Wednesday, December 15, 2010 (9 a.m.)
http://lotsofbarkandbiteinyourforecast.blogspot.com/ Blog Archive back to 2007
Decembrrrrrr continues this morning with lows that reached 18 on the Westside and Cecil Field to 19 in Lake City. The airport officially reached 21 which easily broke the old record of 25 set back in 1962. St.Johns had a low of 24 while Fruit Cove by the river was a little warmer near 30. The nation's oldest city felt more like the nation's ice box this morning. St. Augustine checked in with a low of 26! The beaches that normally are sheltered by the warmer ocean were left out in the cold by nature with a low of 27 at Jacksonville Beach and Ponte Vedra Beach. If it is this cold we might as well have snow. That is what I have been saying.
This past weekend I gave us a sight chance of seeing a few snowflakes and it did get some of our neighborhood kids excited. What they did not understand is that a slight chance of snow means it likely will not happen, but all they heard was snow. So I had to do something about this. I am a weatherman that delivers...lol! I actually made two batches of home-made snow and you can see the happy results above. This is the closest ecstatic Cade and Tyler have ever gotten to holding real snow. I was just glad I could be part of this and if I could I would have made enough snow to cover their entire yard. This may be an idea. I can invent an affordable snow machine so kids will never have to dream about playing in the snow again here in Florida. There are quite a few folks in Indiana right now that have written me on Facebook and they would be glad to sell some of their snow and snowmen for free! Especially now that Lafayette has another 3.5 inches of snow on the way.
You can see this snow does look real and it is fairly easy to make. You basically mix sodium polyacrylate with water and the chemical reaction cools the gel and makes it look like snow. If you want dry snow, just mix a little water, or a wetter snow, mix a lot of water. You can add in some salt for just the right texture like I did. The best part is that it is non-toxic. I would still not let my kids eat it. Where do you find sodium polyacrylate? It is the cottony stuff inside diapers. It absorbs up to 400 times its water weight and that is what allows this wintry concoction to end up looking like snow. The best part is it does not melt and does not get too cold like real snow. If you want it to feel cold like real snow, just stick it in the freezer. I am working on this formula to make it even more like snow, but have a long way to go. If anybody can do it, I can! Of even more importance than my little project is something much bigger! THE THIRD ANNUAL SNOW DAY at Durbin Creek Elementary is almost here!
Snow Day is a community event where Durbin Creek focuses on local charities and gets the kids involved in helping others. They celebrate by bringing snow to Durbin Creek and have a family fun day centered around it. This year, it will be Saturday, January 29th from 10AM to 2PM. The charity of focus this year is DREAMS COME TRUE-Kids Helping Kids, a local based nonprofit organization dedicated to fulfilling the dreams of children with life-threatening illnesses. If you would like to volunteer in this big event you can call the school for more information. I am looking forward to it that is for sure!
Now you will need to have home-made snow to play in with 70s in the forecast. The real stuff would melt quickly. I have talked enough about cold weather to last us five Florida winters, wouldn't you say? So let's keep those warm thoughts. Do you realize our first 90 degree day is only about 20 weeks away and we have swimming weather a mere 15 weeks away. Think pool thoughts and you can look at the picture above if you lose focus due to today's highs struggling into the lower 50s. Even though pool temperatures have plummeted and we will not be able to swim this weekend you can look forward to temperatures back in the 70s on Friday and near 70 Saturday! The best part is that we may even get some needed rain for all those wildfires going on around the area. The cold large snow pack to the north has pushed the main storm track closer to home. We will talk warm weather and rain chances here on the blog and morning show Thursday. If you are ready for a forecast full of warm thoughts make sure to tune in. Tonight make sure to look east-northeast once again as the Geminid meteor shower is still producing vivid shooting stars. You should be able to even see some this evening. Let me know how it goes. I have not seen any but the show is not over yet! Have a great day! Time to go workout!!
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