It's Time for Christmas in July & A Merry Good Weather Weekend

It is Christmas in July time and I am heading up to Wisconsin to celebrate. You have to love the Christmas lights above! It may not be a white christmas but I will look forward to lots of great food and company. My wife's family started this tradition because of the harsh (awesome snowy) winters they have up in Wisconsin. The relatives that were snowbound and did not get to see their family during the usual holiday season decided to move Christmas to July when travel was much easier. Also if some relatives were unable to visit due to other committments it was now much easier on them since they had Christmas in July. The funny but not so funny part is that Wisconsin is still vulnerable to tornadoes this time of year. But overall it is a great concept and it gives me an excuse to listen to Christmas music during the summer months. Looking at the latest maps there is no snow or tornadoes to worry about so let the party begin. Now speaking of a good time, the Kiss the Pig contest was awesome last night. Over 1,200 dollars was raised for the 4Her's. I will make sure to post some of those pictures here soon. In the meantime, I found some pictures to get you in the holiday mood below. You see pictures from the blizzard of 2007 below and scrapbook photos that won prizes! It is good to see that I am not the only one that loves snow!

Let it snow, let it snow, and let there be a good weekend is what everybody at the fair asked for last night and I must say we have the best viewers on earth. It was so nice talking to many of you out at the fair and it was good to see a lot of familiar faces including Justin New who I actually even put on TV with me at the end of my weather along with Willie the famous weather blog Chihuahua. Justin has a great family and the fair was full of just wonderful people and it really brings to light how it really helps "community build". It is a place where you meet the most interesting and amazing people and I was very happy to have been a part of it! Now one more good thing about Christmas in July is that you can cook burgers out on the grill. Try doing that in December. Well we have great grill-out weather this weekend and you can see why below.

A big high pressure that steered Dolly into south Texas is blocking all of our Gulf Moisture and even though we have a front coming through this weekend it will not have moisture to work with. So rememember we could have a few isolated showers and thunderstorms mainly late tonight and once again Saturday, but the activity should not hamper plans. The farther south you go, especially toward Indianapolis this weekend there will be a better chance of scattered storms. This will be closer to the ring of fire you see above on the weather map or the ring of thunderstorms that naturally form on the edge of big heat wave producing high pressures this time of year. But the key word is scattered on the rain even in Indianapolis. On race day nature will try to make it interesting with a possible complex of storms racing in here on a west to northwest flow. I still think Tony Stewart will have the upper hand with the best chance of rain holding off until late day and during the evening. But it is no guarantee. Make sure to tune in tonight for the updated forecast. For now you can see the forecast below. Remember the sunscreen!

Here in the Lafayette viewing area on Sunday rain chances should be so low that I left them out of the forecast, but that northwest flow can be tricky and I will take another look with you tonight on the newscasts! It is also good to see our Live Doppler 18 up and running again and the best news of all is that we have a big training day today so we can share weather with you like never before! I will see you soon and since Christmas in July is our theme today, here is a recipe I will pass on to share with you. Instead of reindeer cupcakes how does zucchini PIE sound? This is a Christmas treat you normally would not have in December!

ZUCCHINI PIE

Peel and cut zuchinni into chunks,remove seeds. Boil until tender. 2 cups uncooked zucchini=1 cup cooked.
1 cup cooked zucchini(drained)
1 cup milnot or condensed milk
1 t vanilla
1 1/2 T margarine
1 cup sugar
1 egg
1/4 t salt
2 T flour

Mix together and por into deep dish pie shell. Sprinkle cinnamon on top Bake at 400 degrees for ten minutes then 350 degrees for 30 minutes.

From Diana and Jerry Farrell of Lafayette

Of course I met these nice folks out at the fair! Thanks so much Diana and Jerry. Now a lot of folks were asking about snow this winter and what I thought about this year. Well it is still early but we may have a better chance of a White Christmas than normal. I will tell you more about this here on the blog today and of course on tonight's newscast.