A December to remember

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Rockey

Minister of Fire
Dec 18, 2007
811
SW Ohio
We currently stand at 606 HDD (Heating Degree Days) for the month of December. Departure from normal of 177 or roughly 30% higher than normal. I'm going through wood like its going out of style.

I remember my Dad telling about the days when he grew up in small farmhouse. He was one of 15 kids and they slept 3-4 to a bed. When it got cold like this Grandma would just throw another kid on top at night. I sometimes wish I could throw a stove on top. The month is only halfway done and I cant wait bid it good riddance. I hope winter brings a thaw.
 
Dad's father would scoop a bucket of coals out of the fireplace and put it in the kid's room. A wonder they all lived to tell about it.
 
I'm with you, Rockey. This has not been a normal December in Ohio. I'm just at the tip of the secondary snowbelt and have already had at least twenty inches of snow. Maybe more, who knows with all this wind. It's snowed for 12 straight days, and from what I see on the radar, it'll go to 13 by the end of the day. Very unusual, as are the cold temps we usually get in February. Good riddance, indeed.
 
It has been a weird month for sure! I know I have plenty of wood but every time we get extended cold spells like this I can't sleep at night due to the visions of freezing to death in February that plague my dreams hahaha..... Seriously though it does make me look at next years wood apprehensively and hope I don't have to tap into it in March or April due to this weird cold spell.
 
December can be one of those weird months weatherwise. I've seen it both ways. Occasionally we'll have a green Christmas and I've seen several Christmas days where we received a big snow on the night before and Christmas morning. One year we had the totally unheard of temperature of 68 on Christmas day! That did not just break a record but totally shattered it. But then I've also seen several Christmas days with below zero weather; a real Cool Yule!

Not too many years back we set a new record for the coldest December ever. I do not think this year will be colder than that but we still have almost half the month to go so we'll see.
 
Backwoods Savage said:
December can be one of those weird months weatherwise. I've seen it both ways. Occasionally we'll have a green Christmas and I've seen several Christmas days where we received a big snow on the night before and Christmas morning. One year we had the totally unheard of temperature of 68 on Christmas day! That did not just break a record but totally shattered it. But then I've also seen several Christmas days with below zero weather; a real Cool Yule!

Not too many years back we set a new record for the coldest December ever. I do not think this year will be colder than that but we still have almost half the month to go so we'll see.

I remember those warm Christmas' too...some were even too warm to build a fire (Heaven forbid!) but not having a fire on Christmas morning is like having a Santa with no beard, so we built one anyway. We tend to have more green Christmas' than white where my parents live since they're so close to the lake, but it'll definitely be white this year.
 
You must be getting Colorado's snow. Our temps are unusually high this year - in the 50* and even hit 60* a couple of days ago. No moisture in ages. I have only gone through about 1/2 a cord of wood so far. One fire in the morning keeps things just right all day. Weird. I am expecting that we will get hit later and I will be burning well into May and possible early June.
 
perplexed said:
You must be getting Colorado's snow. Our temps are unusually high this year - in the 50* and even hit 60* a couple of days ago. No moisture in ages. I have only gone through about 1/2 a cord of wood so far. One fire in the morning keeps things just right all day. Weird. I am expecting that we will get hit later and I will be burning well into May and possible early June.

May and June! Holy smokes! I know Colorado is beautiful, but I'd have to pack up and get out of there if it snowed in June! :)
 
Down here in South Central NC we are near to setting a record cold December. We were within one degree of setting a record yesterday (15 degrees). We have had two weeks of unusual arctic cold temps. I told my wife we are going to move to somewhere warmer...ALASKA! I too, am thinking I may have to dip into next year's stash.
 
Rockey said:
We currently stand at 606 HDD (Heating Degree Days) for the month of December. Departure from normal of 177 or roughly 30% higher than normal. I'm going through wood like its going out of style.

