Looks like this could be a "real" winter this year,

Damn, 98 mile an hour winds in Denver yesterday. Whats that about a catogory 2, man thats just wild................

98 mile an hour winds....

It´s 10 outside right now, we´re about 20 degrees below normal.

Here in the Twin Cities all the signs are pointing to a "real" winter also.

Sundogs 2 weekends ago, light pillars earlier this week, sub-zero temps this morning. Several snowfalls already, and snow that has stuck, not just melted away.

Wax them skis, and prep the ice fishing gear :-)

Go to do something to stay warm ad keep the mind off the heat bill.

Winter is already looking very real in the Northern Rockies. We will be breaking some record lows in the next few days, never mind the ´wind chill´ effect. And it isn´t even officially winter yet. Oh joy!

Special Weather Statement from the National Weather Service:

WESTERN LEMHI COUNTY-EASTERN LEMHI COUNTY-KOOTENAI/CABINET REGION- WEST GLACIER REGION-FLATHEAD/MISSION VALLEYS- LOWER CLARK FORK REGION-MISSOULA/BITTERROOT VALLEYS- BITTERROOT/SAPPHIRE MOUNTAINS-BUTTE/BLACKFOOT REGION- POTOMAC/SEELEY LAKE REGION- INCLUDING THE CITIES OF...SHOUP...SALMON...LEADORE...LIBBY... EUREKA...SWAN LAKE...KALISPELL...POLSON...ST. IGNATIUS...NOXON... THOMPSON FALLS...SUPERIOR...HAMILTON...DARBY...SULA...ANACONDA... DEER LODGE...DRUMMOND...PHILIPSBURG 316 AM MST TUE DEC 6 2005
...RECORD LOW TEMPERATURES EXPECTED AT MANY VALLEY LOCATIONS WEDNESDAY MORNING...

THE ARCTIC AIR MASS THAT MOVED INTO WESTERN MONTANA AND NORTH CENTRAL IDAHO MONDAY EVENING WILL USHER IN A PERIOD OF VERY COLD TEMPERATURES. THE ARCTIC AIR...IN COMBINATION WITH CLEARING SKIES AND SNOW COVER WILL ALLOW TEMPERATURES TUESDAY NIGHT AND WEDNESDAY MORNING TO DIP WELL BELOW ZERO AT MANY VALLEY LOCATIONS. TEMPERATURES WELL BELOW NORMAL ARE EXPECTED THROUGH THE WEEKEND... ESPECIALLY IN THE VALLEY LOCATIONS.

RECORD LOW TEMPERATURES ON WEDNESDAY DECEMBER 7 ARE:

KALISPELL -13 DEGREES SET IN 1971 MISSOULA -12 DEGREES SET IN 1978 BUTTE -31 DEGREES SET IN 1978 HAMILTON -10 DEGREES SET IN 1972 SALMON -11 DEGREES SET IN 1972

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Take care all!

Generally winters here in the PNW seem to have become milder, while the East coast gets harsher, colder, more snow. We finally got a cold snap but later and milder than ever.

Natural gas spot and futures seem to be approaching post-Katrina highs too.
[link to www.nowandfutures.com]

Elsewhere Wednesday, the weather service said record lows included 28 below zero at Drummond, Mont., where the date´s previous record was 21 below in 1971; >>>>>

yep, that´s the nearest town to me. Dang near lost my fingers yesterday (got my gloves wet and stayed out too long feeding and milking) Everything was freakin frozen, including me by the time I was done. Mostly feel bad for the wild animals, they chewed through our heavy-duty tarp covering the hay last night. Wish we had enough to scatter some feed, but you know there´s hundreds of deer/elk/moose through here and we can´t feed them all and who knows how long hard winter will be here, we have to keep food for our stock. :(

Take care all!

aaahhh yes, yet another day at a balmy -5 and below here in the hills outside Boulder, CO. Suprisingly it continued to snow, adding to an already near record snowfall at the local ski mtn. for this early in the season (unfortunatly too cold to snowboard when you create your own wind chill going downhill at 40 mph...). Take care out there all...

Gee, wonder what happened to global warming? But no doubt global warming will be blamed if we have a cold winter...