Final February Sunday Sunny Warm Sikes Lake Nature Communing

What you are looking at here is the final Sunday of February, noon view of Sikes Lake.

Sikes Lake was my nature communing location today, along with throngs of other nature communers, enjoying the return of warm air, a blue sky, and no wind, rendering Sikes Lake into mirror-like calm.

35 degrees above freezing, as measured by the Fahrenheit method. 

35 degrees above freezing is 67 degrees, which felt relatively balmy after shivering near zero and below only a couple days ago.

Shorts and a short-sleeved t-shirt were all the outwear needed today. 

Looking at the long-range weather forecast, well into March, again showing no more days where the temperature dips below freezing.

But, we have been lulled into relief previously by the long-range forecast, as recently as a couple weeks ago, showing no more freezing days.

And then that un-predicted Polar Vortex descended from the far north, chilling most of continental America.

So, I won't be too shocked if such happens again, before we get to the point where this year's revolve around the Sun gets to its reliably heating location.

I read this morning my old home zone of Western Washington is getting drenched with an Atmospheric River, the first major drenching of the year.

When I lived in Washington, what is now called an Atmospheric River, was known as a Pineapple Express.

I like the Pineapple Express name better than Atmospheric River...

No Pineapple Express Is Getting Me Wet In Texas Today or Tomorrow

Above is Seattle's 5 Day Forecast, starting with today's arrival of a very wet Pineapple Express coming in from the  Pacific Ocean water in the Hawaiian Islands zone. Regular rain in the Pacific Northwest is not of the Texas downpour in copious amounts style. Instead it is a slow motion rain that can go on for days, taking a long time to accumulate an inch, unlike Texas, where an inch can easily fall in a few minutes.

Like I said, slow motion rain is the Pacific Northwest Norm.

Except for a Pineapple Express.

That is the only time a Pacific Northwest rain can resemble a Texas Downpour. I recollect the Pineapple Express that brought on the Pacific Northwest's Thanksgiving Day Storm, back in the 1990s. It rained 5 inches in just a couple hours. I had never seen anything like it.

Now, below is today's 5 Day Forecast for my current Fort Worth location. And people ask me why I live here rather than my previous location....

It Is A Cloudy Saturday In Texas With No Pineapple Express Expected

The 2nd Saturday of the last month of 2010 is not a bright blue sky day in Texas, as you can see by looking at the view from my patio.

I do not believe rain is in the forecast.

Unlike what is going to hit Western Washington this afternoon in the form of a Pineapple Express zipping in from the Tropics, expected to dump 8 inches of rain in the mountains, 3 inches in the lowlands.

The Pacific Northwest has already had a lot of snow fall this snow season. With a Pineapple Express comes rapidly rising temperatures which melts the snowpack, adding more water to the 8 inches of rain, all of it racing downhill to Puget Sound.

I have still not recovered from my respiratory malfunction. This makes me crankier than I usually am.