Summer faded slowly, oh-so-slowly, into a lingering, mostly pleasant autumn this year.
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KIMBALL, Neb. – Summer faded slowly, oh-so-slowly, into a lingering, mostly pleasant autumn this year. Other than the few skiffs of snow, a handful of nearly cold days, and the brisk hammering of intermittent wind spells, the weather has been pleasant for a long time.
The mild conditions made fall chores on the ranch a good bit easier than in many years. We had little trouble finding pleasant days for moving herds, sorting calves and weaning, preg-checking and sorting cows, vaccinating and pouring, and hauling grain and hay.
But as they do every year, the days got shorter and the temperatures fell off. Now that we’ve passed the winter solstice and the days are getting longer, winter – real winter – is just around the corner. And that’s as it should be.
Last year winter came early. Looking back over my weather log I see first frost came on Oct. 5, and the first hard freeze on Oct. 12. Snow held off until mid-November, but we had four inches on the ground by Thanksgiving, and plenty more fell in December. From then until the spring melt there was usually snow cover on the ground.
This year has been different so far, but if the weather guessers are correct, we may be in for a white Christmas. Certainly it will be much colder. The upper air ridge which has allowed warmer-than-average temperatures to hang on until the very cusp of celestial winter is on the move, and Arctic air is expected to flow southward with gusto.
North of the border in Canada, which is also north of the now-shifting upper air ridge, they’ve had record cold and snow. South and east of the High Plains there has also been unexpected cold and snow.