A New Low

Last year I wrote a weather app which I named WeatherX. It sits on my computer screen and tells me the outside temperature, which it gets from the National Weather Service. It can save temperature readings to a log file at five minute intervals and then later it can plot those temperature readings. Below is a screenshot with WeatherX running (red arrow). It’s not much bigger than a screen icon. At this moment it’s telling me the temperature outside is 52°F.

So what did temperatures do overnight? I can open the log file and read the numbers or I can tell WeatherX to plot the readings. Here are the last 12 hours of readings (click image to enlarge).

The temperature hit 36°F overnight. The record for this date was 40°, so it appears we’ve set a new low for this date. I wonder what happened to the apple and peach orchards in the Shenandoah Valley, where temperatures had been expected to go even lower. But heat is on the way. Tomorrow’s high is forecast to be 87°.

The lowest temperature ever recorded in Virginia was -30°F (-34°C) recorded on Jan. 22, 1985, at Mountain Lake (elevation 3,870 feet). The name Mountain Lake refers to a lake in southwest Virginia, as well as to Mountain Lake Lodge, a resort hotel at that lake. Most of the movie Dirty Dancing was filmed at Mountain Lake Lodge and surroundings. (The story was set in New York's Catskill Mountains, but that’s not where the movie was shot.) I recall going to Mountain Lake Lodge one December evening to have dinner with friends. Temperatures were well below freezing and everything at the Lodge was glazed with a thin coat of ice. Trees appeared ghostly and surreal. At one end of the dining room, a fire crackled in a large stone fireplace. The warmth it gave off was comforting. I’ve been to Mountain Lake in summer, too, and walked Magnolia-lined trails around the lake. Ah, but that was another lifetime.