So far so good. We got some rain. They still say more is on its way. But by noon today here at my place I have 3.56 inches of rain. I sure hope my weather station is correct. But its nice to get rain. We desperately need it. They do say we have more on the way tonight, and more for tomorrow. So let’s hope they are correct. We need it.
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The cold is back
After a couple of niceish days of weather, the cold came roaring back. We didn’t have much of great weather, it didn’t last long. But last night we got back down to low 20’s. This morning, it is still in the mid 20’s, like 27. With any luck we’ll get into the 40’s, even if only just barely today. But tonight should be back down to freezing. Tomorrow is not much better. It may not even make it to 40 tomorrow. But at least it also shouldn’t get below freezing tomorrow night either. So that should hopefully be better weather.
As for next week, starting Monday they say rain. The forecast is 95% chance of rain. I watched the news yesterday and they said possibly 2inches of rain from the storms that will be coming in. If their predictions hold any truth, we could get rain Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, maybe a break Thursday, then possible rain next Friday. That would do us some good.
In addition, the weather will warm up. Monday may be in the 50’s, with Tuesday in the 60’s. At least that means it will be a warmer rain, not rain and 40 degrees – that’s a cold rain.
But it means here we may have a warm couple of weeks. Other parts of the country have been dealing with more ice, snow, and cold than we have. There was an article in the news about a football game in an open stadium. It was so cold fans were treated for hypothermia and frostbite. With the changes in weather that have been occurring, both cold and heat, you have to wonder how wise open stadiums are. At one time, maybe they were okay. But now with how weather has changed, I’m not so sure what will happen with open stadium.
Its easy to say people should bundle up and dress for the weather. But there is always the possibility of someone that thought they were prepared for the cold but underestimated what it could do to them. Its not lack of preparation, but maybe lack of experience. Things to think about.
Warm up day
It was a cold start to today. I got up at 7am due to, well I’m not sure what. But the outside thermometer said it was 10 degrees outside. It’s not just after 1pm and we’ve made it up to 41. Its still cold out there. Any little breeze still registers as cold. Not the best day for a walk.
The forecast says tomorrow should hit a balmy 66. Now I don’t know if that will be a warm 66 or a cool 66, but I’m betting on the latter. But tomorrow night will still be below freezing.
But make no mistake, tomorrow may hit 66 but the day after is back into the 40’s. And we’ll stay there thru the weekend. But next week we should hopefully pull ourselves into a warm up and get into the 60’s. Considering this is central Texas, prolonged cold can be an issue.
I recently read an article about why in this area we are told to keep water dripping. This would be unheard of in other area. But it appears the reason is in part due to our building codes. The article I read mentioned that in areas where it regularly gets cold, pipes are buried deeper underground. For instance, here in central Texas water pipes may only be buried 12″, 1 foot, deep. That means a prolonged cold could affect those pipes. Also here in my house I have 2 faucets on outside walls. The article I read mentioned that pips in other area with prolonged cold bury their pipes much deeper, and don’t put faucets on outside walls. If that’s true, if you bury pipes 5 feet down, they would probably survive prolonged cold better than pipes only buried 1 foot down. Interesting things you have to learn in different areas of the country.
One other hopeful bit of news is that next week, starting Monday we may get rain. I say may since you never know if any one particular area will get the rain, nor how much we will get. But at least it will be warmer and rain. I’d rather that than have rain in cold weather, then get colder weather and have it turn into ice. Ice is never fun to drive in. And I don’t walk my dog in ice. So my dog should be able to get back to daily walks as the weather changes.
Still cold
They say today will be the last day of this cold spell. We shall see if that holds true. Granted, it was warmer than it had been. We actually just hit 32 here at the house. So it was not what you call warm, but it was warmer than it has been. Tomorrow the forecast is for 44, but first we have to make it thru tonight. I put it that way because one weather site suggests we could hit a low of 9 briefly before sunrise tomorrow. That will be cold, reeeeeaallllllll cold!
But overall I think we’ve weathered it well. The power outages I’ve heard of have all been minimal, not a lot of people and not for a long time. But then again, that’s only for the central Texas area. Other areas could have experienced outages I haven’t heard of.
But dog and I seem to be surviving the cold okay. I found an infrared thermometer gun in the garage. I’ve been using it to check the temperature around the house. Granted, the floor is a couple of degrees colder than one foot up from the floor. I have a metal statue and the infrared gun can even tell the difference in temperatures of the metal. That area that sits on the floor is colder than the area 12-18″ off the ground. That’s kind of interesting to know. But, overall the house is warm enough, just don’t sleep on the floor just yet (my dog has been on the couch). It’s cold down there.
As for dog, he wants to go on a walk, but not until the weather warms more. Yes I have coats for him, but not booties. He never took well to booties. Not all dogs do. He does got out numerous times in order to do his business, and there’s been no accidents in the house. But he goes out, does his thing, then comes right back in. I can’t say I blame him.
More cold
As of 10AM it was 21.4F at my house. I love having a weather station in my back yard!! But it is that cold. The forecast is now a high of 32, and hopefully we will make it there. As of now, almost 3pm, its only gotten up to 23 degrees. So we are just plain cold and I’m not holding my breath on the 32.
The latest forecast puts us in freeze warnings until 10AM Wednesday, today is Sunday. I hope it doesn’t last that long, but who knows.
