Winter Storm Leon at Our House

Thomas enjoyed a day off from school due to Winter Storm Leon on Wednesday. The superintendent said the decision was made "out of an abundance of caution." It was probably the right thing to do, especially considering how things went Tuesday in Atlanta. The forecast ranged from 1/4 inch of snow/ice/sleet to 3 inches. It turned out to be mostly rain, though some of it was freezing.

Can you see the frozen rain accumulating on the deck?
(Click on the photo to see it larger!) 8:45am Wed

The only place you could really see the frozen stuff was on the deck.
On other surfaces, it melted on contact. 10:20am Wed

After the rain/sleet/ice stopped, the temp dropped.
Icicles on the trash bin. 2:12pm Wed

Thomas still has our FSU Championship flag on display in the
front yard. The wind had knocked it over. I stood it back up
and almost froze my hands! All the water droplets were ice.

Winter Pool Drama

We've had our fair share of issues in our yard this month (see this as a case in point) and our new trouble is that the pool liner has not enjoyed all the cold weather we've been having.

Wednesday, I noticed the water level was lower than it should have been. I got the hose out (I'd put them both in the garage to protect them from the 20 degree temps) and filled it.

The water level continued to fall. Thursday morning it was down a bit more:

And by Sunday more than half the water was gone:

I called our pool guy and he came over and declared the liner dead. We couldn't find a hole but the cost to get a diver (!!) here to fix and attempt to repair it was formidable, especially since there's no guarantee a patch would work. The liner was not new - but we have replaced it once in the 11 1/2 years we've lived here. With age, it's gotten brittle, and the cold weather probably caused its early demise. I'll share pictures of the new improved pool in a few weeks!

Misty Tallahassee

After all the fog we've been having, it finally got cold - down near freezing. In the mornings instead of fog, we get this amazing mist off all the (warmer than the air) bodies of water. This is Lake Leon at Tom Brown Park, taken December 17th:

A Theory about the Starfish

If you read my post on Tuesday (see it here), you know we were looking for reason(s) why there were so many starfish on the beach on St. George Island. According to this article (shared by Leslie, thank you!), it was likely due to the cold weather. "Thousands of dead starfish littered the beach" in South Carolina in late December after they experienced record severe weather. The article went on to say

marine life can die off in mass kills when water temperatures hover in the mid-40s for any length of time.

We had the coldest December on record in the Tallahassee area but it wasn't until early January that the coastal water in the Gulf of Mexico dropped below 50. As you can see in this graph, late last week the water temp fell to 46 for a full day followed by several hours at 45 before rebounding.

Gulf water temps off the coast of Apalachicola
the week of Jan 9th, from wunderground.com

The good news (presuming the situation here is similar to the one in South Carolina): 

Bell said the starfish die-offs probably aren't frequent or widespread enough to do any serious damage to the overall population. He said nearby populations would quickly move in and that the animals reproduce rapidly.

Read more: http://www.heraldonline.com/2010/12/23/2711228/thousands-of-dead-starfish-wash.html#ixzz1BX4sLISz

 What do you think? Does it sound like a reasonable theory?

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