Good morning! I mentioned yesterdays storms here in central Minnesota. At that time, and now until later in the day at work did I hear about Duluth Minnesota and the animals in the zoo (a polar bear and a seal escaped when the water rose high enough they could swim out of their cages! And unfortunately, in some cases a few animals drowned).
Ok… that is a downer way to start a post.
In better news, today, if I dare say it out loud looks as though it could be….
sunny.
I hate to even say it out loud as yesterday was off and on too. I would look out the window at work and see the sun come out and think yes! Deck time! Then ten minutes later it would be gray again.. than later sunny… then, well, the gray won out.
And looking at today’s forecast is calls for storms… again.
Ok.. that’s a downer post isn’t it?
Well – for now there is sun so that is what I am going with and maybe this song is premature… but I need it so here we go:
Ok – as part of my book room lets get out act together project 2012 (you will see more on this in the coming weeks…) I have a book giveaway today:
Gorgeous cover yes? This is a duplicate for me so leave me a comment today about your EXTREME weather memories (or maybe they are current…) and I will enter you into a chance to win this book. I will keep this open until next Tuesday.
Have a super day!
Book Journey 
I just posted my summer reading list and this book is on it … fate 🙂 My most extreme weather memory was a hurricane in Jamaica when I was a kid. Going through it was bad – especially when it lifted an entire section of the room right off and it blew off into the sky never to be seen again. But afterwards – let’s say we had an electric stove and no electricity & water for weeks … yeah – it was bad.
Tanya that is crazy you just posted about the same book I pulled off my “dups” shelf! 😛 Wow about the hurricane – we have been through a tornado – but not a hurricane.
So sad to hear about those animals.
Predictable at the best, rain is predicted to last for the next three weeks here in the north east of England.
I was saddened too Tracy, that had to be so frightening for them!
i was wondering how you were doing…you were just at the duluth book sale! in chicago we are cooling off to 85 degrees and the chance of rain keeps diminishing…good luck!
Yes! I called up to our neighbors near out cabin which is about an hour past Duluth and they said part of the road was closed!
Hmmm….can my extreme weather not include rain? Sheila, we’d love to have your rain down here in Central Texas. We did get some over the winter and it was much appreciated, but we were so dry and our lakes so far down, we’re still not anywhere near where we should be. Extreme weather? Last year was the hottest and driest on record in our area, I believe. Over 100 days of above 100 temps. And our humidity levels are not like those in AZ or NM. We moved into our new house last year on a day that it was 107. Way too hot for me. We had the big wildfire east of here in Bastrop last year. Of course, we are also no strangers to floods, tornados, and even hurricanes up from the Gulf.
The book looks very good, by the way. Thanks for the giveaway! Stay dry and pray for your storms to shift a bit down Interstate 35 – south, south, south!!
I think extreme heat totally counts Kay! 100 days over 100 degrees? Yowza…. I think that would even make this summer heat lover wave the white flag!
My most extreme weather memory is when it snowed the winter I was 10! That might not seem like a very extreme weather experience for some, but I’m from Florida so it was a huge deal for us :). Although it didn’t really stick to the ground we went outside and made snowballs off of what landed on the cars and made baby snowmen :).
LOL – I get that Colleen! 😀
Well if we are keeping it current my memory is from yesterday!!
It was graduation day from high school for my son. Weather here in South Jersey? High of 96 with it feeling like 105 and yes it was held outside in the football stadium! No shade no break! We all made it but boy was it hot!!!
Wow Maura, that is a hot event! Glad you survived it!
Wow, animals swimming off is pretty extreme. Glad you’ve got sun now. We also having sun, still expecting Bad Weather – but I’m sceptical. We’ll see.
We had over an hour of very heavy rain (watering can in front of camera kind of rain) a few weeks ago which is very rare here. Usually it’s 10 minutes and then it’s back to drizzling. (Don’t enter me)
And surprisingly it has remained sunny all day Judith. Later I am actually taking a bike ride. A BIKE RIDE! I dont think I have been on my bike in a month!
Oh, a bike ride! I hope you do while the weather is good. I rode to the hospital (for a quick test) this morning – 75 mins in total, which was as good as a work out. 🙂
I read about those poor zoo animals – so sad. I think my most extreme weather memory involves a tornado at my brother’s high school graduation. It literally just formed out of nowhere to the left of the stadium with this huge sucking, loud noise and people went nuts. I’m surprised no one was hurt from the tornado or each other!
