Weather Reports | Deer Canyon Folks.org

It’s a Small World UPDATED

Tue, 07 Feb 2012 07:46:24 -0700

We’re in the fog this morning, and there’s frost on the ground, shrubs, & trees. At 7:45 am, a whopping 26°.

This time last year we were finally back in the 20s again after flirting with 30 below.

So, today is better!

UPDATE: Alan thinks what I called frost is actually a very very light snow.

Dry Spell

Mon, 30 Jan 2012 21:27:19 -0700

Finally into the La Niña pattern.

And, we hit 60° today.

Oh well

Fri, 20 Jan 2012 13:16:03 -0700

Weather reports will be sparse for a while.

I broke my left wrist this past Tuesday, falling on a patch of ice. Will have surgery on Monday. Prognosis good, but typING is tricky.

Especially since my kitten keeps trying to assist.

If there’s big weather I’ll ask Alan to post.

Time out for now.

January Rain

Mon, 16 Jan 2012 07:07:39 -0700

It’s been raining off & on all night. It’s raining now. Yard & driveway are darkened and damp looking, but I don’t see any puddles, so it’s not raining that much. So far.

Still, it’s nice to know the water devas haven’t forgotten about us, but were merely letting us dry off a bit.

Way behind the times

Wed, 11 Jan 2012 09:51:50 -0700

We had a couple weeks of melting, mud & drying out after Christmas. Then we had some snow this Sunday past. It looked like it could be a serious storm, but here at Happy Camp we scored only an inch of accumulation, enough to cover all the exposed dirt but not enough to make much mud this week. Yay!

I probably have lots more to catch up on, too, but I came down with a post-holiday cold & don’t have the focus to remember what all I’ve missed. I very much hope that was a coherent sentence, just not sure right now.

But I do know I’ve been putting off weather blogging because I got behind. So now I’m not behind.

White Christmas — updated

Fri, 23 Dec 2011 07:33:49 -0700

Oh hey: it’s snowing. Snowed nearly all day yesterday, too. Alan’s best guess is — brace yourself — 18 inches so far (and keep in mind that it is still snowing). It was windy late yesterday, so there are big drifts all over the place, which is why that’s Alan’s best guess.

Let’s see. It snowed Sunday & Monday past. Then Tuesday & Wednesday we had temps in the mid-30s, so unfortunately we were back to mudville. At least right now it is nicely cold, down in the teens.

UPDATE: That’s 18 inches on top of 6-8 inches left over from Sunday/Monday snowing, which itself was on top of a bit of snow. I lived in Iowa for 14 years but I never had to deal with this much snow on the ground at once. Well, it was southern Iowa. But still...

More Winter - updated

Mon, 19 Dec 2011 06:55:41 -0700

Yes, we had both rain & snow last week. But the snow wasn’t very much and we spent Thursday through yesterday with warmer temperatures during the day — enough to make life a muddy mess. Which is still better than a drought winter, by a lot. Our DCP roads aren’t too bad, thanks to our road heroes. The county road could use bunches of help, but it won’t get it anytime soon because ...

Yesterday afternoon fogged/clouded up. Last night around 11 pm there were thunderstorms. Then overnight the temperatures dropped and we have snow, lovely snow, covering everything again. Right now (7 am) the temperature is just 32°, and since we Happy Campers need to head into town this morning I hope it stays there!

The previous snow/rain/snow had left 1.3 inches of water in my rain gauge. We are nicely damp so far this season. I know it’s more hassle for Roy & his team, but I hope this keeps up.

UPDATE: 7:30 am, and it is snowing very prettily! Big fat flakes leisurely descending. Temperature is still holding steady right at 32.

Welcome precipitation

Tue, 13 Dec 2011 00:06:54 -0700

Even if we end up with bunches of mud, this is good: it’s been raining all evening. Presumably we’ll get snow before the night is over. Yay!

Dining by Candlelight

Tue, 06 Dec 2011 09:31:47 -0700

Last night, due to the 2-hour power outage that started around 5:30 pm. Solar flashlights & lanterns, candles, a gas stove — we were all ready. But it was an interesting moment when the lights flashed off, on, off, on, off... and then stayed off. Good reason to have power supply back-up for the computers too.

Today, all very bright, except the mountains are still hidden in clouds. What we can see of them is quite white!

Oh, but cold. Just below zero at dawn, and now we’re all the way up to 10°! At least there is not much wind. We’re having winter!

Blue Dawn

Mon, 05 Dec 2011 07:40:40 -0700

Maybe 8 inches overnight, snow still coming down steadily, some wind, lots of snow in the forecast.

At dawn, with the clouds so thick and the snow everywhere, all the world was a pale blue. Good morning for cocoa on the sofa! We’ll see later about tea on the porch. The index today might end up something like: all clothes, thimbleful of tea.

We received about 8 inches in the first snow (Friday night), but that was pretty light stuff and packed down pretty well. Also our heroes plowed, and the county apparently plowed Beginning Road too, so we were able to get out on Saturday. Then about another inch of snow Saturday night. But this current snow is the big one!

The Return of Vistas

Sat, 03 Dec 2011 11:14:01 -0700

Magnificent Manzanos:

Toward Abo Pass from Happy Camp:

Click photos to view full size.

The morning after

Sat, 03 Dec 2011 09:36:09 -0700

Views from the porch:

As you can see, vistas are still short-range, but boy are we sparkly!

