Not exactly "vacation" weather

No, that picture is not me. You may have noticed me taking the back-burner the last couple days. I am taking a week off and spending a lot of time with friends and family. The picture is from Ms. Rose, the Graham High School teacher, who has been in the Arctic Circle the last month and a half doing research on the ocean life below the ice. The image is of her pointing to a lenticular cloud. They are, hands down, my favorite cloud and are very rare here in Ohio. You need very specific conditions for the clouds to form and if the conditions last long enough it will look like pancakes stacked on a plate. I have only seen them twice in Ohio... Once with an over riding, on-coming front and another time when a thunderstorm was growing so rapidly it lifted a sheet of air to form the flying-saucer-looking cloud. She is expected to return to Ohio just before Christmas and I can't wait to interview her on the morning show the week after Christmas...when I am back at work.

Speaking of my vacation. One of the things I enjoy the most is not shaving. I have a decent scruff going right now and maybe before I shave it I will grab a picture. I visited my childhood church where my mother had a big roll in the Sunday services. I spent some time on the family farm and got to hang out with my two wonderful youngest siblings and then Monday we visited my grandparents in Cincinnati and they were overjoyed with the gift we got for them. (Not expensive, but lots of time and love) I would tell you what it is, but we still have two more of the same gifts to give out to Dawn's family. I will show you after the holidays. While most people take time off in the middle of the summer and spend it on the beach (kinda wish I was there)... I am taking it off with a week of rain and clouds. I wish it was sunny and warm, but ehhh, I love Ohio and the people that live here too much to go anywhere else with my saved-up vacation time.

Alright, on to the forecast... the main reason I finally logged onto the computer in days... I have been keeping an eye on the models on my Android phone the last few days and here is a look at what our predicted snow depth for Christmas morning, according to the last for model runs of the GFS:
The models yesterday were very hopeful for at least some snow on the ground for Christmas morning. The models have trended away from snowfall with the disturbance coming through Christmas Eve, but don't give up hope completely. In winters past the models that come out about five days out hold true better than the models two days out, so we will have to wait and see and I will keep you posted, no worries.

As for the next few days: rainy, mild, and foggy. I can barely see down my street right now because the rain has stopped and now it is like pea soup fog. The rain will be the heaviest Tuesday night and Wednesday night, but breaks in between. Wednesday and Thursday will be the warmest of the week and then much cooler for the end of the week heading into Christmas with highs back in the 30's. I will be back on before Christmas with an update, but get used to rainy, gloomy conditions. Trust me, I wish I could change that. I will keep the sweater vests ready for re-deployment next week when I return to work. Until next time, have a good one!

Best,
Andrew Buck Michael