Month of December 2023 (Nat’l Avg $3.248)

Thanks for starting our thread, Gord.

 

Transferring my post November 2023 Daily Grind today, over to this December 2023 Daily Grind: Thanks, Gord....

Rain this morning. Our "sea level" type temperatures seem to be about 4degF lower than Edwin's 42degF, at 38degF. However, our 4000 to 8000 foot mtns must be plastered with snow. I wouldn't know. The rainy clouds block the eastern Cascade mtns. & western Olympic mtns. Even the 600ft. western ridge, seen from the apt., is mostly covered with fog & wet, but not high enough for snow. 14,410 foot Rainier of course is buried ever deeper in snow. Our Cascade mtns., Mt. Hood in northern Oregon, Mt Baker in northern Washington state, & 1400 foot reduced Mt St Helens & mtns round-about them, are similarly buried in snow.....at least during our colder months. Global warming tho is dramatically reducing ices & snows in warmer & hot months AND EVEN IN COLD MONTHS around the World.

So far, temperatures into the teens haven't occurred. For sure, our teen & single digit temperatures (even lower) have decreased over the last 70 to 130 years. My now dead grandparents remembered the wintertime ice skating on the lakes around here. I also remember walking on iced lakes, but not the common events of the past.

Rain chances may decrease towards noon, so my walk to the Senior Center with umbrella, may occur. My comfortable, but worn-out treaded tennis shoes should allow me, this December 1st day, to walk to the SC. Do have a newer pair of tennis shoes, but temporarily trying to keep them nicer looking. Ha....I talk of tenni-runners as auto-forum posters talk of vehicle tires. Of course, MY used over-sized, but still good car tires, driven far less since my wife's separation from me, are in good shape.

PS....Walked to the Senior Center without using the umbrella. Walking back to the apt., the umbrella was handy for about half the way. Now, beginning this afternoon, temperature will thunder up to 44degF., cool a little, but thunder up to 45degF, EARLY tomorrow morning. I might think that is an indication of the various weather fronts coming off the Pacific Ocean.

PS I....Got 2 miles of walking in. Should walk some more, before the rain begins again.
PS II....Another walk, so a total of 3.8 miles today. The clouds were looking low & dramatic in one smaller part of the sky to the southwest, but no rain. Two Bald Eagles were perched across the river. If a pair (because they were fairly close to the nest), they were the most differently sized pair I had ever seen.

 

Now at 5:30am, raining fairly hard & has accumulated a third of an inch since midnight. Might be decreasing chances of rain by 8am. With the umbrella, hopefully I'll walk to the church breakfast by 9am.
During July 2023, our area has 0 inches of rain. altho September had about 5 inches. Our area averages 51 inches of rain per year. We've had about 0.5+ inches in the first 2 days of December & increasing, with more in the mountains.
Might be some flooding in western Washington.

PS, 6:30am...Total rain in the first quarter of a day of Dec.2, 2023 has increased now to over 0.4 inches, since midnight. Rain continues.

PS, 10:35am...Rain stopped & I got a nice walk to the church breakfast & back to the apt. Some blue sky & bits of sunshine, too. Knock me over with a stick. Just like California drought conditions....NOT! But, no rain.....till tomorrow.

 

5am....Supposed to be rain now, but so far, hasn't started. It'll be interesting to see when it does start & check "these predictions". Got the living room curtains open to see the rain "beginnings". So far, the parking lot pavement is only damp from a bit of rain last night. Being Sunday, I don't NEED to go anywhere. I'll walk for milk across the railroad tracks at the grocery store between the raindrops, & later walk the bottomland, unless it's really soaked & muddy. Worked in the rain all my life. Now retired, I'd rather NOT be in the rain.
Ahh....the morning rice tastes good, cooked up from the 25 lb bag I got a week ago.

PS., 5:36am.....Oh....oh, oh....I turned the lights off in the apt., & now just inches under the 4 parking lot street lights, I see the rain. It may have been raining lightly before this time. Now, I see the pavement is slightly wetter than it was. So that prediction is good.

