Weather forecast: Snow!

North Carolina Watches and Warnings

URGENT - WINTER WEATHER MESSAGE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE GREENVILLE-SPARTANBURG SC 4:05 PM EST MON DEC 31 2007 …WINTER STORM TO IMPACT THE NORTH CAROLINA MOUNTAINS…A COLD UPPER TROUGH AND AN ASSOCIATED COLD FRONT WILL APPROACH THE SOUTHERN APPALACHIANS MONDAY NIGHT…WHILE A STRONG SURFACE LOW DEEPENS OVER THE GREAT LAKES. THE FRONT WILL PASS THROUGH THE WESTERN CAROLINAS AND NORTHEAST GEORGIA EARLY TUESDAY…BRINGING IN MUCH COLDER AIR. LOW LEVEL MOISTURE WILL WRAP AROUND THE GREAT LAKES LOW AND INTO THE NORTH CAROLINA MOUNTAINS FROM THE NORTHWEST. THIS WILL CREATE A PROLONGED PERIOD OF COLD TEMPERATURES…GUSTY WINDS…AND SNOW LATE MONDAY NIGHT THROUGH WEDNESDAY.

From AccuWeather.com

4:05 PM EST MON DEC 31 2007
…WINTER STORM WARNING REMAINS IN EFFECT FROM 12 PM TUESDAY TO 6 PM EST WEDNESDAY…

A WINTER STORM WARNING REMAINS IN EFFECT FROM 12 PM TUESDAY TO 6 PM EST WEDNESDAY.

SCATTERED SNOW SHOWERS WILL DEVELOP ACROSS THE NORTH CAROLINA MOUNTAINS EARLY TUESDAY…INCREASING IN COVERAGE AND INTENSITY BY TUESDAY EVENING.

STORM TOTAL SNOWFALL AMOUNTS OF 4 TO 7 INCHES ARE EXPECTED ESPECIALLY IN THE HIGHER ELEVATIONS AND ON NORTHWEST FACING SLOPES. SOME LOCALIZED AMOUNTS OF AROUND A FOOT WILL ALSO BE POSSIBLE…ESPECIALLY ALONG AND NEAR THE TENNESSEE STATE LINE IN THE HIGHER ELEVATIONS.

STRONG NORTHWEST WINDS OF 25 TO 30 MPH…WITH GUSTS OF UP TO 45 MPH…COULD ALSO CREATE CONSIDERABLE BLOWING OF SNOW IN AFFECTED LOCATIONS. THE COMBINATION OF STRONG WINDS AND COLD TEMPERATURES WILL ALSO CAUSE WIND CHILL VALUES TO FALL TO BETWEEN ZERO AND 10 BELOW EARLY WEDNESDAY ACROSS MUCH OF THE HIGHER TERRAIN.

A WINTER STORM WARNING MEANS SIGNIFICANT AMOUNTS OF SNOW AND BLOWING SNOW ARE EXPECTED. STRONG WINDS AND DANGEROUS WIND CHILLS ARE ALSO POSSIBLE. THIS WILL MAKE TRAVEL VERY HAZARDOUS OR IMPOSSIBLE.

We’re not in the higher elevations, and right now the temperature is almost 60 degrees and the sun is shining.. this could be interesting, we haven’t had a big snow here in years!

Rain, and an amazing sky

After two days of much needed rainfall and even a few heavy thunderstorms yesterday, the weather finally cleared and the sun came out today. Our rain gauge shows that we received about 3 and a quarter inches of rain since Christmas day! This is the most rain we have had here in months! Being in the midst of the worst drought in history for our area, this much rain is indeed a blessing for us. The grass and the trees all look green and refreshed, and for the moment, the creeks are flowing and are fuller than they have been in a long time.

I was outside late this afternoon, checking the rain gauge and just enjoying the sunshine, when I looked up at the bright blue and long wispy white clouds and the sky was -filled- with rainbows! I have never seen anything like it. There was a huge wide, perfectly formed rainbow in the center of the sky (nowhere near the horizon), and several smaller rainbows at different spots. It was amazing. I watched for several minutes thinking it would disappear at any second.. but it didn’t. The rainbows kept shifting and fading away, and then returning. I ran inside and got my camera, and of course the batteries were dead from Christmas, lol… I got new batteries put in and ran back outside, and the rainbows were still there. (Click any of the photos to enlarge.)

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I didn’t have a lens with a wide enough angle on my camera to capture them all at once, but in some of the photos below, you can see two and three separate rainbows. At times, there were 6 rainbows visible at once, spread out across the sky. The largest one would darken in color and then fade away to nothing, then return even brighter. It was absolutely beautiful. At one time there were two rainbows visible, with one inverted over the other, forming what looked like an elongated oval shape. To the left of that, there was a large prism-colored rounded shape in the sky.

I have seen a double rainbow before, but never a half dozen rainbows at once, all turned in different directions in the middle of the sky! It was truly an awesome sight. The rainbows just kept fading and returning, and I watched them for over an hour! According to the time stamps on my photos, the first photo was taken at 4:27pm and the last one was at 5:21pm, so this wasn’t just a momentary phenomenon. In fact, all together I took 169 photos! lol I looked up for so long that my neck was stiff when I came back inside… lol

I had a polarizer lens on my camera, and adjusted it several times while I was taking the photos to try and capture the colors. The first photo below was taken with the polarizer turned to darken the sky to maximum effect. When I finally came inside and downloaded the photo, I was somewhat disappointed and frustrated that the camera really didn’t capture the vibrancy of the colors, and I wish I had had a wide-angle lens on… but still, you can see some of what I saw in the following photographs. At one point, the clouds looked like rolling ocean waves. Several jets also passed over during this, and the vapor trails from them just added to the drama in the sky. Click any of the photos to enlarge.

_{all photos have been reduced for smaller file size}

Christmas 2007

_{Photo collage, our Christmas 2007. Click to enlarge.}

Merry Christmas

Christmas tree

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Our tree is decorated in pink and burgundy sparkle, with white lights and clear glass ornaments. There hasn’t been much time for blogging lately.. but, all the shopping is done, the decorating is done, and most of the gifts are wrapped and under the tree. :)

Jericho returns, season premiere

Yay! Jericho will be back soon! CBS has finally announced the date for the new season premiere and the new weekly time slot for the second season of the show. From the official cbs website:

Jericho: Season Premiere
Tuesday, Feb 12 10pm ET/PT

In response to one of the most unprecedented displays of fan support, JERICHO is back for its highly anticipated second season. Catch up on last season’s action and join the Jericho message boards to chime in on the new season.

From: cbs.com

Official Jericho site

Official statement from CBS Entertainment:

Dear Rangers,

We have some exciting news and wanted you to hear it first. Later today we will announce Jericho’s return to CBS’s primetime schedule. Seven new episodes will be broadcast on Tuesdays at 10:00 PM, ET/PT beginning Feb. 12.

We hope you will rally around the new episodes of Jericho with the same passion and volume you displayed this summer to bring the show back. The writers and producers have crafted an exciting second season that picks up immediately following the battle with New Bern, as the town begins the rebuilding process, and along the way discovers why their small community is so important to the newly formed government, and what the true intentions of this new government might be.

In success, there is the potential for more Jericho, but we will need your help to recruit new viewers. For your friends or family who have never seen the show, the entire first season can be seen on CBS.com, or on the recently released Season One DVD set.

On behalf of everyone at CBS, thank you for your continued support of Jericho.

Sincerely,

Nina Tassler
President, CBS Entertainment

Source: Jericho Message Board