Sunday, December 21, 2008

North Pole Cold Punishes Lafayette Area



This is not what I call cold....it is dangerous cold. Santa's sled isn't the only thing flying our way from the North Pole this week. You can trace this punishing cold from Santa's workshop. Best advice today is to stay inside and make reindeer cupcakes like my wonderful wife did to keep the Prangley family warm at heart and well fed. This cupcakes go well with hot chocolate and there is a double hot chocolate advisory with extra marshmallows in effect until further notice! This is the first time I have issued a DOUBLE HOT CHOCOLATE ADVISORY because you will need at least two cups of hot chocolate to stay warm! I will have my wife post her recipe here on the blog for you shortly. She is my better half and she will give you a nice break from me since I have been writing you day and night for days in this crazy pattern. :)

This is the coldest I have felt since Ground Hog Day 1996 when my weather watcher in Tower, Minnesota called in the state record low of -60 without wind chill! To this day it stands as the state record low. It was so cold trees were exploding! Well at least I am not calling for exploding trees here in Lafayette and we will not get that cold. I am just trying to make you feel better. Our wind chill and wind advisories continue through Monday morning across the entire area and I have the latest bone-chilling breakdown for you.


Temperatures will hold steady near 6 degrees for the remainder of today with west winds continuing at 23 to 40 mph. Wind chills will be in the 15 to 20 below zero range.


This evening temperatures fall to near 2 with wind speeds at 17 to 35 mph through midnight. Wind chills will remain in the 15 to 20 below range.


Monday morning we will start near zero degrees with lighter wind speeds at 12 to 20 mph. Wind chills will be near 10 below zero as we wake up.


Monday afternoon we warm up to near 12 with wind chills above zero.


Hang in there! The worst of the wind chills and wind will be before midnight tonight. Take the appropriate precautions. Here is a wind chill chart that shows frostbite times. Notice we are right in that 30 minute range today. Our hearts and prayers go out to those still without power, especially in the Fort Wayne area today. Here at home we are very lucky that most of us have power.

White Christmas Update: We have a blockbuster storm on the way Tuesday into Christmas Eve. I will not call it the Grinch storm yet, but I am worried it will take the same track as our ice storm did last week. Wisconsin could get another foot of snow while nature tries to ice us over. This could be the biggest pre-Christmas storm since 2004 and it needs to be monitored closely. This pattern is not showing any signs of slowing down that is for sure.

33 comments:

Anonymous said...

Sounds COLD Mike!!!!!

I let my dog out to do his thing and I stand there by the door! Plaease Everybody with pets DON'T Keep them out to long! They can get frost bite just as fast as we can!!!!!

And there little feet get sooooooooooooooooooooo COLD!

Mike those cup cakes look GREAT Teel her to send some my way! :-)

Have a great day everybody it is a good day to watch Football which I'M watching a game being played in the snow and got a BIG CUP of Hot COCOA!!!!!

Mike is there an Advisory for Hot Cocoa today? :) oh well I got mine anyway!
See you all later!

Justin in Lafayette

Anonymous said...

Yes, I'm eager for the cupcake recipe too; looks like a fun family activity.

Also, thanks for the info about Monday, I'm traveling tomorrow so that helps me plan.

Anonymous said...

Any news on Jasper Co./Rensselaer area - major part of county has been w/o power since Friday and remains that way...high winds continue here w/much ice.

Anonymous said...

REMC is working very hard as of 11:ooam still not everyone is on. Wind is playing a big roll in getting the job done. Parts of Jasper/Benton just got electricity last night around 7:30pm

Anonymous said...

Thanks for the update!!! If the Tuesday/Wednesday storm hits, it could be another long week. There are still REMC customers, in Fulton County, who do not have electricity.

Anonymous said...

Hey Mike I just sent in some pictures of how bad it really is outside! I was out for about 5 Min and I was SOOOOOOOOOO Cold I did dress for it well the best you can for -20* degrees LOL! :)

Please everybody if you do not have to go out then don't! And don't do like I did and go out just to get pictures! That was dumb of me :)

Stay warm everybody!!!!!

Justin in Lafayette

Anonymous said...

LOL Justin, I have been trying to get my car started all day, should have parked it facing east not west! I was running in and out without a coat..talk about dumb:), It took about 3 mins before my fingers startd going numb:(

We just had a burst of snow showers that was swerling around like a tornado, and a wind gust of 46 mph!!

Teri

Anonymous said...

And yes Justin to the pets, mine are quick as well, they are out long enough to do thier thing, they keep holding up their paws, their feet are cold.....

How lucky we are not have to go, ya know, go out side LOL!

I just read that the wx could be very icy for tues and Chrismas Eve!!!

Teri in Laf

Anonymous said...

Yep Teri the blowing snow is what I was trying ti get puictures of! About 3 min is all it took for me to! Maybe we all should stay inside! Sounds good to me!

46MPH WOW WINDY!!!!!

Be safe and warm everybody!

Justin in Lafayette

Anonymous said...

And Yes to Tuesday I have the same thing showing up on my weather modles as well! Possibl;e ICY weather!

Maybe some snow and sleet as well! All we can do for now is keep a close watch on it!

We will see when it gets closer!

Justin in Lafayette

Anonymous said...

Mike!!!
Thank you so much for keeping us updated. those cupcakes look great. Make sure Santa has good weather coming in =) thanks for everything!!!

~Jamie~

Anonymous said...

