It rained hard at the Waterloo Premium Outlets.
When my dear wife Karen and I pulled out of our driveway to drive an hour west to the Waterloo Premium Outlets early this afternoon, the car dashboard thermometer read 80 degrees.
We enjoyed the last hour of the spring warmup, strolling the outdoor quad of stores in shirt sleeves. I wore shorts.
But while Karen was shopping in Jones of New York and I was checking messages on my phone outside, the storm associated with an upcoming cold front made its way from the west. It settled over us. It poured.
I grabbed my iPhone 4 and caught this startling photo above.
I think it’s the most obvious delineation between fronts I’ve ever seen in our sky.
When we got in the car to start the drive home, the thermometer read 68 degrees.
When we pulled back in our driveway in the Syracuse city neighborhood of Eastwood, it read 62.
Tomorrow it’s supposed to plummet into the 30s, with a call for measurable snow toward dinner time.
Crazy spring.
Mark Bialczak 
We have dramatic changes in our weather during Spring, particularly! I loved that you were out and about during this front moving in! I think your photo on the cell phone is eerie! I like storms but not when I am not at home. Was there a lot of wind? Ours was a windy and strange amount of gusts, in my apt. complex it sounded like there was a lot of shaking going on out there! Smiles, Robin
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Yes, some wind was involved, Robin, but as I was driving home, the hardest thing to deal with was the rain so heavy I had a hard time seeing out the windshield. And it was still daylight. If the sun had set, I really would have had to pull over into a rest area or something.
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That’s a great photo! And your temperature change makes me miss my days in New York so much! I lived at the armpit in Kingston for a couple of years and it was so beautiful compared to this green and muggy swampland known as Florida. 🙂
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But in the winter months, you don’t have to worry about the snow anymore, Rachel. You ARE SO LUCKY about that, my friend.
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Looks like you’re into the crazy part of winter – the part where it won’t give up to Spring without a fight.
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They are battling today, that’s for sure, Jenni.
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Because you didn’t get enough snow this year? You captured the contrast perfectly. What did we do without iPhones?
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I know, right? To both questions, Sandra.
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I woke up in the middle of the night with a splitting headache. Always when the weather changes. And my head looked like your picture. Split between the fronts. Painfully split. Snow. Criminy.
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Jiminy and Criminy and where are the crickets, Colleen? So awful in mid-April.
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Indeed. Had some icy snow mid day. But it’s gone again. 🙂 I’m so confused.
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Yes, our snow as stopped, too. Confusing AND befuddling, Colleen.
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Great photo – I love stormy skies but that is probably because here it just means rain, hail and thunder and nothing more sinister than that.
That shopping complex looks just like one we visit near to where my mum lives.
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We do like the shopping complex. The hard rain, though, Rachel, no so much!
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Wow! I read someone else blog and they said they had snow yesterday. Summer is probably going to be overly hot.
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It seemed hot at 80 degrees today to me, Kim. All relative.
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Sounds like Colorado! It was 70 on Saturday and we got a few inches of snow on Sunday!
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So so tired of winter, Susie. This break into 70s and 80s has been marvelous.
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what an amazing picture mark, really says it all, that’s lucky you happened to be there and ready to take it, storm chaser mark. we expect snow later tonight or tomorrow too……not nice mother nature –
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Not nice at all, Beth. The drive home was through a driving rain, and I was thinking behind the wheel of how lousy it would have been if it had been snow. I’m glad you liked the photo. I did feel like a successful storm chaser!
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We had one of those today, as well. Down right frigid in Texas tonight, Mark.
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Pull up the boots and roll down the sleeves, Audrey.
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In my father’s 1880’s old Victorian house he had an old door handle. You know the kind: weighed about five pounds. He hung it on the wall on one of the landings. Put a sign behind it which read:
“Tornado Emergency Kit–grab and hold on–Unless you want to go to Oz”
Great photo.
Makes me homesick.
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L. Frank Baum was born up the road from Syracuse, in Canastota, N.Y., Lance. Every summer they have an Oz weekend, including a parade, and some actors who played Munchkins still show up and are honored.
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“Auntie Em! Auntie Em!”
(I could not resist. Luckily, it shouldn’t come to that.)
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Toto!
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Frankly, I’m surprised y’all got to 80. I second your crazy spring! My arms and neck are still sunburned from a Saturday soccer game, and yet today’s front took us into the shivery 40s! How can I wear capri pants to an acupuncturist (so he can stab at my knees), if it’s frozen outside? Cool picture!
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Capri pants in the 40s? You can do it, Kerbey. I’ve worn shorts in the 40s and lived to tell about it.
I hope the acupuncture helped your knees, my friend.
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They stab my arms, calves, and knees to send blood to the left ear. Weird line of reasoning, no? I’m not the one with the medical degree, so…
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Should I ask why you need blood to the left ear, or just gloss it over, Kerbey? Well … why do you need blood t the left ear? I’ve never heard of such a medical need answered by the circuitous acupuncture route.
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I’m hearing vibrations/muscle spasms/monkey playing erratic drumset…No worries. Moving on…
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Oh, that. Not fun. I’m moving …
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