People often think if they move from the north that they will never see snow again.  While they might be true for the most part if they stay on the Crystal Coast, you do not have to venture very far inland to find some snow.

While the snow storm from this past weekend was a historic one, there have been plenty similar ones.  When I grew up near Winston-Salem in the fifties, I can remember one March when it snowed on every Tuesday.  We hardly went to school that month.

This storm dumped 9-10 inches on the Winston-Salem area.  We were further north in the mountains around Roanoke, Virginia.  We managed to get 20 inches of snow.  Places in West Virginia and the Virginia Highlands got close to three feet of snow.

It takes about six hours of driving to reach Roanoke, Virginia in case anyone is desperate to see snow.  We still have plenty of it.  In fact the snow plow just reached our home this afternoon.
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Cool air continues to slide into Eastern North Carolina.  Yesterday we had beautiful blue skies.  The afternoon was warm enough for a short walk on the beach.

As you can see there were no crowds present.  In fact mine was the only car in the parking lot at Third St. Beach.  When I went by the much larger Eastern Regional Beach Access, there were also no cars in that lot.

I guess the cool weather is keeping all but the most dedicated fishermen inside this week.

This morning we had our first serious frost of the year.  I made the decision to not cover my tomato plant.  I think December 17 is a reasonable day to declare the tomato growing season over.

While it is looking like the coast is going to have a cold wet weekend, other areas especially the mountains of North Carolina and Virginia are in the bull's eye of a monster snow storm.  If the most dire predictions hold true, Roanoke, Va., our other home could get 20 or more inches of snow.
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Though the picture is an early morning one, you can tell by the color of the water that we are headed for blue sky today.  That's certainly a nice change from all the clouds that we have seen.

Even nicer is that the blue skies are supposed to stay around for today and tomorrow.  Then we are back to clouds and rain for Friday afternoon through Saturday night.

Yesterday was a nice warm day, and I finally managed enough holiday spirit to put up some outside Christmas decorations.  I am glad I did that yesterday since it is much cooler today.

The older you get, the harder it is to get those decorations done.  If our granddaughter was coming for a Christmas visit to the coast, it would be totally different.  We will get to see her during the holidays, but it will likely be in the mountains.

I did some looking at long range weather forecasts for Christmas Day.  I think the Carolina coast can abandon hopes for a white Christmas.  Perhaps some of the mountains will pick up some snow this weekend, and it will be cold enough for it to stay around.
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For about an hour or two yesterday we had some nice sunshine, but it disappeared quickly.  I was even planning to sneak out of work early yesterday so I could catch a nice sunset.

Well before the end of the day, the clouds had come back.  I think we are all in need of a week or two of blue skies and dry air.

At least we are still waking up to temperatures in the sixties.  That remains a great treat and something that will make the winter shorter.

Our heavy rains have not materialized.  We have only gotten three quarters of an inch this week.

If was also nice  to see Edmonton, Alberta warming up to minus 22 this morning.  That's a huge improvement from minus 51.

In spite of the rain slated for this afternoon, the weather has improved.  We are over thirty degrees warmer this morning than we were yesterday morning when we brushed with freezing temperatures for the first time this season.

It is hard to complain about the thirties when you are in the sixties the next morning.  It would almost seem ungrateful to complain about our temperatures when you have places like Edmonton, Alberta enduring -49F while we are at 64F at 9 AM in the morning.  My math tells me that Edmonton is 113 degrees colder than we are.

When I opened the garage door to head out for the newspaper this morning, warm air rushed into the garage.  It was warm enough that I left the garage door open when I came back from the mailbox.

Yesterday's close call did some damage to my tomato plant which still has a couple of tomatoes working towards breaking my December 17 record for last tomato pulled.  read more »

Even here on the North Carolina coast we cannot escape winter indefinitely.  Today the cold weather caught up with us.

While we did not have frost on the western shores of the White Oak, we did get down to 34F which is pretty close.

There was the expectation that we would warm into the upper forties during the day.  Unfortunately that did not happen.

We were in Morehead City for some holiday shopping and a medical appointment when we decided to do a quick visit to Beaufort.  We usually make it to Beaufort a couple times a month, but I guess the busy fall has kept us away.

We had just turned onto Front Street when I decided to take a picture.  I was not outside long before I figured out that the wind was blowing.  Also it was hard not to notice the afternoon temperature was still in the thirties.

When I checked the car's outside thermometer, it was reading 36F.  Thirty-six with a strong breeze is a very cold day on the Crystal Coast.  In fact I am not certain we had any days colder than that last winter.
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I should have guessed it from last night's sunset that I captured at Clyde Phillip's Seafood located between the bridges in Swansboro.

Winter usually makes for very clear, impressive sunsets, and last night was one of those.  It was breezy standing there in the disappearing light.  On top of that the temperature was just getting ready to slide below fifty degrees Fahrenheit.  I did not hang around long after I got my sunset shots.

This morning, the thermometer was reading 34F, and there was still a persistent wind which made my fleece feel nice and cozy as I walked out to get the newspaper.

