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49 States Dusted With Snow; Hawaii's The Holdout

I want my blog to be a history of our family for my kids, so here is a news article I thought was interesting about the weather today.

A new record of 12.5 inches of snow in a 24-hour period was set at Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport (11.2 on Thursday) -- and flakes were still coming down after midnight. The previous daily record was 7.8 inches on Jan. 15, 1964, and Jan. 14, 1917 and the previous 24-hour record was 12.1 inches.


February 12, 2010
by The Associated Press
Forget red and blue — color America white. There was snow on the ground in 49 states Friday. Hawaii was the holdout. It was the United States of Snow, thanks to an unusual combination of weather patterns that dusted the U.S., including the skyscrapers of Dallas, the peach trees of Atlanta and the Florida Panhandle, where hurricanes are more common than snowflakes.

More than two-thirds of the nation's land mass had snow on the ground when the day dawned, and then it snowed ever so slightly in Florida to make it 49 states out of 50.

At the same time, those weird weather forces are turning Canada's Winter Olympics into the bring-your-own-snow games.

Who's the Great White North now?

"I'm calling it the upside-down winter," said David Robinson, head of the Global Snow Lab at Rutgers University in New Jersey.

Snow paralyzed and fascinated the Deep South on Friday. Snowball fights broke out at Southern Mississippi University, snow delayed flights at the busy Atlanta airport, and Louisiana hardware stores ran out of snow supplies. Andalusia, Ala., shut down its streets because of snow. And yet, Portland, Maine, where snow is usually a given, had to cancel its winter festival for lack of the stuff.

Weather geeks turned their eyes to Hawaii. In that tropical paradise, where a ski club strangely exists, observers were looking closely at the islands' mountain peaks to see if they could find a trace of white to make it a rare 50-for-50 states with snow. But there was no snow in sight.

Hawaii's 13,800-foot Mauna Kea volcano, which often gets snow much of the year at its higher elevations, is the most likely place in the 50th state to have snow, but there "is nothing right now," said research meteorologist Tiziana Cherubini at the Mauna Kea Weather Center. It has been a few weeks since there has been snow in the mountains, and none is in the forecast, ruining a perfect 50-for-50, she said.

The idea of 50 states with snow is so strange that the federal office that collects weather statistics doesn't keep track of that number and can't say whether it has ever happened. The office can't even say whether 49 out of 50 has ever taken place before.

Snow experts at the Global Snow Lab were combing their records but said it may be days before they find out if there has ever been a 50-for-50 snow day. Their best suspect — Jan. 19, 1977 — had snow in Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Georgia, but then Robinson looked for snow in South Carolina and couldn't find any.

As of early Friday morning, 67.1 percent of the U.S. had snow on the ground, with the average depth a healthy 8 inches. Normally, about 40 or 50 percent of the U.S. has snow cover this time of year, Robinson said.

It snowed for only 10 minutes in Century, Fla., just north of Pensacola, barely enough to scrape a few snowballs from the hood of a truck. But that was enough for 6-year-old Kaleb Pace.

"I've only ever seen snow on TV till now," Kaleb said, smiling.

This is after a month that saw the most snow cover for any December in North America in the 43 years that records have been kept. And then came January 2010, which ranked No. 8 among all months for North American snow cover, with more than 7.03 million square miles of white.

The all-time record is February 1978, with 7.31 million square miles. There is a chance this February could break that. There is also a chance that this could go down as the week with the most snow cover on record, Robinson said.

Stay tuned. The weather pattern is in a snow rut.

At least in Washington, where snow is now measured by the yardstick, more snow may be coming soon. It looks like a little more snow on Monday and maybe a lot more about a week or so after that.

"As long as this pattern persists we have potential for additional storms," said Dan Petersen, lead winter weather forecaster at the National Weather Service prediction center in Camp Springs, Md.

To count as snow cover, snow has to stick on the ground and be recorded at special stations at specific times when meteorologists check, Robinson said.

The strange snowfall pattern is produced by the El Nino weather phenomenon and its Arctic counterpart, Robinson and Petersen said.

During moderate to strong El Ninos like the current one, more moisture is pumped into the subtropical jet stream across the South, increasing precipitation, Robinson said. Then there's the Arctic Oscillation, the Northern cousin to El Nino, which shifts cold polar air south. That cold air can turn a rainstorm into a snowstorm.

A snowy winter doesn't disprove — or prove — global warming, Petersen and Robinson said. This is weather, which is variable, not long-term climate, and there is a huge difference.

"This has nothing to do with long-term trends," Petersen said. "This is just a several-week period."

Patrick Marsh, who is working on his doctorate in meteorology at the University of Oklahoma, has been trying to collect photos of snow on the ground in all 49 or 50 states. After his effort was publicized, he was flooded with photos and videos.

"It just shows that deep down inside, all of us is a weather weenie, a weather fanatic," Marsh said. "This is just an awesome weather event."