A tornado at a graduation Brooke??? YIkes! So glad no one was hurt!
In 1997, I was living in the foothills right beneath a huge dam that overflowed and flooded the town. We had to evacuate for a few days. When I returned, my house was okay; it was high enough up that it had managed to escape damage.
My daughter-in-law, who was living in the guest house (with my son, of course) and expecting their first child (Fiona), believes that the house was spared because she went around anointing everything.
She could be right. Or we were just lucky…that time.
I’m hoping your weather improves.
Wow Laurel evacuating your home! We almost had to o that in the tornado of 2001, but we stayed home and did the repairs while we still lived in the house… I was too tired to go anywhere.
I love the anointing story….LOL that is pretty sweet!
My most extreme weather memory is when we had an ice storm in, I believe, ’93. EVERYTHING was frozen solid. Tree limbs were everywhere. School was closed, phone lines were down, power was out, most businesses were closed for 2 weeks. My dad had a portable gas grill/skillet type thing and I swear our meals consisted of SPAM + whatever other non-perishable items for the entire two weeks. Ugh. I will never eat SPAM again. Another not so great thing was that it was really freaking cold and we did not have a fireplace. Oh, and we had these lanterns we used for lighting and I cannot tell you how much soot was on everything…and how much I blew out of my nose. Ew.
We were extremely blessed, though. We survived while some, sadly, did not. If I learned anything during those 2 weeks it was to appreciate what I have and the luxuries and necessities so easily afforded to some of us…and my father for always being prepared.
SPAM…. lol…sorry, you brought back childhood memories 😉 Can I ask where you live, or where you experienced these extreme temps? I have read stories like this about the Grand Marais MN area, so I am curious…
I’m considering the last year extreme… for Chicago anyway. No snow last winter and now no rain for three weeks and counting. People actually complaining about endless days of sunshine. I better go water my garden now …
I grew up in Nebraska. Tornado warnings and snow/ice storms are, well, seasons. When I moved to Arizona, I was pretty unimpressed with the “severe” weather here. Yeah, it’s hot. Yeah, it rains hard occasionally, but only twice a year for a total of three minutes. But the major dust storm (haboob) last year finally left me awed. In a matter of seconds, I went from seeing the house across the street to seeing nothing but red-brown dust. The next morning the layer of dirt on everything was thick enough that you could leave footprints in it!
Btw, you all can totally send some of your rain my way. I don’t recall when it last rained but I think it may have been in April…
Thought about you last night when the news was telling about all the rain up north! I’m like Kay, we need the rain down here in Texas! So send it on down!!!
My extreme weather memory is from waaayyy back. My senior year of high school, 1979, our town was hit by not one but three tornadoes. It took out most of the southwestern part of our town, including the neighborhood where my mom and I lived. We took refuge with neighbors across the street to ride out the storm and when it was over, the bathroom we were huddled in was the only room left standing in their house. Our house was completely destroyed.
To this day, I still get nervous when the skies cloud up and turn an icky green color. I start looking for somewhere to get to!
I would love to enter for The Angel Makers. Extreme weather… I have so many to choice from! In MN we had tornado’s roll down our street taking everything with it, when I was 6 months pregnant it rained so hard the first floor of our appt building flooded with 6 FEET of water! Our appt was on the second floor, where I was stranded for two weeks while the water receeded.
And let’s talk about our first year here, in NJ. No power for 20 days! From blizzard’s to hurricane’s, earthquakes to the October snowstorm! 🙂
ps: I couldn’t resist sharing this craziness!!! HA
Five hurriances in one week.
My son attends the University of Minnesota, but he is home for the summer! His girlfriend
has kept him updated on the weather…I have a memory of my dad, mom, sister and I driving
home and there was a funnel cloud behind us, still in the air! Dad drove quickly and made
right angle turns. We got home safely…Many thanks, Cindi
jchoppes[at]hotmail[dot]com
Hmmm…extreme weather? Perhaps when the pond in our backyard overflowed into the basement?
Have a great day!
I remember some really major storms last year. They were expecting tornadoes in our area, so my husband, our son, and I spent the night sleeping on mattresses in our downstairs hallway between the stairs and the living room with the basement door right next to us in case a tornado landed. That’s a lot of fun with a three year old!
