Weather - ready or not

Yesterday (Dec 9) must have been heaven to meteorologists. Even the (usually wrong) forecasters scored big time.

Because no matter what might have been predicted for yesterday, it came. It came big time.

In the morning the wind had picked up as predicted at 15-20 mph. Clouds raced across the sky, late for some appointment to the East. But mostly the sun shone, bright and beautiful. The temps hovered in the low 50s. All the leaves still on lawns to the south of me, pinwheeled into my garden beds. I would have appreciated the extra mulch except those leaves were all black walnut - filled with juglone and the bane of tomato plants.

The wind picked up. More clouds came. Bouts of rain, then clearing again. Then, around 11:00 a.m. another band of clouds, dark and heavy with stuff. All kinds of stuff.

Another bout of rain, more clouds. The temps tumbled from 51 to 39 within an hour. Sleet. Then hail. Thunder. Lightning. Then a blinding snow squall. Wind. Lots of wind. 30-40 mph with gusts to 50. The wind couldn't make up it's mind, and kept shifting from south to north. Any the leaves that had escaped my lawn to the north blew back.

The wind howled all afternoon and when it got dark the temps really started to fall. 25 by midnight. Right now it's only 15 out there, but not to worry. It's going to soar up to 19 today. LOL About an inch of snow fell last night and there are flakes coming down right now. And it's still pretty windy, 25-35 mph with gusts over 40 mph.

Quite a day. It was as if someone fast-forwarded a semester's worth of weather forecasting class examples into 24 hours. Wow. What a ride. Gotta love Ohio weather.

It's not for wimps.