Merry Christmas from the Whatcotts

Our family has had a great year, and we hope that your family has also. We wanted to share with you a brief review our year.

Drew turned 3 in June is absolutely full of energy. He rarely stops for a break from the time he gets up until he goes to bed. He loves cars: mostly Hummers and Corvettes. Loves to go for rides in Daddy’s Hummer, and look for more Hummers on the road. He has become our little train track builder and can build some awesome tracks with our train sets that we have. Drew is also the biggest animal lover in the family. When it is quite in the house it is almost guaranteed that he is in with the guinea pigs playing probably torturing them in his own loving way. He also started his first year of preschool this year and loves to learn.

Tyson turned 5 in October and is the family clown. It is common to see Tyson posing and making funny faces for his pictures. He loves to make people laugh and smile and is really good at it. Tyson has also learned how to play very proficiently on the computer, and that is one of his favorite things to do. He played his first year of coach pitch baseball. Because Troy was coaching he skipped T-ball and joined Miles team. Much to our amazement, he did great and really enjoyed playing with the big kids. Tyson is in his second year of preschool and loves school and is a great friend to the other kids in his group.

Miles turned 6 in March and inherited Troy’s creative genes. He loves to make invention, draw and work on projects. He loves school and looks forward to going every morning. Miles is very likable and knows everyone in the school. He takes after his Mommy and loves to read. He also played his first year of coach pitch baseball and did great. His team was undefeated for the season. He also learned to ride his bike without training wheels and loves to go riding with Mom.

Troy is as busier than ever. The down-turn in economy and slow down in pools and opened up some great opportunities. He has always had an interested in web design and designed several websites for us, and friends and has now turned it into a business. He designs websites and provides printing and design services for small, and start up businesses. He has also started an online security locks company and finds the quick process of lock sales a little refreshing to the process of pool sales. In his spare time he coached Miles and Tyson baseball team, designed us a new house and plays trains and legos with the boys.

This year Kristin took up a new hobby of bike riding. She starting riding and training to ride with her brother, Rod, in the MS150, and have just loved it. She is in two co-op groups that teach preschool to Tyson and Drew and loves to be involved in teaching her children. During the summer she started “field trip” days each week with a friend. The boys loved to see the sites of Dallas and Ft. Worth and now look forward to field trip days whenever there is a school break. In January she is going back to school to finish a few accounting classes so that she can get her CPA next year.

As a family we are all looking forward to our next move. In June we purchased some property in Aubrey, about 10 miles from our current house. Troy has designed us a new house, and is going to use his construction knowledge to oversee the construction of it as well. We are hoping to be moved up to the ranch by spring, and the boys can hardly wait. They love the open space of the ranch and ask to go there and check on it every day. We are very excited to see what new adventures our family will go on upcoming year.

We wish you a Merry Christmas and a happy New Year.

Nap Buddies

Drew is our animal boy!  He loves his pets.  He is the one that gets the piggie out everyday and plays with him and he is also Xena's best buddy.  He woke up from his nap this afternoon and wanted to be held, but I couldn't because I was right in the middle of fixing dinner so I told him he had to wait for a minute.  I look down and ran over to Zena and was laying on her. 

They are best buddies.  I guess Xena is a close second to Mommy can't.

10th Day of Christmas

On the 10th day of Christmas we went to Frisco Square to watch the light show.  They have a fantastic light shoe that lasts about 4 songs.  The city hall and surrounding building are decorated.  It is one our favorite stops during the holidays.

9th Day of Christmas

On the 9th day of Christmas we are going to make and take treats to our friends and neighbors.  We got the treats made, but it got to late so we didn't get them delivered.  I guess that we will do that another night.

8th Day of Christmas

On the 8th Day of Christmas we were going to take pictures with Santa. But like a of few of the other things that we have planned - that didn't work out.

We took pictures with Santa the other night at the zoo, and because I am a cheap Mom, I told the boys that I was going to pay again for them to talk to Santa. I wish that they would just let the boys go talk to Santa and tell him what they want instead of paying for it...oh well.

Troy decided that we should go to Bass Pro Shop. The boys love to go to Bass Pro Shop and Cabala's. They call them the "dead zoo" because of all the stuffed animals that they have around the store. When we got there the middle of the store was decorated like a winter wonder land.

They had the remote control trucks out to drive.

The guns out to shot.

We got to ride the carousel.

And then Troy topped it off by taking us to Whataburger for dinner. I have to say, that I have never eaten at Whataburger. I don't like their commercial, and I don't like how their building look, so I have never wanted to eat there. Troy loves their burgers. So, I finally gave in tonight and let him take the family to dinner. Actually, the burger was good.

I love this picture of the boys. Every time we give them drinks with straws this is the view that we see. I think that it is so funny, and finally remembered to get a picture tonight so I can remember it.