On the upside, the heat pump works. It has kept the house at a comfy 70F, where it was set at. Yes, I should probably lower the temperature, but I wasn’t even sure what I would have to do to keep the house warm. The good news is I didn’t have to do anything. I got up at 1AM (don’t ask!) and it was still comfy here in the house. I didn’t have to manually put it into emergency mode. So I’m glad to say the house works as best as I could have hoped for at this point. Yes, its still possible that the heating bill for this month may be high. But I would expect with this cold that the charges will be at least a bit higher.
But so far so good surviving the cold. I haven’t built a fire in the fireplace, but I do have the wood if I want to.
The cold man cometh
Once again Texas, and central Texas is in line for cold. The cold this time includes a high today (Saturday) of 62, which I’ve already hit here at the house. Here’s what is coming per Weather.com.
Now I don’t know how cold it will actually get, but I do know that the weather station here at the house registered 28.6F at 11:38 last night.
Now for me, its an issue since this house, new to me, has a heat pump for heating the house. My thermostat does not have a setting to automatically turn on emergency heat when the temperature is too low. Or does it? Well, I don’t know. The good news is last night even with the low temperature outside the house maintained its warmth.
What I’ve been told is that if it gets too cold outside, the heat pump can’t/won’t work efficiently. Apparently there is an emergency heat option available on a heat pump. It’s what you are supposed to use when it gets too cold. Some thermostats are supposed to automatically change to emergency heat when it gets too cold. But I don’t know if that’s true for all thermostats. So I don’t know if mine does. But last night worked well, let’s hope that tonight it works well too. And of course the next few days may be more testing of the system.
It may also let me know if this house was a good choice or not. I know it passed its inspection with minor things to fix. This cold will let me know if there are things it passed, but could be “improved” (isn’t that a nice way to put it!).
UPDATE: It’s 10:15pm and down to 31F already. It will be a cold night.
Short cold front
Well, we have a cold front coming in. Yesterday we had wind, today we were about 15-20 degrees colder. Tonight it is 8pm and my weather station says we are 36 degrees. I had the honor of taking garbage outside, and I can admit it is cold. Some areas have freeze warnings. I believe them.
We did have a cool/cold day, reaching mid 50’s. But it is definitely cold, and due to get colder tonight. Tomorrow at least we should be a bit warmer. We might be 10 degrees warmer during the day and be mid 30’s at night.
So the good news is Autumn is definitely here. Even the trees are cooperating and the Bradford pear trees have turned red. It’s been a lovely sight.
The nice part is the daytime weather this week should stay in the 60’s. So it feels lovely outside. Just cool enough to want a sweater. So much nicer than the heat this last summer. But I do admit the weather right now is comfortable.
Let’s see how the rest of autumn and winter go.
It is cold out there
Yes, the cold front did come in! And it is here! WOOOOOOO
Since this morning we’ve been sitting at a nice balmy 39 degrees, with some light rain, and definite wind. Baby, it’s cold outside.
Surprisingly, the actually forecasts haven’t changed that much. They are still forecasting a high of 48 with a low of 34 tonight. Not that much different than what they had said before. And the next two days are highs of mid 50’s with both nights a low of 29. So it is definitely cold. The rain is only forecast for this morning, then it should be sunny days.
But we did get a cold front. And with the wind outside jackets are required. I’m not talking jackets are just a nice idea, the wind child is a cold 29 out there. Anybody that can not get out of the wind and doesn’t have a jacket is in trouble. This will last a couple of days so if you are outside the next couple of day, take care and dress appropriately.
And depending on which are you are in, some areas are looking at freezes, not surprising.
The cold front arriveth
It is Sunday morning, the day our cold front arrives. How cold will we actually get remains to be seen. But the high for today was probably seen around midnight. This morning its in the 50’s, with high humidity, and a slow drop in temperature already.
The forecast right now says we have a chance of rain this afternoon, and I think it might happen. It might not be much rain, but we’ll take what we can get. But right now the forecast for tonight’s low ranges from 37 to 40. But from Monday thru Wednesday the lows vary more widely.
This table shows what I’ve found, always subject to change. It shows the website then the highs for Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, then the lows for the same three days.
| Website | High – Mon., Tues., Wed. | Low – Mon., Tues., Wed. |
| Temple News | 44, 56, 54 | 37, 28, 28 |
| Weatherbug | 44, 54, 55 | 42, 39, 42 |
| Wunderground | 44, 56, 56 | 36, 28, 28 |
| Weather.com | 45, 57, 55 | 37, 28, 28 |
| NOAA | 45, 55, 55 | 39, 34, 34 |
So what temperatures will we hit? I don’t know. But it will be a definite change from what we have had.
But it sure does feel good to walk outside in the cool weather.
I’ll keep you posted.
And the rain continues
I woke up this morning to a dark outside, at 9 AM, that looked much later than it was. It actually looked dark, turn the lights on outside dark. Luckily it began lightening up shortly thereafter. And the even better new – my weather station said we had 1.75 inches of rain since midnight. So we are getting rain. As I walked my dog on the wet road, I could see a few, okay just a few, blue spots in the sky. Now, at almost noon, those blue spots are harder to find. The sky is a blanket of clouds. More rain is expected today and over the next few days. I’m glad I fed my lawn before the rain began.
On a different note, the weather forecast for this weekend and early next week is growing colder. That above freezing night time temperature is dropping. The forecast for Monday is high of 44, low of 37. Yet Tuesday (Halloween) is now 51 for a high, and 31 for a low, but at least no rain. And next Wednesday, the start of November is also 51 for a high and 31 for a low. Will that actually happen? We shall see.
Hopefully this rain we had and are continuing to have will help our lakes and reservoirs fill back up. We can hope.