Mixed Bag of Winter Gives Way to A December Thaw!

Here is our WLFI Family that came out to say thanks to all our wonderful viewers. Who is that funny looking guy in the antlers? Are those kids really ours? Sue's not so little Brett, and my seems like yesterday babies Abbey and Lauren from Home Hospital didn't even need us to push them around in a wagon this year. I remember when they used to just take their naps under the blankets without waking up. How times have changed. Man, does Jeff look younger every year he attends this parade? I think so! Mike Cleff loved his first parade ever and he actually was even more excited about it that his super-charged sportscast he does every night!

It is great to be back in touch. It was great to talk to so many of you on the blog over the weekend. The blog is valuable in many ways! I am glad we updated this storm on the way late tonight and Tuesday as being a big rain-maker for us. I knew this by Saturday afternoon so you could plan accordingly. As we said on Friday.....we will have to watch it closely and that the track was not set in stone. Really this time of year you take it one day at a time and of course the storm tracks will and do change. The blog is a great opportunity to talk about what has changed and what has stayed the same IN A TIMELY MANNER and I will not shy away from telling you what one model is saying versus another so you are better prepared and know about these changes before anybody else. Speaking of changes, our storm track has shifted 180 miles since Friday. Let's take a look at why we will be on the warm side of the storm this time around and yes our final call of a Wisconsin snowstorm was right on target! Notice the two storm tracks below. Congratulations cheese heads and all my wonderful relatives up there in Wisconsin. Send some pictures so all of us snow-lovers can look and weep, although we will still get our fair share of snow EVENTUALLY here at home, so I will put the tissue away!

Here is the latest as of Monday afternoon. The freezing rain advisory for Miami, Pulaski, and Fulton Counties will be allowed to expire and our next batch of precipitation moving in from Illinois should be all rain with temperatures rising above freezing in the entire viewing area.

The big news today was how were are coming out of the deep freeze. We have been so cold I think it is safe to say we have a December thaw on the way. Usually we do not use this type of terminology until January but we all know how painful it has been to be outside. This was certainly the case over the weekend, although all the smiling faces out at the Lafayette Christmas Parade made it MUCH EASIER to take. Here are some more pictures from the big day and I was so proud of the big turnout despite the freezing weather. The Lafayette Area Gymnastics club had a Mardi Gras theme and you could see the masks may not have kept the girls very warm, but at least they had plenty of blankets and hot chocolate. A special thank you goes out to Jennifer Ingle who took all of these wonderful parade pictures at the Lafayette parade.


Yes, there certainly was a hot chocolate advisory in effect. The forecasted highs were 23 to 26 and we were every bit as cold as that with an official high temperature of 25 degrees! Anchorman Seth Conley and meteorologist Stephanie Davis did an outstanding job emceeing the parade and keeping everybody in warm spirits.

Those cookies were very good but a bit hard to bite into. I know it was so cold my teeth hurt which I could never remember happening before. It was like I ate a whole gallon of ice cream!

The party must go on and it did! Not even nature could keep the Christmas spirit from fading away on a very cold afternoon!

I know one jolly old elf that loved this weather and felt right at home! That is right, Santa Clause made an appearance on Saturday afternoon at the Monticello parade. Julie Robertson a future meteorologist took this picture after a nice inch of a sugar-coating of snow. Some years Santa has been known to water ski on Lake Freeman, but certainly not this year!

The snow will be all gone by time we head into Tuesday afternoon with warm temperatures and a big rainstorm on the way. I will see you tonight with more on huge changes to the forecast!