The "S" word...

[High octane]

Looks like I'll be chasin' the Toro again real soon, but this time it'll be the lawnmower. YAY!

[Harry P.]

Well, I'm going to cautiously declare winter OVER. As I type this, it's 92 degrees here!

[crazyjim]

92??? WOW!! I was in Madison, WI over the weekend and it was cold and wet. I think the warmest it got was 52.

We flew from Tampa to Detroit and then Madison. When landing and taking off, I was waving to you George53. Hope you saw it.

[Harry P.]

92??? WOW!! I was in Madison, WI over the weekend and it was cold and wet. I think the warmest it got was 52.

We get some crazy temperature swings here in the midwest, especially in early spring. It's not uncommon for the temp to vary 30-40 degrees from one day to the next. The "normal" daily high temp for this time of year is only the mid 60s... so we're way above "normal" today.

[oldnslow]

I was talking to my son-in law about the weather he was going back to, on the way to the airport, ( he works in the oil fields in North Dakota) and he was telling me in one of his conversations with an old timer up there, the man said he had seen snow in every month of the year!

Edited May 9, 2014 by oldnslow

[High octane]

The "S" Word could also mean summer. no?

[Joe Handley]

The "S" Word could also mean summer. no?

Or storms, got to drive from St. Charles to West Chicago, then on to Westmont in one yesterday.

Edited May 12, 2014 by Joe Handley

[Danno]

Lots of "S" in Denver yesterday!

[High octane]

Better the Denver area than the Midwest, in my book.

[Harry P.]

The "S" Word could also mean summer. no?

Not in Denver.

[1930fordpickup]

I have cousin in Albuquerque NM . She posted on FB, it was 38 and they had snow ! I told her it was 86 and sunny up north in Michigan .

Crazy Year !

[Pete J.]

So Cal is back on another one of it's crazy weather cycles. Temps in the high 80's low 90's and winds at 5 mph with gust to 50 or 60. I'm hiding inside until this backs off a bit.

I was just looking at the weather charts from NOAA and we have this pattern of the Jetstream dipping further south than normal at this time of year. I comes down the west coast and makes a U-turn over Arizona/New Mexico and cuts across the US. As it moves east it catches the edge of the gulf and is dragging moist warm air north in front of it. These have been very strong and energetic jets

that are pushing storms in front of them. If this trend continues and the jet stays this far south we are in for as crazy of a summer as the winter. FYI a jet stream is considered winds over 50 mph so technically we have the jet on top of us here today. Not really good for us is some idiot lights the brush off.

Edited May 13, 2014 by Pete J.

[Harry P.]

The other day the high temp here was 92.

The forecast high for this Thursday: 55.

[Pete J.]

Well dang! The 'S' has turned to smoke. No word what has happened but there is a 700 acre fire burning in the middle of town. There are a lot of canyons and hillsides that are surrounded by houses. Those areas have brush in them and it is burning. So far, the firefighters have contained it in the canyons but it is burning within feet of homes. The main area that is burning is Rancho Santa Fe. Average home price is well over 2 million. I can see the clouds of smoke from my house. A shift in the wind from the south and we could be in trouble. This is one of our worse nightmares in SoCal. Worse that earthquakes. Weather over the next couple of days is not suppose to help. High winds and temps in the 90's.

Edited May 14, 2014 by Pete J.

[High octane]

Sorry to hear that Pete as I know that wild/brush fires are very common in California. Not a good thing when a house goes up in flames, and probably just as bad as a tornado leveling a house.

[Harry P.]

Seems like we all have our own cross to bear... wild fires, tornadoes, hurricanes, earthquakes...

[Pete J.]

Ok, not this is getting ridiculous! Fire from yesterday is 70% contained but four new fires have popped up. I took this video about 30 minutes ago from a hill top just south of our house. When the video opens our house would be in the middle of the frame about half way up. As I panned to the right just pass the second fire, you can see a new fire just starting to the left and below the second fire. The last fire at the far left of the pan just consumed 20 houses and is still burning. You can hear the wind blowing. It is down from the peak but is still blowing at 20 to 30 knots.

Edited May 14, 2014 by Pete J.

[Pete J.]

Oh, my!!!! This photo is taken from my house. This is just below where I shot the above video. This is a new fire and it is really burning hard now. It is just above Cal State San Marcos and they have evacuated the school. This is getting really nut's.

[Harry P.]

ok, now that is getting a little too close for comfort.

[crazyjim]

Not a good thing Pete. The houses look to be pretty close to each other. Hope everything will be OK. We had 1/2" of rain last night and I wish I could send it your way.

[High octane]

We also got a good soaking last night, and the good thing is that I was able to cut the lawn yesterday afternoon for the first time this year. My 20 year old Toro still works, yay!

[Craig Irwin]

We have a frost warning for Saturday morning.

[High octane]

Keep the frost by you Craig, as my better half already did her spring planting. Thanks!

[Harry P.]

From today's paper, believe it or not:

Staff report

6:30 a.m. CDT, May 16, 2014

Wet snow is falling in the West Suburbs.

"Yup, it's out there. May 16th," said National Weather Service Meteorologist Ed Fenelon. Wet snow might mix with rain and graupel (tiny white snow pellets) for a short period of time this morning, he said. No accumulation is expected, Fenelon said. Snow was reported this morning by WGN-TV near Interstate 355 and Roosevelt Road and by the National Weather Service near Sandwich and Dekalb.

Officially, at O'Hare, only seven times has a trace amount of snow fallen after May 16. The latest was June 2, Fenelon said. The records go as far back as 1884.

[High octane]

None here Harry, and I'm goin' outside to photograph our flowering crab apple tree this morning. Guess you'll have to keep your Impala in the garage a bit longer, no?