Thanks for the giveaway and I hope your rain lets up soon!
Thanks for the giveaway, and I enjoy your creative questions!
My extreme weather memory is in the summer of 1976 in France: it was a very long summer drought, no one was allowed to wash their cars or water their gardens, it was 100 or more for a while.
BUT I just love the heat. and I remember using these gorgeous summer afternoons lying in the grass and listening to the Tour De France on my portable radio – no TV at the time in my tiny French village. it was awesome. oh, I was 10, but still remember the feeling as if it were just yesterday
Emma @ Words And Peace
ehc16e at yahoo dot com
I love the heat too… I am definitely a sun girl!
Since I live an hour east of Duluth, we usually get hit with their weather pattern…but by the time it got to us it fizzled a bit, so we didn’t have massive flooding like they did!
I remember one fourth of July we had a horrible rain/thunder storm. Similar to what there was yesterday. My cousins and all our kids went downtown that evening waiting for the festivities to begin. We always have a fire truck run on main street right before the fireworks start. Anyway, we were obviously the last to know that the events were postponed because of the storm. We looked like such dorks, being the only ones on main street swinging our glow sticks around for the 4th of July!
Joanne – that is right, you do live close glad everything is good where you are.
How sad about the animals!!
My worst extreme weather memory was the worst hurricane season I can remember. It was 2005 and we had 4 hit, one after the other. Thank God our house was spared, but we were without electricity for 2 1/2 weeks. The worst was Katrina, which did major damage here, but destroyed Louisiana. I still get a sick feeling when I think of all the damage Katrina caused there.
That was hard to hear about the animals Vicki. Wow – no electricity for 2 1/2 weeks?
I read about those zoo animals – awful. Most extreme weather here was the year we had a horrendous ice storm with lots of damage and a devastating flood in one year.
Its amazing how all over the world we have out tales of extreme weather!
I remember a snowstorm that hit Baltimore about 33 years ago
when I was living in my first apartment. I had not gone to the
store to get any food, so my Mom and all of my siblings drove
over with a “goodie box” and it took them 6 hours to get to my place when it would normally take 30 minutes!! It was so bad that the Mayor back then came on TV and told everyone to stay inside because emergency services would not be available for anyone. Wrong move!!!! The National Guard had to be called out because people begain rioting and looting in the middle of the snowstorm!!!!
Oh wow!!! That sounds really frightening!
From this side of the world it is always a complaint of no rain, insufficient rain, hardly any rain!!!! we have hot hot weather right now and that is a constantgrumble! the grass is always greener onthe other side.
Good point Mystica. My grass…. currently is really REALLY green (from all the rain). 😛
I remember a blizzard when I was about 10, I was staying overnight at a friend’s house when it hit so I was stuck there for 3 days. The snow drifted up to her second story window! My dad was finally able to get to me by snowmobile and it was a good thing because after 3 days I was getting a little sick of her. Our friendship kind of fizzled after that lol
Some of those Minnesota blizzards are just frightening… especially if you are stuck somewhere other than home 😉
I’ve lived through some pretty scary cyclones. Every Summer we would be hit with at least one big one. Crazy winds & rain. The sugar cane would be flattened & that’s tough stuff.
Wow. I can imagine cycles are pretty freaky!
We sure could use the rain that you are getting here in Indiana. We are soooo dry! Today we are getting a bit of a break in the heat. The humidity has dropped a bit and our heat index should be only double digits today instead of triple. They are reporting that our weather could out do the weather we had when I graduated from high school in 1988. I sure hope not!
Wow! Sounds like there is extreme weather happening everywhere!
A few years ago Middle Tenn had the “flood”. It rained for days. All the creeks and rivers overflowed and homes were ruined. We were lucky, but many were not. That weekend my daughter went on her first sleep away camping trip and they got trapped there. They were safe and hardly knew what was happening though.
Our house is up on a hill but from the looks of Duluth Minnesota – that does now matter! Glad everyone was safe!
Thanks for the giveaway!
Sleepaway camp, out in a sailboat on the Chesapeake Bay during a severe thunder and lightening storm! Don’t worry, I made it!
Wow!!!! Glad you are ok!
My extreme weather memory was just a few years ago. My husband was out working in our backyard and I looked out and saw a tornado about a mile away or so. He was oblivious and he was too far from the house to be heard. Thankfully the storm dissipated and he wasn’t hurt.