Here in Remington we have periods where we have white-outs. Guess the snow is blowing off of the ground and causing poor visibilty. We are righ off US 24 and have open fields to our West

Anonymous said...

hey everyone i deliver jc, paper here in monticello and i had on long johns sweats and 3 sweatshirts and i still froze this morning,,please keep me posted on the upcoming storm, we deliver 7 days a week even christmas day, so please keep us in your prayers,,,,Monticello

Anonymous said...

You are in my prayers! I feel so bad for all who have to be out in this.. and of course there will be some who complain that the paper was late...big deal, the safty of all is the most important!!!! And thank you to all who deliver the J&C.. remeber gang, to leave a gift of apprication for Christmas, to our mail couries and new paper delivery guys and gals

Anonymous said...

We went shopping at 4 a.m. this morning, it was 10 out. by the time we got done 4 hours later it was only 2 according to my temp. gauge in my truck. Now my cat wants out. Where is all the snow? Hate green Christmas. LOL We have relatives coming down from Wisconsin tomarrow maybe they can bring the snow with them.

Anonymous said...

Seems, Wisconsin gets all the snow....oh well....thanks for the updates Mike.

Anonymous said...

sounds like great traveling weather maybe mother nature will be on our side for once??? well we can pray no more ice or snow till every one gets were there needing to go. i know i will be watching the blog more carefully till then keep us posted mike and thanks for doing a great job
mt lafayette

Anonymous said...

COLD !! Keep doing what your doing Mike. I haven't been able to find a WX station in the midwest that has continuous updates on wx conditions like WLFI.
These other stations seem to be 9-5 Mon-Fri even with a major storm in the area. Thanks to you and all your bloggers (justin, teri & anonymous)

Anonymous said...

William in Remington,
Some of us in southern Jasper County got power turned back on today @ 6:30. I have been using my black berry to keep up with the blog but I am unable to blog with it??? I will have to figure that one out... Thanks to Mike giving us the heads up we had our generator/food/candles/batteries,water, etc... Ready when it hit. The only thing we did not have was our phones/dsl darn it.. Mike we thank you very much for all you do for us. Well time to go to bed been a long 36 hours. Got to get up early to see what damage is at work. Bye all. William in remington.

Anonymous said...

OH MY...we are under a wind storm watch for Tues and late Tues night...We all better get out last min Christmas shopping done!

Teri in Laf

Anonymous said...

Well, hello William! Haven't heard much out of you in awhile--good to hear from you and also that you got power back. I hope those out by Fountain Park got it, too. And yes, another storm headed our way, Hopefully this won't be a repeat of last week's storm. We have travel plans Wed afternoon to Kankakee County, IL, then to return for our Christmas Eve service at church. I don't mind the snow but please, no ice and no wind, LOL!!

Mary Anne in Remington

Anonymous said...

Stefanie said on this mornings news that Wind Chill is still in effect, she stated that frost bite could happen in less than 30 SECONDS...hope not LOL. You can watch here video here on the web site.

Anonymous said...

winter storm watch for tomorrow

B S.indy

Anonymous said...

Hey everybody for us in Tippecanoe County! For Tuesday we do have a chance of seeing more possible freezing rain! Now As of now I have sleet starting around 3:pm and changing over to all freezing rain by 5:pm. Then all rain by 10:pm! As of Ice amounts right now around a Tenth to two Tents of an inch possible! New rainfall amounts are expected to be between a Half inch to one Inch possible and this is between late Tuesday night to late Wednesday afternoon! Now as for a White Christmas maybe for people more up north but for us I don't think this year but I will still keep in a chance of snow flurries!

We are staying in this Icy pattern and I don't like ICY! :) But what can we do? Mother nature does what she wants!

This will most likely change again so everybody keep everybody updated!

Have a great day bloggers! I'll chack back later this evening!

Justin in Lafayette

Anonymous said...

Yes Justin, this can change....I hope it will change over to just rain and not stay freezing rain...Snow would be nice but not ice!

If you need to get out, should do now, the stores are not too busy at this time:)

Teri in Laf

Anonymous said...

OOPS blooper Stefanie LOL!

Anonymous said...

Don't worry, our chance of a white Christmas is 80%, remember?

Anonymous said...

How sad that we will probably not see a white Christmas...

But, maybe all that rain will change to snow!?!?!?!?!?! That would be AWESOME!!!!! A girl can hope right?

Just hoping to not loose electricity, phone, and internet...

Annie in Attica

Anonymous said...

A week ago it was up to a 95% chance of a white Christmas.

Anonymous said...

Shoot...I guess 90% chance fell through....oh well, you got a tough job Mike.

Anonymous said...

Hey let's hang in there. If the weather people are as wrong as some thing, well if they predict no snow for Christmas, guess what?

Anonymous said...

They say Indiana weather is unpredictable...So we will get what the good Lord wants us to get. Also remember the real reason for the season and dont get caught up in the commercialism of what Christmas is really not about.
God gave us a gift several years ago and that was the birth of our Lord and Savior. He also took death upon himself to give us another gift of eternal life. Once again please share the tru meaning of Christmas with children and family.
Luke - Chapter 2: Verses 8-20

Anonymous said...

What does it really matter anyway a White Chirstmas??.... there are people who live in states where they will never see a white Chrismas....They dont complain, they are hoping for not a hurricane! Come on gang give it a rest and be ready for icy contitions tomorrow.....Count your blessings...By the postings, seems to be alot of Stressed out people...Mike does the best he can, and yes all models were showing snow, however no matter how many time this has been posted NATURE WILL DO WHAT IT WILL!!!!

Be greatful...

Amen to anonymous