It's a-leave-the-faucets-dripping kind of night

Blue Norther, watercolor, 8 x 10, 300 lb. d'Arches cold press paper

Blue Norther. It was 50 degrees here yesterday. Tonight the low will be 40 degrees less that that.
Consider  the wind chill from bitterly cold north wind, and it's not exactly balmy out there. Arctic air doesn't begin to describe it on the Great Plains.
The front blew in over night, bringing strings of constantly changing blue, gray clouds across the sky.
It's the kind of night when you make sure the indoor faucets are slightly dripping, and the cabinet doors under the sinks slightly ajar, to fend off the penetrating cold from the outside walls next to the pipes.
It's a good time to be cuddled up inside a cabin, a fire in the fire place, soup, books, cats in your lap.

Today's daily January watercolor.

New Year's Winter Reverie

Ice storm, 9 by 12 watercolor

Oklahoma winter usually means an ice storm, especially as a New Year arrives and January and February cold sets in. 
In spite of this year's unusually warm weather, and a drought, we know freezing rain and icy roads may be just over the horizon. Weather people call it a "wintry mix," but that can include snow, sleet, freezing rain and ice, all combined.
An Arctic blast that dumps snow north and west of here often brings a more treacherous cousin. The latitude and temperatures conspire to paralyze parts of the state with ice that coats roads, destroys the power grid and subjects us to a wind-chill nightmare.
This abstract watercolor was from a year or two ago when we sat hunched in the front room by the gas fireplace for about 12 hours.
There is still beauty in Nature no matter the vagaries of weather.

Hafer Park, Edmond