Hurricane Harbor: West Coast Storms .... Ensemble Models Show Snow... Maybe. From the Land of the Pines..... A Look at Why NC Is Best Place to be in Winter... Beware Long Range Forecasts for Hurricane Season That'll Pop Up Soon the way the Tulips Do!

At least we can paint or draw Snow ....

Hmnnn... thinking.

Storms in the Pacific.

Missing in action in Carolina today.

Quiet day, birds are even chirping.

Life in North Carolina depends on which part of the state that you live in or are visiting on your Winter Vacation. It'll snow in Boone and some relative in Miami asks "did you get a lot of snow" and you say again for the 1000 time "no that's up in the mountains" and the same relative calls when a hurricane hits Wilmington and asks "are you okay up there, I heard you got a hurricane?" and you say "no that's down by the beach" for what seems like the 1000 time. Raleigh is the Piedmont, it's the capital and it was moved here from New Bern after the Governor's Palace was flooded twice at the conjunction of two beautiful rivers that make New Bern a beautiful, scenic, historic place to visit. Supposedly there was a Tavern with good beer as well and to be fair beer and breweries is a huge part of North Carolina life.

Hurricanes usually happen on the coastal plains, tho not always, and snow storms usually impact the mountains, but not always.

And, it's those "not always" events that make those of us that live in the fairly safe Piedmont cities pray we see snow every winter. We do get beastly hot summers and occaisional tornadoes. Usually, at least once a year, Mother Nature dusts of slams us with snow to remind us she can get us anytime she wants even though we are not in the mountains. Happens. So far this year it has not happened, despite early Winter Predictions that this Winter would be like the 2009/2010 Winter when we had so much snow I thought that was something that happened every year in Raleigh, but alas I was wrong. It was fun tho...

Even the GFS is stingy this year.

Last day of January.

Snow in the mountains.

Rain in the Piedmont.

Storms by the coast.

Thursday February 8th.

Snow up in Canada

A cyclone like looking low off the coast.

Monday on the 5th there's a sliver of a chance..

..snow may happen near Charlotte.

There's a thought........my 2nd NC city.

The GFS has been fixed it seems.

It's not promising us everything always every day.

There was a recent model that showed a Winter Storm.

In the Raleigh Durham area,

Okay it was an Ensemble Mode

Yes, that ensemble model showed a wild storm that did seem to come in too fast like an out of control 18 wheeler careening everywhere all over an icy highway. Ensemble models are where we go when even the GFS shows nothing, nada ...nowhere outside the mountains.

I get it.

And I also have beautiful blue skies and cold air and sunshine and lots of breweries to go enjoy good local beer and drown my winter dreams in sudsy sorrow while debating a trip somewhere that it might snow.

Yes, as I always say Weather is Locational. Someone with a drought going on snow wise really doesn't want to look at pictures of snow falling in Montana, it's almost painful.

As we move towards February and many start discussing the 2024 Hurricane Season online, remember that long range early forecasts for this winter promised Winter Storms likely in the Piedmont and then everyone who was posting said those took them down or pretended they never posted them.

Long range models are fun to watch ....especially when you're bored without any real weather...and yet they are long range and often something changes.

But hope springs eternal as we enter February later this week. Isn't it amazing we are still in January and everyone wants to write off the rest of the Winter. Not me. I take it one day at a time weather wise. I love the winter here with or without snow. It's cold, I'm nice and comfortable in my warm PJs under the covers typing on my laptop watching the lil fake fireplace in the bedroom that is basically a fancy floor heater but hey it's all about illusions. Nespresso was good this morning and I'm planning my day. Going to take a walk and look at the Nandina that's in bloom, plants with lil red berries that are in abundance so the lil critters can get some juicy fruit even in cold January.

We also have a Winter Camelia that blooms too!

That's one thing I love about NC.

I lived in NYC once a long time ago.

Yes, I had winter but it was slushy and dirty.

All the trees were bare there.

Snow became dirty gray in a NY minute.

In Raleigh we have green trees in Winter.

Carolina Pines and Camelias.

And flowers that bloom in January.

Nice.... very nice.

With or without snow I'll be just find.

And or I'll hit the road :)

https://jcra.ncsu.edu/horticulture/our-plants/results-by-name-serial-number.php?serial=100798

Here's a link to the site with the pictures above and it's a great look at the type of plants that grow here all year round, even in the winter. I'm an alumni parent, my daughter graduated from NC State! Most excellent Weather Program there as well!

I moved here because I got remarried and my husband's business is here. I was also ready to leave Florida if need be as it's not the Florida I grew up in and while I still love it Florida doesn't really love me. I get daily headaches there from the mold that's part of the soil from the constant rain and humidity. I am actually "allergic" to Miami Dade County Soil shown by a huge red bump on allergy tests over the years.

Years back my best friend Sharon and I made up a list of places we "could" move to that had certain important priorities in our lives:

Gets Hurricanes

Has a Football Team.

Good Airport (we had kids in various states)

Chabad Synagogue.

Gets Snow.

Less Traffic (why Raleigh is better than Charlotte tho Charlotte can be more fun)

Has beaches you can easily get to.

Mountains would be good too.

So when I met my future husband, North Carolina worked and in my case I'm old Southern and love that warm country folksy feeling along with fresh collards to make for dinner in the depths of winter (from Farmers Market Sunday) and well I do know how to use maple and molasses (over biscuits and sometimes even in coffee) and I like dark beer, porters or an occassional Guinness! I'm still praying for the Carolina Panthers to get it together again.

If you are still reading you are a diehard BobbiStorm fan as there really is no weather to discuss by me, no squalls out on the Gulfstream and only memories of El Nino Years in California back when I lived there with my ex-husband who was a Valley Boy ....really, San Fernando Valley but we lived in Long Beach and West LA for a long while. No hurricanes so I studied earthquake faults! Learn to go with the flow...

Enjoy life.

Enjoy weather.

Find something you enjoy.

Go for it!

Do it!

Beauty of Weather is that at least up in these parts of the world it is always changing and as much as I'll hate to see Winter go I'll look forward to the Magnola Trees in bloom with a flower that has the most heavenly scent. Azalea blooms in multiple colors and every street looks like a cover for Southern Living Magazine. And, oh my gosh the Dogwood is legendary in Raleigh.

Hoping Mother Nature surprises me with a dusting of snow.

Dream whatever weather you want...

Besos BobbiStorm

Ps I'm probably the only person you'll meet who prefers summer in Miami over flying South for the Winter and there's always storms to chase there ;) If it's gonna be beastly hot at least Miami has an incredible breeze off Biscayne Bay vs Raleigh that feels like the pits of hell. Sorry, but being honest ...that's why the locals go up to the mountains or down to the beach.

Thanks for reading and playing along with my need to write this morning and share my thoughts on Winter 2024 and give a caution to early forecasts for Hurricane Season written in January or February...

One of my all time favorite songs.

My mother was a singer.

She loved music.

So do I