Category — Florida

Finally, after two days, the temperature moved above freezing. It hasn’t reached 40°F yet, but the ‘sugar coating’ has melted from the landscape and the sun is shining.

Tomorrow it is supposed to reach the 60s and stay there all day, so I may finally warm up. I noticed that the three points on the Quest trail are all in single digits, so a somewhat normal winter has returned.

The activity on the blog will increase since I can take off the mittens for extended periods now.

The Yukon Quest has changed the trail in response to the effects of the recent ‘heat wave’ in Alaska and the Yukon.

The start was moved from the Chena River to Second Avenue in Fairbanks. The river is not considered stable enough to support the teams and spectators. Snow will be hauled in to cover the road for the start.

The finish has been moved from Whitehorse to Takhini Hot Springs, about 18 miles North, as there is no snow in Whitehorse.

For the second year in a row the trail over the American Summit is impassable, so the trail has routed around it.

The changes has reduced the length of the race to just over 900 miles from the normal 1000 miles.

In local news, the bridges, airports, schools, and government offices are closed and will remain closed until noon tomorrow at the earliest, which is anticipated to be the soonest the temperature will get above freezing and melt the ice that coats everything.

There are no plows, salt or sand trucks, snow tires – hell, there aren’t even windshield scrappers down here. I had to break the ice to open the garbage can which has a frosted flake look to it.

The local emergency management officials and government agencies at all levels took this storm seriously, so we haven’t had the mess that Atlanta is experiencing. People are staying home and off the roads, realizing that with the bridges closed you can’t go anywhere.

What Is It?

[Editor: The body is approximately 1 inch long. I’ve never seen anything like it down here. It is a brighter red than the picture makes it seem.]

Update: Hipparchia has identified it as a Milkweed Assassin Bug [Zelus longipes]. It is not fully mature so the wings are just beginning to come out on its back between the middle and rear legs. It ‘assassinates’ all the right things [mosquitoes, flies, caterpillars] so it is a welcome addition.

All day yesterday we had drizzle – it was in the 50s, but constant light rain.

Today it has been fog and the temperature has been climbing – 52° at midnight last night was the low, and 64° at midnight tonight will be the high. That isn’t normal. The silence from the lack of heaters working is deafening after having them run constantly for so long.

I wonder if there is anywhere left where the weather works normally?

The Arctic Vortex has gone home after an unwelcome visit to the US. If it doesn’t come back for another 20 years, it will be too soon.

People down here are dealing with frozen or busted pipes, but we have been spared so far from reports of house fires started by space heaters.

I saw a number of the feral cats today, so they had someplace to hang out. I’m planning some better solutions if they still have the big plastic storage boxes on sale.

We’re back to our normal sixties to forties winter weather.

The BBC is reporting that Antarctic ships escape from ice trap as weather changes. Both the Akademik Shokalskiy and the Snow Dragon are moving after a wind shift broke a channel in the ice. The Russian captain anticipates that the Chinese ship will catch up and pass his vessel and provide a clearer path to the open ocean.

Locally, it got above freezing for about an hour today at about 3PM. It didn’t get above the former record low temperature for this date until noon. The new record is 18°. Mobile, Alabama has a new record of 14°.

Inside an igloo it is 32°. A single candle will raise the temperature 8°. All of my heaters only manage to raise the temperature in my house by 30°. The windchill is in single digits [the middle one].

It’s tough typing in mittens, but the gloves aren’t warm enough. Fortunately I still have some winter gear, unlike many people in the area.

The temperature started dropping after midnight and leveled off at around 27°F at sunrise. It was above freezing in late morning and early afternoon, if you ignored the windchill, which you couldn’t. The air temperature dropped below freezing again around 6PM and is headed for 20° or lower by sunrise tomorrow.

I spent some of my time telling the people in the apartments my Mother manages to remember to leave the water dripping tonight so the pipes won’t freeze. Hopefully that will help, because plumbers are going to be busy tomorrow.

It looks like we will be in freeze conditions until Thursday, but the winds are forecast to taper off.

Current weather advisories for the Northern Gulf Coast:

… Wind Advisory in effect from 9 PM this evening to 6 PM CST Monday…
… Freeze warning in effect from 4 am to 10 am CST Monday…
… Hard freeze warning in effect from 9 PM Monday to 10 am CST Tuesday…
… Wind Chill Advisory in effect from 9 PM Monday to 9 am CST Tuesday…

Just grab your mukluks and parka and head on down to see the Gulf of Mexico through the frost-rimed windows of an inadequately heated condo. You need to find a way that doesn’t involve crossing a bridge or using an overpass, because they will be coated with ice and no one here knows how to drive on ice.