Last night I picked all of my green tomatoes except one which I hope will break my December 2007 record for last tomato off of the vine.

Our predicted sunshine has yet to show up, and with the persistent breezes that could make for a cold day.

Here are more pictures from yesterday.

Another storm has come and gone.  While we added some rain to the thirty plus inches we have received in the last ninety days, it was not a lot of rain in our area.

I did hear some people mentioning some thunderstorms last night, but we did not get them up on the White Oak River.  The wind, however, has been howling since Tuesday night.

With that in mind we headed over to Emerald Isle this afternoon to check out the surf.  I did not see any particularly large waves, but the surf was churned ujp as you can see from the picture.

I posted a few more pictures of the surf and beach online.

It appears we are headed for some additional damp weather this weekend.  I think it is about time we had some prolonged sunshine so we can dry things out a little.

At least our moisture is not white and does not require shoveling.

Talk about a weather roller coaster.  We are supposed to get to 72F tomorrow (Wednesday) afternoon while the northern part of the country is enduring a blizzard.

As a former Canadian, I can tell you that the winds that come after a serious blizzard are sometimes worse than the blizzard itself.  In our case those winds will push colder air our way.

Tonight we are at 65F at 11 PM.  By Thursday morning we are forecast to be at 31F which is pretty cold by our standards here on the coast.  It it looks like it is really going to get that cold, I might have to pick the rest of my green tomatoes.

I think it is a little unfair we have to endure some the blizzard spawned weather effects.  It is not our blizzard.

I do not have much to complain about since we had a tomato that I picked on December 2 for lunch today.  The taste and deep red color was a nice reminder of summer.

I guess the thunderstorms that are in the forecast will serve to remind us of summer also.

Our Thursday morning 31F on the way to a high of 50F is a whole lot better than those places where it will not get above zero for the next few days.
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It has definitely cooled off.  This morning one of my thermometers recorded 32.5F.

On top of that there was frost on the windshield of my truck and in the slightly higher spot in our front yard.

It is too early to tell if the tomato plants were damaged.  At this point, it is just a game to see how late I can pick a tomato.

At least the skies are blue.

The wind is also blowing so I suspect this is not going to be a particularly warm day.

It is the time of year for things to slow down over on the beaches.  While it has been warm enough for beach walks, most of us have been busy with the holidays.

Then there has been the wet weather.  We have had enough rain to float some good sized boats.  There are still some wet spots over on Emerald Isle.

I snapped the picture in the post over on Emerald Isle yesterday at the Western Regional Access just off Islander Drive.

We usually avoid that beach access until winter, just because of the crowds.  I think the crowds are definitely gone.  With all the rain even the fishing has not been particularly good in the last couple of weeks.

Tomorrow is supposed to be cold (fifties) and rainy here on the coast.  That is much better than the western part of the state, the mountains of Virginia, and a broad area from Richmond to Philadelphia, all of which are supposed to get a few inches of snow.

Today is the earliest date ever when parts of Texas have received snow.  I hope we can leave all snow records alone this year.  read more »

One of things that all of us in the area can feel this week is the reality of this week's announcement of 30,000 more troops for Afghanistan.

While other areas read about deployments in their newspapers, here on the Crystal Coast, you can tell it is happening by what you see and feel.

We often hear and even feel the pop-pop of mortars as tropps prepare for their assignments.  That always intensifies as the deployment time nears.  And like this morning, aircraft including helicopters as seen just above my deck are much more prevalent in our skies.

I will go along with the local saying that what we are hearing is the sound of freedom.

Still they have a job to do, and I know they will do it well. I pray that they will return safely.

Wednesday was an impressive weather day.  We had driven back to our home on the coast on Tuesday to avoid what appeared a nasty weather system.

Most of the time when we try something like that, the weather system speeds up and whacks us anyway.  That was not the case on Tuesday.  We had dry roads the whole drive from Roanoke, Virginia to Cape Carteret, NC.

Even early yesterday morning things were fairly dry.  It took us a while to get moving on Wednesday since we had gotten home so late at night.  It was around noon when we got to the Swansboro post office to pick up our mail.  It was raining steadily by then.

We refueled our pickup truck and headed over to Mike's on Emerald Isle for lunch.  We had taken our truck on this trip because our cat, Malarky, had made the trip with us.  With the truck he has a big flat console between us where he can ride when he is not curled up on me.  We do travel with a cage but he never uses it.  He had a very good trip this time with hardly a peep from him.
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I am back from our Thanksgiving trip to the mountains of Virginia.  It is always nice to enjoy some morning sunrises along the Blue Ridges Mountains and to walk along the clear mountain rivers.

There are some other great pleasures that come with living in the south.  One is that you can still find beautiful green bluegrass in the mountains even into December.  I have had to mow our yard in Roanoke, Va. as late as December 11.

Here along the coast, the green has been gone from our centipede yards for a long time. There are people who over seed their yards, but I can take the reddish brown yards because I know it means less work.
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