Wintry Weather and a Balky Furnace

We woke up this morning - always a good way to start a day. It was a little above freezing outside, and significantly warmer inside.

On the down side, the furnace had quit during the night.

It's about 12:20 now, someone's been here to see what the furnace trouble was: and fixed our pilot light. The house is warming up to winter-normal now.

The situation could have been a lot worse. Quite a few folks in this part of the state lost power yesterday.

And, I see, St. Cloud set a new record for rainfall:

"Wind Storm downs powerlines, trees"
Jim Maurice, WJON WJON Local News (October 27, 2010)

"High winds and heavy rain moved through the area yesterday (Tuesday). The National Weather Service is reporting our highest wind gust at 58 miles an hour last night.

"The strong winds caused many people throughout central Minnesota to lose power. East Central Energy is reporting as many as 2,600 customers without power during the overnight. They say they still have 900 customers without electricity. Xcel Energy says they had over 9,000 customers in greater Minnesota without power at one time, but they are down to 3700 customers now....

"...If you have a tennis match scheduled at Gold's Gym in Sartell today (Wednesday), you're going to have to reschedule. The manager says their inflatable dome has a 30-40 foot tear in it, due to the strong winds last night, causing it to deflate. He says they're hoping to get it fixed and back up by the end of the day.

"We also set a rainfall record for the second day in a row. We officially had 1.44 inches at the St. Cloud Regional Airport. Breaking the old record of 1.33 set in 1941. We've now collected over 2 1/2 inches of rain since Sunday. And, after being dry for most of the month, we're actually .62" above normal now for October....

There was a powdering of snow on the ground in the morning, but it doesn't look like we'll get the one or two inches forecast. Can't say I'd be disappointed to miss that. For the sake of trick-or-treaters, if nothing else.

I took some photos yesterday afternoon. The folks across the street from us lost a branch that's maybe three or four inches in diameter.


Mid-afternoon on South 9th. October 26, 2010.


A closer look at that downed branch. October 26, 2010.


About 4:20 in the afternoon: brisk weather for a walk. October 26, 2010.