A couple of decades ago, there was a huge brownout that affected much of New England, but we were fine. Maine's power grids remained working, as we produce more power than we consume, I think, given the hydroelectric dams along our rivers. Immediately after the brownout, rather than taking a bow for the strength of Maine's power grid, there was a push to connect Maine to the same power grid that had so drastically failed. Although we were told it was to strengthen our grid, no doubt it was so that the other - more important - parts of New England would have access to our power grid in the event of another failure. I'm sure some money exchanged hands, as well. Ever since then, our power is apt to go out if the wind blows, or if it snows, and particularly if both are going on at the same time. We have a power dam practically in our town limits, yet people in Millinocket pay to have power delivered from Bangor, seventy miles away, as the power we generate here goes to Canada, along with most of the trees that are harvested.
I woke up this Christmas morning to find nearly all of our snow gone. It's raining, as predicted, and it's windy, although not nearly as windy as they said it would be. It may get worse.
I don't know what the actual temperature is today, and looking it up would be just far too much work, but it feels pretty warm today. I was out in the backyard for quite a while with a T-shirt on, and I felt fine. However, it can't be more than the lower to mid-30s, because the snow and ice don't seem to be melting. Still, we don't have that biting cold that we've had required a while now, what feels like warm weather. I'd go swimming but the ice is too thick.
Yesterday it was 70 degrees at our apartment. That is some 15 degrees above normal, but I sure hope that nobody here expects that kind of weather to last. We know it won't, because we lived here before, but last time, we were south of Denver. However, the local weather forecasters are talking about a winter storm hitting us this coming weekend. IOW, snow and perhaps plenty of it. Oh well, this is Colorado, not Florida!
-10 F. this morning, but it is warming nicely. The days have been spectacular recently, with long daylight on pure white snow. Normally the weather begins to warm here in the first week of March, but so far it is still cool. I saw someone post that northern Russia and Norway are having a record cold winter. We had some cool temps here, but nowhere near records. I think the coldest we saw this winter was -30 F., far from a record for this location. We had a moderate December followed by a long, cold January and February. Long stretches of cold weather but no severe weather.
Our nice weather/temps are about to come to an end. Weather forecasting models, not yet totally "on spot", are saying we could get a very good amount of snow. Won't really know more until Thursday/Friday. Will get snow, but how much.............. I very well could be going to get my #2 Covid 19 vaccine in snow coming down. But, have to get it.
We were predicted to get a major storm tomorrow, but it appears they have moved the prediction to tonight. We'll see....
It got up to 70° today. Long-term forecast says I won't have to fire up my wood stove (overnight lows below 40°) until Saturday night. Then the yo-yo of our spring begins: freezing nights/warm days.
+20 F. and 6 inches of new snow. I have been on the tractor clearing this morning so my wife can get to church. She is scheduled to babysit a grandson at noon, so I hope roads are clear by then. Her car is in the garage and she should be able to get out of the driveway, but between here and the main road is questionable. Youngest son and family are supposed to be here for supper...we'll see if we get more. NWS had a storm advisory out for 4 to 7 inches of new snow, then they cancelled just as we were getting snow. They revised the forecast from 4-7 " to "less than an inch" of snow. We had 3 inches on the ground when they forecasted leas than one. Anchorage reportedly got over a foot.