Always in Zugzwang

Sunset from yesterday evening...

Just now, WxWatcher007 said:

Tropics sunsets are the best. This is from Lee last week.

Damn, that's perfect!  You caught all the great sunset colors, from purple to red to orange and yellow!

2 minutes ago, GATECH said:

I am thinking you replace tropical rum with some mid latitude vodka, maybe continental grain alcohol…but keep the passion fruit because it still has some tropical characteristics.

Though...some may object to the lack of rum!! 

Just now, GATECH said:

I am thinking you replace tropical rum with some mid latitude vodka, maybe continental grain alcohol…but keep the passion fruit because it still has some tropical characteristics.

Now that would work!  Maybe toss in some ice as well to make it just a bit away from the tropics!

18 minutes ago, GATECH said:

Nice!  I love Southern Tier!  Mrs. GATECH has gone pumpkin spicearific…she ran to Trader Joe’s and got everything pumpkin spice…it’s a phase that shall pass in a week or so…I even found her a pumpkin spice bourbon old fashioned which I shall conjour up for her tomorrow.

Now that sounds like some tasty stuff!!!

1 hour ago, MN Transplant said:

Shouldn’t people be drinking hurricanes?

1 hour ago, GATECH said:

Well by the time it gets here, we will be drinking extra-Tropical Cyclones….working on the recipe now!

I'm afraid if I drank a full capacity hurricane right now, I'd be a serious tropical depression by midnight and all day tomorrow as my own eye(wall) collapses, hahaha!!!  I do have a couple of Pat O'Brien's hurricane glasses from years ago, still!

I'd be curious what an "extra-tropical cyclone" drink would involve!!!

Settling for some wine tonight...

7 hours ago, WxWatcher007 said:

This is WxWatcher007 reporting live from Chiefland, FL, just inland from Cedar Key. We have a hurricane warning here and folks are taking the storm seriously. The forecast for the center is very tricky even now, as some models have been trending westward toward a near direct hit of Tallahassee while others are further east down to Cedar Key. The parallel track along the west coast of Florida makes this hard. I am hedging east right now, but am prepared to move north if necessary this evening. Will monitor trends. 

As is usually the case, my friend @MillvilleWx is in communication with me, and this time I'm grateful to have @ORH_wxman supporting as well. If I lose power and internet, I'll be in touch with them so that everyone here knows I'm ok. 

Driving in last night there was a wicked storm to my south. Perhaps a preview...

Stay safe, 007...and hope your chase is interesting!  Send photos as you can...

BTW, is that an image of the Reaper in the clouds, illuminated by the lightning? 

18 hours ago, Mrs.J said:

 

Thanks they are on their way and almost to Atlanta to my sisters house. 

Hope they will be safe, Mrs. J...Atlanta is a good place to be.

A tiger swallowtail on a thistle flower...

1 hour ago, Mrs.J said:

Absolutely stunning double rainbow over here. Honestly these photos do not show the brilliance of color of this. 
 

Those are beautiful, Mrs. J!!  Thanks for sharing!

52 minutes ago, vastateofmind said:

I'm sorry for your friend's property loss....but man, MAMMATUS!!   

BEWBS in the SKY!!  (Sorry, had to go there with the immature humor, yeah!)

2 minutes ago, dailylurker said:

I'm making a play on the hook echo 

Something doesn't sound quite right about how that's phrased!  Better be careful which part of town you pick up any hook-echoes! 

1 minute ago, yoda said:

18z RNK SPEC sounding

 

Wow...looks almost similar to this (IAD sounding just before the derecho hit in 2012)...

27 minutes ago, Chinook said:

I was watching the Convective Chronicles youtube video (expert forecast) with the sound off and the closed captioning on. Better watch out for that high effective stormwater publicity!

 

Sorry to be off-topic (should be banter I suppose), but speaking of closed-caption subtitles messing things up, I was watching "African Queen" (with Bogey and Hepburn) some years back.  There's a part where Bogey's character says "I'm the captain, that's who..." (only he says "that's who" in a slurred manner, like "at's who!").  The CC on the movie had this amusing "interpretation!"...

1 minute ago, yoda said:

https://www.opm.gov/policy-data-oversight/snow-dismissal-procedures/current-status/

Status: Early Departure - 2 hours Staggered Release - All Employees Must Depart No Later Than 3:00

Employees of Federal agencies in the Washington, DC area are authorized for Early Departure. Employees should depart 2 hours earlier than their normal departure time and may request Unscheduled Leave to depart prior to their staggered departure time. All employees Must Depart no later than 3:00 at which time Federal offices are Closed.