Also, no wind. That is always appreciated!

Early Winter — Updated

Fri, 02 Dec 2011 16:25:59 -0700

The wind, thankfully, has gone wherever it was going. We did receive a dusting of granular snow overnight. Then it warmed up to around 30° early this afternoon, and the deck and steps were very slippery from the slightly melted tiny bit of snow.

Now it is snowing actual snowflakes! And at 4:15 pm the clouds are so thick (actually have been all day) that it is quite dim outside already.

The longhorns just came by and gobbled down anything that still had a bit of green on it. Siete especially found the 4-wing saltbush to be quite tasty. Yay!

Updated, 9:30 pm: about 6 inches out there so far!

Okay, I take it back

Thu, 01 Dec 2011 17:48:39 -0700

That wasn’t stormy last Friday. Today is stormy.

Well... today is windy and getting windier and chilly and getting chillier. Maybe today is simply the promise of a real winter storm. Stormy-promise.

You should have seen the lines at the check-out at B Street Market this afternoon! Although, Edythe did say that once the snowing starts then the store will really be crowded and she seemed to find it amazing that so many people wait until the storm actually arrives before stocking up.

Not us. We’re ready to stay home for the better part of a week if we must. But I do not believe we’ll need to do that. At the same time, I like to be as encouraging to heavy precipitation as possible, so we are all ready.

Can you tell I can’t think clearly today?! What an incomprehensible ramble.

Stormy

Fri, 25 Nov 2011 12:55:50 -0700

A quick 2/10 inch rain earlier this morning, a spurt of rain just now. Cloudy (hidden mountains), in the low 40s, and quite a change from the very pleasant weather we had been having.

We had 1/10 inch of rain overnight early last week (either Sunday night 11/13 or Monday night 11/14) that I forgot to post about.

Other than that, we have had clear dry days. Earlier this week we were even in the 60s in the afternoon.

This morning’s tea on the porch index: polar fleece sweats & polar fleece sweater, allowing one comfortable but not leisurely mug of tea.

I may try to make the tea on the porch index more “systematic.” Or not.

Anyway, happy post-Thanksgiving & I hope you didn’t overeat yesterday & today the sun is most definitely not out!

Pre-Winter has begun

Sat, 05 Nov 2011 11:23:52 -0600

This morning at early tea on the porch time, I passed up going outside because even though the temperature was a balmy 46°, it was also raining and breezy, with the result that the porch was all wet.

The rain turned into a thunderstorm, followed by sleet, then snow. In all we got 2/10 inch of rain here.

Meanwhile, the temperatures dropped to 33°. Now we are drying out, it’s 37° out there, and I finally had tea on the porch: standing, 3/4 mug, with polar fleece shirt & a sweater, and a cap. (I’m thinking I need to standardize the Tea on the Porch Index somehow. I’d like to end up with a number. It could even be a ridiculous number; I’d just like a number.)

We have blue skies with clouds, too. A chilly but beautiful day here, typical pre-winter.

Young Bucks

Tue, 01 Nov 2011 11:52:33 -0600

Our friend Diane took some photos of the young bucks as they visited our yard yesterday morning:

Let’s see if the water hole is still here.

Belly up to the bar (notice his small fuzzy antlers).

Two can play that game!

Just browsin’ around.

The Tea on the Porch Index remains unchanged: one full mug, long-sleeved t–shirt with polar fleece vest & hat.

Slightly breezy, clear, 50s — a beautiful day on the Preserve!

Tea on the Porch Index

Mon, 31 Oct 2011 11:10:32 -0600

Today we are producing a new feature of this (so intermittent) blog:

The Tea on the Porch Index

We anticipate that the Tea on the Porch Index will be most useful during the colder months. That is, now.

The Tea on the Porch Index consists of 2 measures:
1: how much clothing &
2: how much tea!

The amount of tea gives you an approximate time, as tea is always taken in a leisurely manner, and sitting, unless specifically noted otherwise. One proper mug of tea drunk at a leisurely pace requires about 15 minutes.

Today’s Tea on the Porch Index is long-sleeved t–shirt with a polar fleece vest and 1 full mug of tea.

As I am sure you have already realized, the Tea on the Porch Index is highly subjective. It is not intended to be taken as science!

But I think it will give you an idea of the comfort level for morning tea on the porch.

Important contextual information: my porch faces the mountains and is therefore shaded in the morning. Also, the prevailing New Mexico breezes are from the west and northwest, which means they blow onto the porch in question. The Tea on the Deck Index, if it existed, would have entirely different results, as the deck receives morning sun and is sheltered from breezes by the house. Just so you know.

Proof

Thu, 27 Oct 2011 08:18:31 -0600

This morning’s view, about 7:20 am. This is the mesa. I didn’t bother with a photo of the Manzanos, because they weren’t there.

And, a view of the porch:

Tea on the porch will be conducted standing up today. But first, as it is our first snow day of the season, cocoa on the porch!

It’s snowing!

Wed, 26 Oct 2011 22:33:44 -0600

Not sticking yet. That is anticipated to happen overnight, though. We had thunderstorms earlier, with some rain, some hail, and bunches of lightning. Interesting weather day!

I think I forgot to mention it earlier, but we got just under 1/2 inch of rain overnight in early October. I think it was the Friday night 10/7 to Saturday morning 10/8, but since I forgot to write it here I might be off by a day either direction.

Just so you know.