Tomorrow the temperature is supposed to reach the mid to upper 60s, which is helpful, because Monday night through Tuesday morning, the temperature is forecast to drop into the lower 20s.

So Sunday will be spent moving and covering plants, and installing the tent over the water garden which also provides a warmer place for the cats to hang out.

The camellia by my Mother’s front door is already putting out blooms, and they will be destroyed, as will many of the more tropical plants in the area. These swings are maddening. You can’t do any long term planning because you don’t know from day to day, much less week to week whether you will be sweating or freezing.

The crew on the Chinese icebreaker and Russian research ship have more reliable weather than the Northern Gulf Coast.

You may find tender parts missing in the morning.

This was in the Local Puppy Trainer, but they have gone New York Times with a paywall, so no link.

The local Congresscritter, Jefferson Beauregard Miller, has been besieged with complaints from the retired military community in the area who have figured out that the budget deal just passed in the Republican-controlled House is going to reduce their retirement pay.

These are the same people who donated money and votes in 2008 to make Sarah Palin Vice President, and, unkindest cut of all, in 2012 they supported Ayn Rand Paul Ryan for the job. They actually believed that loyalty like that would protect them from harm.

An old sergeant of mine made the point that ‘Republicans like the toys, it’s the Democrats that support the boys’.

Some people never learn that if you want love and loyalty, get a dog at the shelter, don’t expect it from Republicans.

Yesterday we tied the high record for the date, 77° F, then late last night/early this morning the wind shifted and the temperature dropped 30°. It was cold on Friday, record tying warmth on Saturday, and cold on Sunday.

We now have a bipolar climate on the Gulf Coast that can’t decide what it’s going to do.

Via Digby the latest on the Marissa Alexander case.

Ms Alexander has been granted a new trial and been released on bail, but we still don’t know why she was charged or convicted of assault.

These are the undisputed bare facts of the case: during a confrontation with her husband Ms Alexander fired one round into a wall in her kitchen.

Her husband had been convicted of domestic violence for attacking earlier. She had an active restraining order against him. She had a valid concealed weapons permit.

From my perspective as a former law enforcement officer I don’t understand why this went to trial. She was in her home, and the husband was violating a judicial order even being there. The state had already proven he was a threat to her. This is a classic self-defense situation, made even more clear cut by existing court records [i.e. you don’t need to believe her about her husband being a threat, the courts said he was].

Ms Alexander was given “a 20-year prison sentence under the state’s mandatory minimum sentencing guidelines because she had fired a gun during the assault.”

Her husband wasn’t hurt in any way in the incident, but Ms Alexander was given 20 years in prison for firing a warning shot.

Of course it makes no difference to this case, but another undisputed fact is that Ms Alexander is an African-American. [/sarcasm]

The Pennsylvania bloggers, like Susie Madrak and Noz have been whooping about their governor, Tom Corbett, being rated the least popular governor in the US, beating out Florida’s fraudster-in-chief.

Hah, that’s nothing, Charlie Pierce notes the fraudster-in-chief is so unpopular with Republicans that he can’t find a running mate for reelection.

Lieutenant Governor in Florida is a $125K no show job unless the Governor decides to make you work. There are a lot of unemployed people in the state, so you would think it would be easy to find someone willing to apply. [/snark]

It’s cold again and windy. I can attest to that because I spent most of day, when it wasn’t raining, helping a friend fix an underground water pipe.

In olden times, about 4 years ago, it would have been about five minutes after the hole was dug, because you would simply put a rubber-lined saddle clamp over the break and tighten the bolts. The clamps were under $10 bucks, and the hole didn’t need to be very big to install one. As that was obviously too easy, they stopped carrying saddle clamps around here, so we had to enlarge the hole and install a union after cutting the pipe so we could get it on. Hours, it took bloody hours kneeling in damp sand, having to enlarge the hole to get leverage with tools and fit the parts together while hoping we weren’t breaking anything when we put stress on that pipe.

In the midst of that, I had to leave to take someone to an appointment, and then bring them home to get something and take that back to the office. The instructions weren’t clear for the first appointment, but at least that got finished.

The pipe seems to be fixed, but fortunately it is not going to freeze tonight while the pipe is surrounded by wet sand.

Cat blogging will be late because the cats are in hiding from the cold.