Saturday, January 21, 2012

Saturday morning Sheba and/or Nina picture


We finally got some snow, on 12 and 13 January. I don't have official totals (the National Weather Service site said we had 4-8 inches (10-20 cm) of snow cover after the snow went through, which is as close as I can get to an actual number), but after the wind drove it into drifts, some parts of the yard had no snow cover at all, and others had about 36 inches (0.9 m).

I'd like to have quite a bit more snow than this. I'm not particularly confident about my numbers here, but based on what I could find on the net about how much snow is normal vs. how much has actually fallen, it looks like most of Iowa has gotten 8-12 inches (20-30 cm) less snow than normal so far this year. Which, eight inches is the sort of amount that could come from a single decent-sized winter storm, and maybe I've been spoiled by several snowier-than-usual winters recently. But still. I'll feel a bit cheated if we don't get at least one good, heavy storm like we did last year.

Sheba's coat doesn't seem to me like it could be that warm, but I always want to come in before she does, so I guess it must be warmer than it looks. It's also possible that tennis-ball-chasing takes priority over all other considerations.


4 comments:

Plowing Through Life (Martha) said...

Great photo! Looks like she's having a blast. We haven't gotten much snow here either this year. And we didn't get it until recently.

Lea's Menagerie said...

Hey, I always enjoy visiting your blog to see your pets (well, and the plants, too). If you are just throwing the tennis ball, and she is doing ALL the chasing, the exercise is keeping her warm!
Hope you get the snow you want! Have a great week-end!
Lea

Diana said...

For more accurate snow total you might get lucky and have a CoCoRaHS observer nearby. Go to www.cocorahs.org and you'll see a map of the US. Click around and you can pull up a map of just Iowa. Then you can adjust what you want information about - type of precipitation (including total snow on the ground), date and even county level.

THIS is the data used by meteorologists to improve their forecasts and check the accuracy of their Accu-weather systems.

Paul said...

Sheba's enjoying herself immensely, it seems. hehe Don't underestimate how much heat a body generates with all that running around she's doing.