Yeah, yeah, yeah....the classic "old man looking out the window at the weather".....I fit the image to a "T".

It's raining a bit harder............
The "old man looking out the window at the weather" & having fun..... because I'm not homeless AND IN THE RAIN & COLD.

PS I, 10:47am.....Rain has stopped, 41degF, but supposed to rise to 50degF by 2PM.....heatwave. Better get that milk soon, with rain chances doubling by the afternoon.

 

Two items for the Daily Grind:
) While gone for the milk(with rain chances in the teens), of course a light rain was falling. After leaving the grocery store with milk, it was raining harder. Umm....I checked the rain website after getting back to the apt., & yeah, the rain percent, just AFTER I went out the door, must have changed into the 80%-ile.
2) If driving the Elantra & having to stop at railroad tracks for a passing train, trains make sure they are going 10-20MPH BELOW the 35MPH speed limit. HOWEVER, when walking AND hurrying across the railroad short cut, to beat the blaring trains coming a third of a mile away, the trains make sure they are going 10-20MPH OVER the speed limit.

 

Whoa!! The Weather Service is issuing avalanche warnings for the Stevens Pass & Snoqualmie Pass regions of the Cascade Mountains. They're saying previous falling snow, warming temperatures that will reach mid-50degF by Monday & Tuesday, & continuing rain, may cause snow & ice falls.
Hopefully, snow amounts & warm rains will NOT cause massive flooding. However, the horrendous floods that we had in the 1970's & 1990's began in early December, too. So we'll see. It was the later great over-warm 60+degF rains from Hawaii, as well as the pre-December huge amounts of snow(greater than now?), that caused the BIG floods of the 70's & 90's.

 

Looks like lots of warm rain(nearly continuous?) for the next 2 days at least, but looks like possible flooding till Thursday morning. The avalanches are coming, the avalanches are coming! Anyone in the mtns probably had some snow slides pass them already.....if not worse.

Raining now. Hey, I already got my milk! I'm in for the night. Oh, in an hour, it'll be time for COCOA!

 

7:30am....With present predictions in the teens, a very slight amount of rain is coming down. Continued predictions: rain increasing to near 80%-100% & temps to mid-50's degF., all the way into Tuesday(including the night). However, as Tuesday morning progresses thru the day, temps are supposed to reduce to lower 50"s degF., which should ease threats of extreme flooding. We'll see. I'll have to walk to the stream & river & see how much it is rising.

PS, nearing 8am.....Slight increase in rain, with the ridge to the west indicating possibly more increasing rain coming this way.
"old man looking out the window at the weather"....

PS I, nearing 8:30am.....Rain coming down quite good now, with the western ridge increasingly disappearing in the intervening rain AND a fog covers much of the lower ridge.
Rain chance is 100% now. Rain chances will be above 80% & mostly above 90% till Tuesday 7PM. Next 24 hours may get nearly 2 inches of rain in our lowland, & much higher in the mountains. Either my umbrella will be wet the next 2 days(umbrellas in the parking lot now) or the Elantra will have some exercise. Tho rain chances stay high, as the week progresses, lessening quantities of rain should occur.

PS II, 1PM.....Walked to the Senior Center using the umbrella, but then the rain went nil. So, I walked home early to the apt. Now, looking out the window, the rain has started again. Yes, I think the FREE umbrella will save even more money, by not needing to drive the car.
Oh, I never went to see the river! Maybe if the rain eases again, I'll go take a look down in the bottomland.

PS III, 3PM.....Rain continues but not heavy & warming temperatures only to the low 50's degF. The road down to the stream & bottomland was closed. Went to bridge over the river with the Elantra & the river looks pretty good, possibly 10-12 feet lower than the BIG floods of the 70's & 90's. Later, the temps will rise, even into the night to about 56degF. But, some cooling after that. I didn't see the Snoqualmie River, but at this point, I don't think flooding will be too bad. Maybe some low lands may develop sloughs & lakes & some farmers will put their tall rubber boots on.

