NCSU_Pi

Yeah, we had a nice storm this morning, including a pretty close strike, and it definitely didn't take all the energy for the afternoon. We are getting positively dumped on in Apex, with lots of lightning, too.

I imagine most of us are spending as much time now watching radars and weather station statuses, and looking out the window.

Sleet with some fat flakes mixed in, here around Swift Creek.

It's gonna be so hilarious when it keeps trending all the way west of Raleigh and we totally bust...

It's amazing how much being a winter weather lover here is like being an NC State basketball fan. Somehow, you always get sucked into hoping, no matter how long the odds. Right now, we're at the point in the process where we're actually believing we might pull it off....

I realize this a dumb layman's question, but does the eruption of that volcano introduce any appreciable element of chaos on our forecast?

I'm gonna gas up the cars, charge up the jump pack to keep some coulombs around for various devices DC and AC, put the tarp on the front stoop, and that's probably about it. Maybe I'll fill up the water cooler in case our community pumps lose power.

Through the late summer and fall, we name all our snowless blizzards. Why don't we do the same with this one?

The NAM will save us! The NAM never disappoints! (this is what I get for posting in response to PBP before seeing the end result in MBY - I'm gonna leave it up as a monument to my stupidity)

Is there a volcano nearby to throw wxduncan in? (I'd reply in the storm thread, but I wasn't sure if storm mode was on)

Thanks, that's good feedback.

I have a practical question for the board. It's obviously too late for the current storm, but thinking about the future, how practical is a home standby generator for people with heat pump heat? I can't remember precisely, but I think it's a 3 ton, 14 or 15 SEER unit, with heat strips. I assume the strips are out of the question, but can you practically/safely run the heat off a generator? In such a case, I would be talking about just running at some minimum level of comfort. From what I've read, the starting in-rush is just going to be too much for most home generators. Complicating matters is that I do not have gas service at my home, nor is it currently offered to my address. So were I to get a generator, I'd also need to pay for installation of gas service, or a tank and a delivery service. I don't even know if there's gas service on my street.

Thunder in Raleigh, now.