Freezing Fog

And of course it's winter.

This morning is the third consecutive one featuring a freezing fog.

Generally a freezing fog is cold but pretty, and kind of nice because there's usually very little wind. That's how the last two mornings were, and they were great!

The lack of wind was especially nice and made for a pleasant workout outing.

This morning there's an uncomfortable bit of wind driving a light snow. Not as pleasant.



In this part of the world, the High Plains of the central U.S., we enjoy four distinct seasons. At present we're bang in the middle of winter. On the calendar winter begins just before Christmas and ends just after St. Patrick's Day, and in many ways nature seems to follow the program. We do tend to have cold and snow in late autumn and early spring, but the real cold and the bulk of the snow come in the winter.

Although winter weather can be unpleasant here, it's not always unpleasant. January is our coldest month, but over the last 126 years the average daily high temperature is 40.3 and the low is 13.4. Our warmest January days during that period averaged 50.8 during the hot drought year of 1935, and the coldest January nights averaged -1.8 way back in 1930. This year (2019) the January daytime high averaged 44.13 and the overnight low 17.84. So roughly 4 degrees warmer than the long term average. We had a high of 61 for the month and a low of -7. Not an atypical January at all, and bookended by a December that was about 4 degrees colder than average and a February that's likely (according to forecast) to be cooler than average as well.

In other words, it's winter. It can be cold and unpleasant and ugly.

It can be warm(ish) and very pleasant and strikingly beautiful.

All in the same week!

We're supposed to see minus 10 overnight, and if the forecast is correct we reached the daily high of 16 degrees just after 5 a.m. It's 13 right now (8 a.m.) and is expected to keep falling, along with 3-5 inches of new snow.

Winter.