Augustine Link. Warmth Dented?

A continuation of yesterday's Alaska theme as Doug Geren sent me a link to a cool website that keeps track of Alaska's volcanoes. And the Augustine volcano has been very active lately. Check it out here: http://www.avo.alaska.edu/activity/Augustine.php

By the way, the pictures from yesterday and today were taken in Southern Illinois back in September. A very comfortably cool day with some beautiful cirrus overhead.

I had some very small hail mixed in with the rain and thunder at my house yesterday. It was a quick shot though. At first the rain was pretty heavy, but it ended quickly. I only recorded 1/10" which is o.k., considering how wet the yard is right now.

Two dry days today and Wednesday. Then a new storm system will bring rain to the area Thursday afternoon and evening. Amounts look rather light right now, with the heaviest amounts sliding through central sections of Alabama and Georgia. We should end up dry from Thursday night through Friday afternoon. But Friday night and into Saturday another round of rain and storms move in. Some storms may be strong early Saturday. As this storm pulls away from the area, colder air will move in. So the mountains around here may see some flurries or snow showers late Saturday afternoon and into Saturday night. Amounts look light though. So don't look for any snowmen popping up.

It still looks like February could get much colder for the eastern 1/2 of the U.S. after the 5th or 6th. So it will be interesting to see to what degree January's warmth can be trimmed back or reversed. Another gas bill just came in yesterday, so I'm hoping we'll remember this winter for it's warmth and not February chill. (I'm also hoping the gas company estimated this month.)