Weather Reporting: January 15

Sunday night we had snow and quite a bit of it. That’s a good thing, because before that there was just a piddly layer of snow and it looked like the ski hill might remain closed for the whole season.

The new snow meant I spent time yesterday shoveling. Don’t feel sorry for me; I feel the same way about shoveling as I do about mowing the lawn. It’s vigorous exercise, you do it in the fresh air, and it is, for the most part, a mindless, repetitive job, which means there’s opportunity for thinking deep thoughts. And compared to more southern snow, our snow is usually light and fluffy and kind to the back muscles.

I like to shovel in spurts throughout the day, half and hour or so at a time, because after a bit even my deep thoughts get a tad boring. I intended to finish up yesterday right before supper, but I got ten minutes in and had to stop. I was downright cold. 

While I wasn’t watching the weather channel, the temperature had dropped to -27C. (Around -20F for backward thinkers.) Here’s a screen shot of the temperature throughout the past 24 hours, kindly sent to me by Chris, fellow Yukoner, but born and bred.

 

You’ll notice that the temperature was -18 (or 0F) at noon.  That’s a little chilly, but if you dress for it, it’s not that bad, especially if you’re active. Throughout the day, however, the temperature was dropping, bottoming out at -32 at 1AM, and then rising, rising, rising to a balmy -25C by the time I woke up this morning and continuing to rise so far today, reaching -13C (9F) right now as I write this at 3PM. Chris tells me our lowest temps are usually around 9AM, right around sunrise, so this weather pattern is a little quirky.

 

When I drove up the hill into my little subdivision around 10PM last night, the furnace smoke was all flowing downhill toward me. Yep, the smoke was not rising from the chimneys, but flowing immediately downward. I’m guessing there was a temperature inversion and a shallow one, something that is a common winter weather phenomenon for us.

 

That would also explain why the midnight flight landed in my bedroom. 

 

Other weather news:

• Violet says the Vancouver area is rainy, rainy, rainy, as usual.
• Islandsparrow commented yesterday that there was “[a]nother Nor’easter on the way to the east coast.” She promised to post pictures from PEI as soon as they recover from the blast. Update: Here are photos of Islandsparrow’s walk in the new snow with the pets.
• Update: In the UK, Ann’s weather today (Wednesday) is bright and sunny.
• Update: Jeanie experienced snow for the first time on “New Years day while I was in Ohio! I’m from Texas and we don’t get snow…at least I don’t call it snow! It’s more like freezing rain! I shoveled snow while I was in Ohio…just off the sidewalk!”
  

You can join in this month’s weather fun, too. You’ll find the details for participating here, and if you send me a link to your weather related post before tomorrow (Wednesday) morning, I’ll add it to this post. If you send it after that, expect to see it in this coming Friday’s weather report.

Sunday's Hymn: God's Immutability

I suppose I’ll just carry on with hymns that teach something about the various attributes of God. We’ve looked at hymns that featured God’s eternality and his infinity, and today’s hymn from Horatius Bonar teaches us about another (but still closely related) characteristic of God—his unchanging nature. 

That God is immutability ensures his faithfulness to us. We can count on the lasting peace we have with him because he is unchanging.

I Hear the Words of Love

I hear the words of love,
I gaze upon the blood,
I see the mighty sacrifice,
And I have peace with God.

’Tis everlasting peace,
Sure as Jehovah’s Name;
’Tis stable as His steadfast throne,
For evermore the same.

The clouds may go and come,
And storms may sweep my sky;
This blood-sealed friendship changes not,
The cross is ever nigh.

I change—He changes not;
The Christ can never die;
His love, not mine, the resting-place;
His truth, not mine, the tie.

My love is oftimes low,
My joy still ebbs and flows;
But peace with Him remains the same,
No change Jehovah knows.

More on God’s immutability:

• God’s Immutability
  

Other hymns, worship songs, etc. posted today:

• O Sacred Head, Now Wounded at joythruChrist
• The Collect for the First Sunday After Epiphany at Magic Statistics
• Jesus Loves Me at The Happy Wonderer
• Lord’s Day 2, 2007 at The Thirsty Theologian
  
• And Can It Be at Hiraeth
  
• The King of Love My Shephed Is at Seasoning of the Heart
• I Lift My Heart to Thee at Whatever Things…
• Will Your Anchor Hold at Home, but not alone

Have you posted a hymn this Sunday and I missed it? Let me know by leaving a link in the comments or by emailing me at the address in the sidebar and I’ll add your post to the list.

Weather Reporting: January 11

Here’s what’s up in this week’s weather posts from around the world.

• Pam in Pennsylvania has an interesting post on the January thaw, with a short explanation of the weather pattern behind it, and a lovely quote about it: “The January thaw is special because it opens Winter’s door a crack just when it seems that the ice has locked it tight….”. Pam also reports that Pennsylvania’s January thaw is over.
• Kim reports that it’s still muddy and wet and gray in Chicagoland, and a dog’s patients patience (sheesh!) for paw wiping only goes so far. 
• Mummymac reports from Northern Ireland that this morning there was “low lying mist, the type that chills right through to your bones!” She also links to an interesting weather site.
• From the UK, Ann writes that it is still wet, and probably going to get even wetter.
• Carla in Ontario is enjoying a January thaw. Well maybe enjoying is not the right word for something that melts all the snow, sends 3 inches of water into the basement, and rips trees out of the ground. 
• Fawn sent me a link to a post by fellow Yukoner Murray Lundberg that piggy-backs nicely on my post about hoarfrost. Did you know that hoar frost can cause power outages? Me neither.
• I posted a poem from George Herbert titled The Storm.
• Rosemary has a photo the view of Pike’s Peak (that’s in Colorado) from her of her snowcovered backyard.
  

You can join in this month’s weather fun, too. You’ll find the details for participating here, and if you send me a link to your weather related post before tomorrow (Saturday) evening, I’ll add it to this post. If you send it after that, expect to see it in this coming Tuesday’s weather report.