Brrr!

That huge storm system that’s plagued us with high winds over the last two days has finally moved away.  Things are still a little breezy, but nothing like we’ve seen over the last 48 hours.  However, on it’s way out, it ushered in some very cold air – coldest we’ve seen all season. Today our high is just 46, but we’ve also got a wind out of the north at 10-20mph, gusting to 30 mph. When I got up at 8:45 (alarm actually went off at 8, but I laid in bed until 8:45), I checked the temp outside. It was 40 degrees and felt like 32 degrees with the wind at 17mph. Brr!  By the time I left my apartment at 11:45 to walk to the bus stop, it was only 43 degrees and felt like 35 degrees.  Brrr!  It’s now nearly 1:30 and we’re still at just 43 degrees and it still feels like 35 degrees.  We’re about 8-10 degrees below normal for both today and tonight. Our low tonight is 26 degrees, but given that our skies are going to clear out, it wouldn’t surprise me in the least if we get colder than that.  But we’ll be back to 50 degrees tomorrow and up to 60 degrees (and sunshine!) on Saturday.  Things drop off a bit and we spend next week in the 50’s – which is pretty normal for the end of October/beginning of November.  Within about two weeks, we should see our first nighttime snowflakes.  By Thanksgiving (or just thereafter) we should see our first daylight flakes (or half-frozen crap).  Usually in December we’ll see a couple 1-3 inch snowfall events.  But our big snowfalls and the bulk of our snow totals come in January/February/March.  However this is a La Nina year, which means anything that can happen usually does happen when it comes to winter. Let me explain. Winter of 2000-2001 was a La Nina year.  By the time December was over, we had 4+ feet of snow on the ground.  All of it fell in December.  Several major snowstorms.  Of course, we had next to no snow the rest of the winter. Winter of 2007-2008 was another La Nina winter.  Prior to that winter, the snowfall record was 76 inches and change.  The normal snowfall was about 45-48 inches.  That winter, we ended up with just over 100 inches of snow!  Winter of 2008-2009 was another La Nina winter.  That winter, we ended up with 77 inches of snow.  So here in the Midwest, La Nina tends to wreak havoc on winters.  The biggest thing that happens is that the Gulf of Mexico seems to be open for business. Typically (but not always) for us to get large snowfall amounts, the storms have to tap into gulf moisture.  So this could definitely be an interesting winter.

I have quite a bit to take care of over the next several days. Tonight I have to go home and study for my Civ Pro midterm that’s tomorrow. It’s all multiple choice and it’s open book. It also doesn’t count, but I want an idea of where I truly stand in the class.  So tomorrow we have the midterm and then we’re going to take about 50 minutes to go over it.  Following that, I need to work on BLR Assignment 4.  I doubt I’ll get it all done tomorrow afternoon if I want to ride the bus back to my apartment. If that’s the case, then I’ll drive over on Saturday morning/early afternoon and finish it then.  I am hoping though to get it done tomorrow.  I also have to do my research for Memo 2 and put together my list of cases that I’ll use for it.  We have to turn in a list of cases we’re going to use on Monday morning.  So that means a lot of my weekend will be devoted to research.  I also have to take care of all the normal weekend homework to prepare for Monday.  In addition to that, I’ve also have to figure out when I’ll read Contracts for Wednesday, since I’ve got another pdoc appointment on Tuesday afternoon.

It also wouldn’t hurt if I did some laundry this weekend and picked up my apartment. It’s a bit of a mess.  The bathroom floors, along with the kitchen floor, could also do with a mopping.  Not sure when I’ll get to it though. Oh well.