Good morning or good evening, wherever you may be, across the nation and across the world. It is just past 6:00 a.m. in "The City."

I am going to start with something, which while not local, I still found interesting, Over the East Coast of the United States, and specifically over PA and NY, the Jet Stream Winds were so strong that they pushed a Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner to a ground speed of over 800 mph en route to London, England! The aircraft's pilot, Peter James, a pilot with over 25 years of commercial experience, said. "That he'd never seen that kind of tailwind in my life as a commercial pilot!"

For a frame of reference, the fastest speed ever recorded for a Dreamliner was previously 776 mph! The tailwind that produced that 800 mph speed also caused the flight to arrive in London 48 minutes ahead of schedule! Is this another example of Climate Change?

Moving on to local and national weather, we have a current temperature of 24° that feels like 13° due to the 19 mph winds. Today's high in "The City" is forecast by the NWS to reach 36° with a 90% chance for a combination of snow showers and freezing rain that will make the Winter Weather Advisory that has been issued for our area from 7:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m. produce hazardous driving conditions at the time of the afternoon rush hour.

However, there is mostly good news in baseball weather. In Lakeland, FL, where the Tigers train, the current temperature is 70° as they head to today's high of 87°. In Ft. Myers, FL, spring training home of my beloved Red Sox, the current temperature is 72° and today's high is forecast to reach 86°.

Sadly. in Mesa, AZ, where the Cubs are training, the current temperature is 36° and today's high is forecast to reach only 57°. The Freeze Warning for Mesa, issued earlier, runs until 9:00 a.m. today. Thursday's forecast from the NWS is calling for a 90% chance for rain and the high temperatures won't reach the 60s until Saturday.

After my haircut appointment yesterday, Mary and I went out and took some pix around town that I hope to use as a basis for the coloring that I want to do in the Grand Haven Coloring Book of popular Grand Haven Sights, illustrated by Barbara Carlson and based on photographs by Bob Walma. We purchased this book a few months ago at The Bookman and I am going to take my time and do the coloring right. Along with those pix, Mary, our staff photographer, took some pix of the channel that is not frozen over. There are additional pix on the book, but we plan to wait until the spring/summer for additional pic taking. I'll share some of yesterday's efforts below.

This pic of Grand Haven's famous Coal Tipple, is just one I'll be using for color reference.

Our favorite watering hole is another.

This used to the the transportation museum associated with the Tri-Cities Historical Museum. This former station for the Grand Trunk Western Railroad, was moved the current site in the 1950s and is now a part of the Lynn Sherwood Waterfront Stadium. Passenger service to GH was halted in the early 1950s and all we have today is a short like that carries freight.

The Grand Theater is now a restaurant and condo building.

Just because it looked so scenic.

First St. looking north from the top of the hill to the east of downtown GH.

 Don't forget, that any pix of interest can be enlarged simply by clicking on them.

Today, I have some baking to do for our History Book Club meeting that was rescheduled due to bad weather two weeks ago. Hopefully, that forecast that shows that Winter Weather Advisory for today is accurate and won't cause another postponement tomorrow. Our books are due on Friday at the library.

While I am baking, Mary has two appointments today, one at her beautician and the other at the chiropractor. Like me, she won't walk on the icy sidewalks, so she may be driving and that is not a good thing when the sidewalks remain ice-covered. Plus, driving a few blocks is not good for an internal combustion engine.

The fur-children are still not happy about no walks, but that can't be helped. We all need some exercise, but we value our safety over our need to exercise.

The sun will rise today @ 7:35 a.m. and set later @ 6:22 p.m. Ciao.