2017: World-wide weather watchers

Shanazel

Moderator
Oh, the poor thing. I take it you don't have a lot of poisonous snakes there?

Only venomous snake in this part of Wyoming is Crotalus veridis, prairie rattler. Down on the Colorado/Utah border there is a Crotalus concolor, faded midget rattler. What I've seen in our yard are brown garter snakes and bull snakes. Seen more of those already this year than I've seen in the last two or three years. But we haven't seen any field mice in the yard or garage this year!
 

Ariadne

Well-known member
I just wanted to mention the people being affected by Hurricane Harvey. There's not much that I can personally do but they are in my thoughts and prayers along with everyone else that will be affected this hurricane season. Lets hope Harvey is the only bad one this year.
 

Shanazel

Moderator
We finally heard from all friends and family in the area and all are above water with relatively minor wind damage with the exception of a friend's brother who had four feet of water in his house in Houston. One transplant from Wyoming remarked that she'd experienced high wind before but was flabbergasted by the sheer volume of water. The relatively low number of deaths is remarkable and might be lower except that people persist in thinking they can drive through what are essentially rivers. I spent a significant portion of my childhood in areas affected by Harvey and do not miss living in hurricane country.

On a more cheerful note, I finally identified the small brown garter snakes in the yard: wandering garter snakes or Thamnophis elegans vagrans.
 

Shanazel

Moderator
The weather is pretty pleasant here, typical for late summer/early autumn, but the smoke from fires west of us is astonishing. I don't think we've had this much smoke since the Yellowstone fires in 1988. It has been so bad that at times we can't see even the foothills of Casper Mountain, never mind the mountain itself, and I live in the foothills. Given the severity of this year's hurricanes and fire season, it's a good thing global warming is just "false news" or we'd really have a mess. ;)
 

Daimona

Moderator
This is a weather report from Hell, Norway:
Partly cloudy, partly sunny. 17°C, which is quite nice and pleasant. No precipitation and no wind.
Traffick runs smoothly as well. #Ontheroad
 

Shanazel

Moderator
Autumn has arrived here. Some of the mountain roads are closed by snow but we've just got cloudy skies and rain predicted for today. My cousin and a friend are coming up this afternoon from Texas where temps are still in the 90s. Don't know whether they'll welcome this weather or go into season shock.
 

Ariadne

Well-known member
Probably shock.

Autumn is here too which means temperatures are finally below 100, windy, with some light showers (very light). I think if I saw snow right now though I would just stare at it in disbelief.
 

Daimona

Moderator
September have been unusually dry, but also quite pleasant. Mostly nice temperatures and a lot of sun.
 

Shanazel

Moderator
On Wednesday, my cousin and her friend made it back to Texas sans frostbite. We had snow one morning. Here on the ridge it melted about as soon as the sun hit it but it hung around on the mountain for considerably longer. Lots of rain and low clouds all week but we had a couple of nice days. Wind tonight with lows below freezing predicted for the rest of the week. Highs in the 50s/60s. Antelope season is here and elk season is just around the corner.
 

Shanazel

Moderator
Wow, I figured that far north you'd have had several snows by now. Shows what I know about Norway. We've had at least two and maybe three or four. I've already lost track of the little ones; I know there have been two storms that dropped 6-8 inches. Pretty and clear today but chilly due to a 20 mph wind that drops the 50 F (10 C) temp down to 43 F (6 C). Think I'll wear a coat instead of a sweatshirt when I take the dog to the river today.
 

Daimona

Moderator
Wow, I figured that far north you'd have had several snows by now. Shows what I know about Norway. We've had at least two and maybe three or four. I've already lost track of the little ones; I know there have been two storms that dropped 6-8 inches. Pretty and clear today but chilly due to a 20 mph wind that drops the 50 F (10 C) temp down to 43 F (6 C). Think I'll wear a coat instead of a sweatshirt when I take the dog to the river today.

There have been snow further north and further south, just not where I live. And weatherwise this autumn has been quite nice around here (not warm, but dry and not too windy). Southern parts have been flooded a couple of times already.
 

Shanazel

Moderator
Bright clear day here, about 50 degrees but the 25 mph wind makes it feel considerably colder. Weather predictions change minute to minute here so no telling what it'll be like tonight. This place is a meteorologists dream and nightmare combined. Though they like to correctly predict the weather, I think meteorologists love the duel between scientific predictions and the fickleness of the weather. It's like the cowboy who never wants to draw a completely predictable bull or bucking horse because such an animal would lose him points on the ride. (Complete disclosure: my brother has a degree in meteorology and was an avid storm chaser in his youth; my son rode bareback events in the rodeo. They're both nuts.)


Thought about going out and doing some yard work but will probably go off to the stable and continue to detangle my mare's tail. She got into the cockle burs a couple of days ago and is an unholy mess despite a couple of de-burring sessions. Vet is coming Friday and I'd rather Star didn't look like a stray who has been out on the range too long.
 
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