like a colorless near-sunset at the completely wrong angle.

Like CA forest fire weird?

~50% here. AKA weird shadows.

[ShortcutToMoncton]

Toronto area. We travelled to get into the path. Niagara/upstate NY got a pretty direct hit.

[ghporter]

Thanks for the update.

I’ve been sort of cataloguing places I’ve been - not as much a travel diary as a list of locations - and I was recently working on my family’s summer trip to Toronto in 1978, so southern Ontario was kind of near the top of my mind.

[subego]

I’d love to visit urban Canada.

Right before high school I went canoeing in the wilderness(ish) for a week. Didn’t enjoy it much. Partially due to callowness, partially due to not being athletically up to the task.

The fresh northern pike was my favorite memory, but I was extremely hungry.

[ShortcutToMoncton]

I mean it’s a fairly short drive or an even shorter flight….

[subego]

I don’t really travel. No companion, and I don’t like taking time off of work.

Those last two are related.

[Laminar]

I always say that the best vacation I ever took is when everyone else in my house left for a week. The dog and I hung out and fixed stuff in the garage and watched movies and it was awesome.