Chance today to break a 101-year-old record high temp

two words:

FLIP FLOPS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I thought for sure you were going to say: TANK TOP!!!!!!!!!!!

But wait, it's Ohio, temps back into the 30's by Friday! My daughter, who is 12, told me on the way to the bus this morning "Mom, I hate global warming and what it's doing to our weather". WOW, and to think that I've thought my kids don't pay attention to important things!

For today and tomorrow, I'm going to take advantage of being able to give the furnace a much needed break! The cost of LP is KILLING us this year!

It is 61 now. I'm going outside to take the Christmas stuff down and enjoy this weather while it is here.

Two words: Al Gore

Two words: Love it.

... who is 12, told me on the way to the bus this morning "Mom, I hate global warming and what it's doing to our weather".

That's because they don't cancel school when it's in the 60's.

I love the snow and cold of the Upper Peninsula of Michigan where the snow cover typically stays for several weeks. It's actually a bit unusual for the Toledo area to have continuous snow cover for more than a couple weeks at a time. Our normal winter (like what we've had since December 1) involves an up and down mix of snow, rain, warm, and cold. Sometimes it's zero outside with no snow on the ground. Then it warms up and rains. Then we get a few inches of snow and some cold. Then it warms up and rains. And so on.

If a Toledo winter just snowed and snowed and stayed cold for several weeks straight, that would be great. Otherwise, I like the South Carolina winter weather of today. We don't need a ton of snow. An inch here, three inches there, adding up to 8 to 12 inches on the ground over time. Something worthy of being called "Winter" like February 2007 and not the icy, slushy, freezing, and thawing crap we've had this season. It's only January 7, but it's already one helluva a winter season for potholes. Some killer craters out there.

The thing is, most of Toledo's precipitation in the winter is rain not snow. If we have a "real" winter consisting of mostly snow and cold for January and February, farmers start complaining about a drought in March.

A year ago, our winter didn't "begin" until the last Sunday of January when it snowed in the afternoon. It snowed a little more a day or two later. Then February got really cold, and we got about nine inches of snow from the Valentine's Day storm. Lake Erie that was open for nearly all of January froze over nice and thick in February, allowing ice fishermen to drive vehicles out on the ice. Once the snow and cold began at the end of Jan / early Feb, I don't think we saw our lawngrass again until early March. So we have plenty of winter time left for the weather to make us forget about today's record high temps.

One the warmest days officially recorded in Toledo for the month of January was 71 degrees on Jan 13, 1890. Maybe visiting professor Willard Gore held his candle too close to the thermometer bulb.

I declare the record broken. It is 65.3 degrees Fahrenheit at the Historymike WeatherCenter in West Toledo.

Any one remember the unprecedented Easter week freeze of last year? Ask any gardener. They will give you the talley of the plant and landscaping losses. It was dreadful.

Actually jr, this is my brainiac kid that LOVES school....LOL! So she's actually not always happy when school is closed.

Back to the weather, OMG, this is AWESOME! I have windows open and the breeze is heavenly! I don't mind the cold and snow, I just don't like the bitter cold and ice! If we could stay right around 30 with snow through the winter, I'd be just fine! But when it gets down to the single digits, that's what I don't like!

This is what I like, the Paradise and Sault Ste Marie areas. It was below zero each morning when we there for a few days last February, but it was a dry cold, so it was no big deal.

The debate is over! Today's high temperature is irrefutable proof that global warming is occurring. The world won't forget Toledo, Ohio and this date anytime soon.

Global Warming Lecture
“Global Warming & How it Could Affect Ohio”
@ Lourdes College
January 8th
www.lourdes.edu

The weather got even freakier in southern Wisconsin. Received a phone call from daughter that [unofficially] a tornado struck Elkhorn (pop. 7,305), Paddock Lake (3,012), Kenosha (90,352), and Racine (81,855). It missed our daughter's home by 5 miles.

Radar at 9:58 p.m. shows a line of storms headed our way.

For the Toledo area, we have a tornado watch in effect until 2:00 a.m., and the high wind watch remains in effect for Tuesday.

National Weather Service statement as of 9:20 PM EST on January 07, 2008

The NWS Storm Prediction Center has issued a Tornado Watch for portions of

Northeast Indiana
eastern lower Michigan
Northwest Ohio
Lake Erie
Lake Huron

Effective this Monday night and Tuesday morning from 920 PM until 200 am EST.

Tornado Watch means conditions are favorable for tornadoes and severe thunderstorms in and close to the watch area.

I prefer steady cold over this flipflop stuff, since the latter tends to bring on illness. But I have a window open, at 1230am on Jan 8th, to enjoy the breeze, so perhaps there are some compensations.