Pond Boss Forums GENERAL QUESTIONS Pond Boss Snow... Measured in Feet...

People were wearing shorts today on campus. Sunny and windy high of around 70 today.

I have seen a few people in short's also in the store's.

Bet old AG has a huge grin and a "told you so" attitude right now because of a natural cyclic phase/event. That is just crazy!

February is usually our coldest month, but may not happen due to the flow patterns of Lake Michigan between Wisconsin and Michigan. Probably could dump a bunch of snow, but the ground will/has a very slim chance of freezing. Too late in the year for that!

I am going to take inventory of seeds this week, order what I need, and get some stuff started!

Yeee-Haaa!

Last year at this time, we missed five days of school due to a couple of blizzards for this area. Now its the complete opposite. We can still be cold into May. I just wonder if we are going from spring to summer with skipping winter.

WGN said in a couple of weeks something called the Greenland Block will set up and funnel the northern cold air down thru the midwest.

I knew someone would dare mention gardens and I'd start daydreaming only to have my plans dashed by four weeks of miserable weather. I hope you didn't jinx us JKB

We are all warm down here in the continuous 48 but Alaska has been very cold the last several days. Winter is bound to hit soon or later.

please excuse my inaccuracies as i try to remember this from a conversation i had last week when being mocked about my lack-of-ice-fishing-angst

The greenland block is the reason we havent had more winters like this in recent history, and its absence in the early winter is the driving cause of our mild winter. When el nino trends try to push the warm air up from the south, the exceedingly dry, exceedingly cold arctic air that hovers over greenland and some of the areas due west of it get pushed by a ridiculously large high pressure system (the greenland block) shoves that part of the jet stream north, making two big "bubbles" of that cold air, one in the midwest, one over northern europe.

This generally means that the westerly portions of the el nino trend push farther south as well. It's a common thing because the atlantic airstream and north atlantic currents combine with the el-nino winds that try to push north, and keep that area of high pressure from moving much farther out from between the eastern shore of greenland and the western edge of the labrador sea.



the really scary part is that some climatologists have been saying this is a natural occurrence caused by the de-salinating of the atlantic, which is allowing the north atlantic current to deviate, which allows moisture and lower pressure to permeate into greenland. As the ice-caps shrink and that freshwater continues to dump into the oceans, el-nino years may (and it is a big "may") continue to trend as mild as this one more and more often.

the wife has some meteorologist friends who have all been mocking my lack of ice....one of them was kind enough to explain that to me, just before he continued mocking me. seriously, can i get away from the scientists for a day? I guess not.

so basically what i'm saying is....its finally going to get cold!!!

This is fascinating stuff. When is the jet stream set to shift and bring that arctic air down on we unsuspecting warm winter pansies?

Last week Tom Skilling (WGN's weatherman) said somwehere in the range of 2-3 weeks. We'll see!

I think I'm officially over winter. I put away all of my ice fishing gear, I haven't even had the snowplow on the mule at all, and I've never run the aerator in the hybrid pond....it never locked up completely for longer than 5 days. My forecast through the middle of Feb. shows warmer than normal by a 10 degree average.

I will say that this mild winter has taught me a few things about cold water Bluegill fishing (minus the ice), and I believe I am a better angler because of it. I know I was able to catch a lot of fish in some miserable conditions, so I must have learned something.

My business is picking up, as the mild weather has got people already thinking about Spring, and mowing the grass. So I'm going to roll with it, and get it while the gettin's good. I'm sure we haven't seen the last of Winter, and I've seen some pretty big snows in March, but I think overall it's a downhill run into Springtime.

In 8 weeks I'll be picking my first morels, maybe sooner than that if the weather holds.............

Both sides of the argument seem to forget the global part of the thing.

I remember several winters ago we didn't get subzero until February. I wouldn't count on spring just yet.

spot on, cecil.

The most feverent arguers, those that spout off with the most angst to the other side, also tend to ignore the climate part as well. No use in arguing over weather events, even a winter as mildthey as thisthey one has been yet. as they aren't indicative of climate, which is measured over hundreds of thousands of square miles and hundreds, if not thousands of years.

I remember when I was 6, when I first moved up north from maryland, being mystified that it was still able to snow in may. Waxing philisophical aside, mild in december and janurary doesn't mean it can't be frigid in february and march.

It would be nice to get the auger out again, and maybe snag another pike, but we need more cold!

My biggest pond was ice free when I got up this morning! Just a little ice on another one and the other two with no diffusers are so thin and clear you can see through the ice.

Yeah. These picture were taken last March 6 right after we held a WV Pond Boss gathering at my place.




The day before we were outside in our shirt sleeves cleaning fish. The thermometer shows it to be about 50 degrees.



I think I'll wait to start the spring garden. But, I may just go fishing this afternoon. It is currently 62 warm degrees.

Right on Ken. It amazes me how the weather fools people every year (no one here of course). It starts warming up a little in March and lo and behold everyone is saying spring is here at last! Suuuuuuurrrrrrre...... I think we all also know the day of the Spring Equinox doesn't mean squat, but it still amazes me how many people don't.

I did an article once on the biggest snowstorms in the U.S. history for my local outdoor column. One of the biggest ever crippled NYC in early spring after some warm weather where even the flowers were fooled. In the western U.S. some of the heaviest snowfalls occur in the spring.

BTW eastern Europe is experiencing extreme record cold and heavy snow right now and it's moving west to western Europe.

At least as of tomorrow we'll have an accurate weather prognostication for the next six weeks.

A groundhog photo takes me back to my youth. Now if there was an audio clip of a bolt action .222 chambering a fresh round, along with the sound sandbags make when thrown across the hood of a pickup truck, it could be 1978 all over again.........

I've still got ice on my pond, although it's about ice free for 2' around the edges, and where the diffuser is it's an open hole that is about 70' in diameter.

Still some snow where there were piles on the North side of things. But, in the next 7 days there are only two nights where the temp is supposed to dip below freezing.

As a sidenote to this thread, my hometown newspaper has an article today on the 2012 USDA plant hardiness zone map. My county here in Indiana was formerly in zone 5B, which registers an average annual extreme minimum temperature of -10F. to -15F. As of last week, we've been upgraded slightly to zone 6A which is -5F. to -10F.

The paper goes on to state that even though the suggestion can be made that we are experiencing overall increases in our average temperatures, no conclusions should be drawn regarding climate change simply from this map....

I'm not saying I believe it, only that I think It may be time to dust off that old .222. I hear those armadillos are coming north......

And maybe the killer bees too?

Here's a link to pictures of the brutal weather Eastern Europe has been experiencing. Looks like the ice fisherman in one of the pictures is not complaining!

I love the dog picture! Looks like they cut a slot in the gate for him or her just to look out!

http://www.cnn.com/2012/02/01/europe/gallery/europe-winter-weather/index.html?hpt=hp_c3

Was that open water on the very left in the picture of the ice fisherman?

Today my BG and cats came to feed. Last Sunday they wouldn't.

Looks like it. A little bit of open water never stopped a diehard ice fisherman. Maybe they don't get to ice fish much there and he jumped at the chance?

Notice his pole? Looks like one of those Rapala jigging sticks. Maybe fishing for Zander or European perch?