What happened to Winter???

It's been snowing for a few days, tomorrows high of 15 will as warm as we'll have for the last 5 days of the season. Going out in the morning and a couple more times on the big lake before it's over. After that heading down to the finger lakes for a few day once this cold spell breaks. Maybe this cold will push some birds south for you guys
 
Jersey is poised to get a MAJOR cold front starting tomorrow through new years day including a major snow storm friday and I have to work everyday but friday. I really screwed up my time off requests this year
 
We improperly assessed the weather yesterday. Family obligations had us here in Maine for Christmas Eve, and needing to make a trek down to Marblehead, MA to my sisters for Christmas Day. That's usually a 2.5-3.5 hour drive depending on traffic. We spent much of the afternoon chopping ice to clean up after the ice storm so my mother-in-law could get out to the car in a wheelchair. After dinner, I was just too tired to face the drive to Mass.

We had a snow storm predicted, but it looked we could dodge it and get south of the rain/snow line before things got bad Christmas morning. We left at 6 am, dodged a few heavy snow squalls around Portland, and thought we were on the other side with the sun breaking through the clouds by the time we hit the NH state line.

We pulled over for a gas/breakfast stop, and came out to a raging blizzard. Newspaper accounts this morning said that snowfall rates near the Mass/NH border approached 5 inches per hour. I don't know if we hit that, but we did hit the heaviest snow I've ever driven through. We even had some thunder snow. Visibility was down to where you could only see about 50 feet in front of the windshield. Route 95 was closed by an accident north of Boston. Thank goodness for phone navigation apps, which alerted us to the closure and re-routed us on unplowed back roads from Newburyport to Marblehead. Once I was off familiar roads, I never could have navigated with the visibility as bad as it was. Reading road signs was just impossible. Siri and the WAZE app got us there in style.

The whole trip ended up taking almost 6 hours, but Christmas dinner was worth it.

And let me put in a hearty plug for the winter driving capacity of a Hyundail Elantra with good snow tires. I was seriously impressed. We watched all kinds of vehicles sliding all over--and off--the road, but we never even slid around a corner.
 
Wow that’s sounds like a real adventure. Glad you made it safely.
 
TimJ said:
-15 f this morning...nuff said.
Click to expand...

Yep, Dec.27th now -16 F here in Iowa this morning. Supposed to warm up and snow, then drop back down to -8 F by the weekend. Ducks and geese are all in the open waters below the dam.
 
We won't hit 50 today, or tomorrow.
Another front is blowing through tonight, should be a good day on Saturday.
 
Should make for good ice fishing (if you have a shelter to sit in with the heater running full bore!)
 
Carl said:
Should make for good ice fishing (if you have a shelter to sit in with the heater running full bore!)
Click to expand...

I have the shack and heater but I'm not doing it. This weekend it's going to be even colder. At least it will get up to 8 today. Over the weekend we will be having highs below zero. We still had some open spots in lakes last Thursday, now by the time I make it out we will probably have a foot of ice.

I'm hoping to get one or two more days out after pheasants before the season closes. Looks like after new years the temps should go back to normal.

Tim
 
Well, it's pretty cold here in Southern New Jersey, with a high of around 20 today. The Delaware Bay salt marshes are locking up quick, glad I went yesterday. The 10 day forecast doesn't show much relief coming, and I may have made my last trip for the season unless something changes.
 
Well,
The deep freeze pretty much locked us out for the last day hunt. Boohoo...
Guess it is time to start planning and refitting for next season. Maybe find an outfitter for Snow geese in Western NY or Jersey for the spring. Anyone have any names they could recommend?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top