William Taylor is pictured fighting winter with winter itself. His giant ice sword was the result of temperatures rising into the 40’s on Monday, January 22nd, at the Ranch (Breeze Office).

The single-digit mercury readings of last week will cause for January 2024 to be remembered.

The Breeze weather station registered below zero readings on both the 17th and the 20th.

Below zero readings have been rare in recent years. There has not been a single occasion on which the temperature has dipped to a double-digit minus reading since February 15, 2015, when it plunged to -15°. The -15° reading is the lowest at the Ranch since the turn of the century.

The plus-6 inches of snow that fell during the week is the highest accumulation in at least three years. The most white stuff to fall in a 24-hour period since 2000 was 11 inches on January 22, 2016.

Winter is far from over. Hopefully, climate change and global warming will team to prevent any new low temperature or high snowfall records.