 

Yes, I saw river gages for the 2 rivers. One river came up only about 2 feet, the other river came up about 3+ feet. A lot of tooting for not a whole lot of rise. Yes, the rivers ARE running maybe twice as fast.
Back 50+ years ago with the BIG floods, my friend did some rough calculating. He determined during the BIG floods that actual water flow increases were about 100 times greater than during river minimums at summer's end or autumn beginnings.
River minimums 50+ years ago, were MORE than they are now. Tho our glaciers aren't dramatic like some massive mountain glaciers(except of the big Washington state volcanos, which don't affect our local rivers), it does appear that our glaciers have reduced considerably & some small ones have disappeared completely at summers end. Thus, during present summers' end & river lows, the rivers do appear to be have less water than 55+ years ago.

 

One eye done , one to go ! I will not wear glasses today.

 

8:03am.....If you were a cyclops, you'd be done.

Meanwhile, our western Washington state has had rain for well(?) over 12 hours straight. On schedule for a full day of rain. I'm ready to REALLY test how good this umbrella is! If it was windy tho, I'd take the Elantra.

 

I imagine the experience is like Steve Austin's bionic vision. Suddenly there is detail in everything and you can read gas prices at the station half a mile down the road.

 

With a spotting scope I was reading traffic advisories on an island 6 miles away. My scope didn't cost $6 million in pretend TV dollars.

 

We're well past a day of continuous rain, this mid-afternoon. Looks like it will continue till at least early morning Wednesday.

PS....Oh, boy....the stream is up, out of its banks & covering the gravel road & trails thru the bottomland. The slough I've mentioned before, that temporarily runs between the river & stream, is running faster & with more water than the stream itself. & the stream alone is flowing pretty good above the slough entrance to the stream. The river slough & stream have combined & risen to even cover the paved road a bit that runs to the bridge over the stream. The slough & stream colors are different, too. I bet the river itself must be up considerably from yesterday. I will probably wait till tomorrow (maybe a break in the rain?) to check on the river.

 

After a continuous day & half of rain, looks like rain is easing, that I might get an OK walk to the Senior Center for lunch(should be excellent today). However, I will carry my umbrella. The bottomland probably is still flooded, but its still darkish right now. AND later today rain chances may increase.

PS....The bottomland was flooded, but didn't need the umbrella to & back from the SC. SC lunch was really good. Ya shoulda been there!
Might be light rain going to the church dinner tonight....but maybe not. The lunch was so good for this retired guy......I'll get an afternoon nap.

 

Today , 35 deg F in Naperville, 37 in Elk Grove.

Wind SW 10

33.4 miles , fcd = 50.7 MPG

 

4:25AM.....Rain this morning. Also, rain predicted for the walk to the Senior Center & library, today.
Wasn't reading the timely news. Two people died in Oregon during the floods. Even the bottomland I've posted about my walks, had 4 people & a dog, that needed to be rescued. I don't know if that group of people went past either the west walking "area closed" gates or the east road gate. The bottomland was flooded, but they must have found some higher ground till rescued. Even the higher park & sport fields were lakes yesterday. Another rescue occurred when a man in a rowboat without oars was seen in the same area, floating down the river. Miles downstream, below where the river joined another river creating a huge flooding third river, the man was rescued near a highway bridge, over the big river. Actually, when the 3 rivers are at floodstage, all the rivers are huge.
12:41PM......No rain to the SC. The stream was down today, but running very strongly AND still out of its banks. Rain started, going back to the apt., from which is nice to watch the rain fall on other people's heads. Oh, I am so vindictive!!

 

1. 
   Here's some of the rainfall amounts in a 24hour period during the recent Pacific Northwest flooding:
   https://floodlist.com/america/usa/floods-washington-oregon-december-2023