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.

I was going to ask those in the know: does the WPC have a little more leeway stepping out on forecasting events like this compared to the mainstream offices? Seems like the former is not noticed as much by the broader public.

I might have been a borderline 3 years ago, but that all changed when I had kids. I still went with option 2, but it's close. I live in a neighborhood with a ton of trees, and even though we thankfully have underground lines, Yates Mill Pond Rd is always a tree-on-line disaster waiting to happen. I have no gas service to my home. I have no generator, and even if I did, I'd hate to think of the size/fuel required to get remotely comfortable on the heat pump heat. And I have a community well water system that will eventually lose backup power, if it has any to begin with, and maybe line pressure gets me a bit more water than if I had my own well, but not a lot. And I have a five year old and a two year old. Give me a pretty, light glaze, and that's it.

Fat blobs of snow have been mixing with the rain since I first looked about 15 minutes ago here around Swift Creek. Temp is dropping, but slowly. 35.8 here, by my thermometer.

Greensburl is part of the Triangulation with Middle-Low-Point and Silo City.

Yeah, but is that the Triad in the central part of the state or the Triad in the Piedmont or the Triad in the western foothills?

Fantasy? Why I wouldn't be surprised at all to see that rain verify IMBY.

I'm loving all of this vicariously. Although one of the (small) benefits of being down here is that it at least draws out a little longer.

How about Yub Nub or Yipcha?

Ground turning white in Swift Creek. My temp has dropped 1.7 degrees in the last 25 minutes.

All snow in Swift Creek, now. My thermometer says 37.