Another Friday Morning

Good morning out there!

• It's about 22 degrees, and we had a few inches of snow overnight. AccuHunch says 2 to 3 inches; it's hard to tell, here, because the wind was howling out of the southwest the entire time, and the snow - when it wasn't blowing sideways - was blowing in circles.
• The vehicles have snow on the top and one side (east), which confirms the westerly winds ... but I would have guessed less than an inch at my place.
• The temp is actually above normal, this morning, which feels nice. It's supposed to remain steady at about 23 or 24 degrees until mid-day, and then start to drop off again - or guesseth AccuHunch. 24 is about normal for our day-time high.

• The Muni's budget shortfall (and aren't they all having budget issues, these days?) is currently projected at $17 million. The former mayor-now-Senator Begich says he knew about it last September, but it was only two to four million, then. He accuses the new administration and/or city assembly of "rearranging it to make it look bigger." Hmmm. I'm not sure I'd have given the Assembly that much credit for ingenuity ...

• Mt. Redoubt is still rumbling and ruminating, but not much of anything else. We all have procedures in place for dealing with an eruption, if the winds blow the ash this way.
• The USGS says that the ash, if an eruption occurs, would take about 4 hours to reach Anchorage. That's plenty of time to contact business owners to shut down & send customers home, turn off HVAC systems, and cover any sensitive electronics. We hope.

Everybody have a good day - and let's be careful out there. Cheers!