I remember my Dad telling about the days when he grew up in small farmhouse. He was one of 15 kids and they slept 3-4 to a bed. When it got cold like this Grandma would just throw another kid on top at night. I sometimes wish I could throw a stove on top. The month is only halfway done and I cant wait bid it good riddance. I hope winter brings a thaw.

WHen i was a kid we were 3 to a bed,good thing cuz no heat upstairs and a smoldering coal stove in the downstairs,no insulation in the house and old leaky doors and windows THe bedroom window had a piece knocked out and was covered with plastic and taped. Had a snowstorm overnight and the plastic blew off and we had a pile of snow on the floor by the window that was NOT melting
 
Cate said:
perplexed said:
You must be getting Colorado's snow. Our temps are unusually high this year - in the 50* and even hit 60* a couple of days ago. No moisture in ages. I have only gone through about 1/2 a cord of wood so far. One fire in the morning keeps things just right all day. Weird. I am expecting that we will get hit later and I will be burning well into May and possible early June.

May and June! Holy smokes! I know Colorado is beautiful, but I'd have to pack up and get out of there if it snowed in June! :)

I agree Cate I like warm springs. I really can't complain when you consider it has been all but over about the 3rd week of March for the past couple of years.
 
Cate said:
perplexed said:
You must be getting Colorado's snow. Our temps are unusually high this year - in the 50* and even hit 60* a couple of days ago. No moisture in ages. I have only gone through about 1/2 a cord of wood so far. One fire in the morning keeps things just right all day. Weird. I am expecting that we will get hit later and I will be burning well into May and possible early June.

May and June! Holy smokes! I know Colorado is beautiful, but I'd have to pack up and get out of there if it snowed in June! :)

I live in SoCal and have seen snow over Memorial Day weekend and have heard stories about snow in July. Fortunately, it doesn't last long because at that time of year nobody is expecting it.

We have been unusually warm here too, I didn't have a fire for over a week! Very odd. And as someone with a new stove, it is rather frustrating as well!
 
tptb around here are trumpeting record 'December snow' bla bla but it just seems like a regular Dec to us. Yeah there's snow on the ground....so?
 
HDD for November in upstate NY are about 20% above last year. Is COLD but not much snow yet.
 
Don't know how to check for a HDD, but do know it's about -15* right now and I didn't have power or water for the last few days. Just got it back on this evening. (80mph winds knocked the lines down)
 
Over 40" of snow so far, half of what we get for a whole year and winter hasn't even started yet.
But I do pay heavy taxes to enjoy life here, for another winter or two anyway.
 
I was just wondered where the long range forecast of warmer and drier than normal.....I had 10.6 degrees on Tuesday a.m.

BTW it was 74 degrees inside with the big Buck....
 
Last December I remember being this cold was '88 or '89. I thought I was O.K. on wood that winter but burned half of it in December alone. Made for a tough winter. Pretty sure it was colder that year than this though.
 
54" of snow so far here in the WV mountains...and over a cord burned. Stay warm out there folks!
 
I have already burned nearly half a cord (expect to burn 1.5 cords for the entire winter).....up to 70* and raining thru Saturday...then back to overnight 30's. I ain't scared about running out of wood this year :coolsmile:
 
I am also tentatively looking at the wood pile after the weather of the past 2 weeks. I should be ok. I am burning a face cord a week with these colder temps. Just another reminder that I really need to gut and insulate/vapour barrier my old stone farmhouse one of these days...
I do like the snow around the stone foundation walls--it is a great cheap insulator.
I know that I will have a very busy Spring finishing my woodcutting projects that are now on hold for the next 12 weeks.
 
Can somebody link to where they are finding current HDD info? I can find average/historical data for my local, but nothing to tell me how this year is stacking up against it.. It does seem we have had more low teens and single digit nights then I remember for this early...
 
I can find local HDD on Underground Weather (wunderground.com)......yesterdays HDD: 17 Whatever the hell that means!
 
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