Festus

At least sleet sounds cool. (Um, nah. Just grasping at straws here.) Congrats to our north and west neighbors though.

Definite lull here at the moment. Visibility near 1 mile. Guessing a little rain mixing in. Steelers at Ravens starts at 4:30. First half could be amusing until the back edge moves through.

23 accidents on Lanco 911 Incident list at the moment. WTF, guess 1/4" of snow is just too much to handle for some folks.

Digital blue overhead but flakeless. 31/27 so probably imminent and no evap cooling.

Ah yes, the old WWA Consolation Prize for Lanco. Kinda like winning $4 in Powerball but at least it's something.

So I fired up the snow blower for the first time in nearly 2 years in anticipation. Guaranteed kiss of death every time. Sorry guys, next time I'll wait.

And as a total aside, today is Perihelion Day. As such, we receive 6.8% more solar radiation compared to Aphelion. Hope that doesn't cause precip issues this weekend .

So I watched Weather World last night where they do the weekly PA extremes in terms of high and low temperature and weekly snowfall. Cashtown was the highest total in the entire state with 4.7" officially. Congrats! Click on the 1/30 show. around the 5:00 mark. https://pcntv.com/weather-world/

A little quiet on the weather front so FYI, next Wednesday, January 4th, the Earth will be at its closest point to the sun (perihelion). When the Earth is the closest, it is also moving the fastest. As a result, winter in the northern hemisphere is roughly 4.5 days shorter than summer. Just another reason why this snow season better get a move on. Clock is ticking. https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5335287

I would be hard pressed to remember going from 55 to 0 to 60 over a ten day period.

And a possible 60 handle New Years Day? Crazy stuff. Hope there's not any damage resulting from the rapid cycle of temperature contraction and expansion.

FYI, Millersville record low daily maximum temperature for Christmas Eve is 19. Looks like they have a shot at that one. And another Millersville interesting one is Christmas Day in 1983 only reached a high of 8. Holy crap, that was one chilly Christmas for around here.

Just took a run on the PA Turnpike traffic cams and did not see any appreciable snow. It is even partly sunny near Tuscarora. Anyone getting any accumulation?

Looking at WU sites, low 20's just west of Chambersburg. Upper 30's in Carlisle. So still a ways from Harrisburg.

Then there's this...

41 degrees, 0.35" in the bucket and all signs of earlier coating gone. Not really looking forward to the next 2 days. Congrats to those hanging in there with anything frozen.

So remember when I said a relative moved from here to Wyoming last year? This was from this morning...

First flakes of the season here.

I have relatives who moved from here to northern Wyoming last year (what were they thinking?). Their forecast low is -28 Wednesday night and a Wind Chill Warning with values down to -50. It's cool to experience weather extremes but, um, no.

Hey Itstrainingtime, you keep pretty good records for these parts, how many pre New Year shutouts have we had? Can't be many.

32.5 here. Roads totally fine. Light accretion on trees and power lines.

As I'm fond of noting, today is the earliest sunset around these parts. By the time we get to the solstice, sunset will be about 3.5 minutes later. The latest sunrise will not occur until January 4th. And to really be the life of the party, next Wednesday, the 14th, is as close solar noon (sun at daily zenith) and clock noon come to coinciding. The difference will only be a few seconds. During Daylight Savings Time, solar noon occurs around +/- 1:00 PM. So if we eliminate Standard Time, next Wednesday will be the last time the two will ever coincide.

NYZ010-011-171630- /O.CON.KBUF.LE.W.0005.221118T0000Z-221120T1800Z/ Northern Erie-Genesee- Including the cities of Buffalo and Batavia 328 AM EST Thu Nov 17 2022 ...LAKE EFFECT SNOW WARNING REMAINS IN EFFECT FROM 7 PM THIS EVENING TO 1 PM EST SUNDAY... * WHAT...Heavy lake effect snow expected. Total snow accumulations of 2 to 4 feet in the most persistent lake snows. The heaviest snow is expected late this evening through Friday night when snowfall rates could exceed 3 inches per hour. Winds gusting as high as 35 mph with produce patchy blowing snow. Now I love a good blizzard but I'm afraid I'd have to pass on this one.

Radar looks feisty. Any first flake reports out there?

The place was absolutely packed. Tough to find parking but what a sight. So I had on a drag racing shirt and this older dude wanders up and starts chatting about racing. He had on jeans and a denim shirt with 611 on it. I'm thinking this guy is hard core. Next thing I know, he was in the drivers seat! What a thrill it must be to operate something like that. And to keep the post relevant, what an absolutely wonderful weather day. Was there for 3 hours and never needed the coat.