Thursday, November 15, 2018

Winter's Here

     Oh, not officially -- but onset of Winter weather has announced itself with an overnight ice storm.  So far, Indianapolis/Marion County* has escaped the worst of it but to go one county north and it's not good.  The site I call the "North Campus" is right in the transition area.  I left my phone up there last night and it may have to stay awhile.  Only a little to the north, schools have been closed for the day due to slick roads.

     Out the back door, we appear to have not had a heavy layer of ice; surfaces are pebbled with maybe a two-thirds coverage of eighth-inch diameter ice droplets.  It's more than enough to need scraping, and just enough to make the roads slick.

     From the TV down the hall, I'm hearing reporters not too far afield talking about rain changing to snow.  The temperature's due to climb back up.  By the afternoon, the snow will change to rain.  Temperatures in the 40s on Friday and over the weekend, so we only have to get through today.  (Slow down, please, and stay in your lane.) I'll be staying in the big-city "heat island" today, if I can.
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* Nearly identical, except for towns like Lawrence and Speedway that didn't want to join the UniGov collective.

5 comments:

John in Philly said...

Philly's forecast for today is for less than an inch of "rain, snow, and sleet."
I suppose if the forecast is sufficiently vague then it will be accurate.

Just in case, the snowthrower got an oil change, fuel, and a test run yesterday.

Phssthpok said...

"...eight-inch pebbled ice droplets."

That's...Impressive.

:-)

Roberta X said...

eighth.

Anonymous said...

Thank you for the reminder. Time to put the big broom / scraper back in the truck.

BTW, I also keep an extra hat and a couple pairs of gloves in it too. If I don't need them, I have loaned them out to the less prepared.

Roberta X said...

Anon: it was a reminder for me, too. I hadn't returned my winter kit (change of clothes, basic toiletries, etc.) or the "official responder" gear (hard hat, high-vis vest and gloves, mandated by a state-level program that lets me cross police/fire lines to maintain communications equipment) to my car until yesterday. I keep a set of field glasses with that stuff, and added a nice FEMA-type emergency kit (a full backpack of first air, basic tools, etc.) that I won at a conference earlier this month. It's probably more than I need, but I have been snowed in at work more than once through the years. Still need to find the folding showshovel and add that!