Telework Employees at the Office will receive weather and safety leave only for the amount of time required to commute home. Once these employees arrive at home, they must complete any remaining portion of the workday by teleworking, taking unscheduled leave (paid or unpaid) or other paid time off, or a combination.

Telework Employees Performing Telework are expected to continue working and generally may not receive weather and safety leave. They must account for the entire workday by teleworking, taking unscheduled leave (paid or unpaid) or other paid time off, or a combination.

Remote Workers are expected to continue working and generally may not receive weather and safety leave. They must account for the entire workday by working, taking unscheduled leave (paid or unpaid) or other paid time off, or a combination.

Non-Telework Employees at the Office will be dismissed from their office 2 hours early relative to their normal departure time but no later than the final departure time 3:00 (as applicable) and will be granted weather and safety leave for the number of hours remaining in their workday.

Emergency Employees are expected to remain at their worksite unless otherwise directed by their agencies.

Employees Departing the Office Prior to Their Early Departure Time or the Final Departure Time (whichever is applicable) may request to use unscheduled leave (paid or unpaid) or other paid time off. Such employees will not be granted weather and safety leave for any part of the workday.

Employees on Preapproved Leave (paid or unpaid) or other paid time off-including an employee who has requested unscheduled leave before an early departure policy is announced-generally should continue to be charged leave or other paid time off during the scheduled time and should not receive weather and safety leave.

(Posted on August 7, 2023 at 1:00 PM)

Wow...when's the last time there was an emergency departure for severe weather around here?  I know there have been several in the past for winter weather.

2 minutes ago, mappy said:

It absolutely is. I was anxious about just having to travel later in it, having a safe place at the studio should we need to shelter, and all that. Just too many moving parts when people are coming from multiple areas to the studio for classes. Not worth all that risk. 

I would NOT want to be driving around in severe situations like that, branches all over, wind, no visibility.  Heck, I happened to be out last Saturday during those big storms that went through and it was no fun driving in that, totally white-knuckled it with the steering wheel!

Just now, mappy said:

Made the call to close the dance studio tonight. Just not worth the risk to families. A first for me hahaha telling a business to close hahaha

I'd think it's a good call for just about any "evening activities" anywhere to just postpone or cancel, just out of caution at least.

1 minute ago, Winter Wizard said:

It's an overblown concern IMO, people say that after every storm. 

Right.  I would doubt those that DO get hammered by any storms are going to say the threat was overblown or "complaining" about a bust, despite many others perhaps not getting anything too bad.  Not the same animal as a large-scale snow event that underperforms almost everywhere.

3 minutes ago, Eskimo Joe said:

The downside to this event is that we need the higher end potential to be realized. It's been hyped so much now that for this to bust would erode public trust. 

Ji can see the back end of the radar already...

On 8/2/2023 at 6:35 PM, WxWatcher007 said:

Great day to go to the park!

Nice shot!!  I'm off to visit family in the Cleveland area later this upcoming week for a few days.  They got tickets to the Guardians vs. Blue Jays, so that will be fun.  Even if they've been frustrating to follow this year!

On 8/1/2023 at 1:33 PM, MillvilleWx said:

We are home. Maryland never felt so good!! 

Welcome home (a bit late)!!  Of course, you might not have thought it felt so good about a week or so ago when it was 98 degrees!! 

Boxing Day, 2010!  What an amaz....oh, wait a minute!  No, that storm sucked for us and is verboten to mention, like Lord Voldemort, the Storm which Shall Not Be Named!! 

But seriously, it's tough to pinpoint an absolute favorite so I'll list a few, or at least a few time periods.  Chronological order, not in order of preference:

--PD-II, 2003.  I was living in the Capitol Hill neighborhood and the lead up to that was very exciting!  I had only moved here in July 2001 and winter '01-02 completely sucked (my first winter here), so '02-03 was a nice change!  I remember the guidance kept trending colder and lots of precipitation.  I was expecting most of it to start on that Sunday morning (Feb. 16, 2003), but when I got up there was already 6" on the ground and pounding snow.  We did get sleet of course much later on but still got ~18" where I was.  Amazing storm, and cold throughout.

--February 2007.  I know a lot of people tend to blow off or overlook that winter, but that February was very cold and if we had gotten snow rather than sleet/ice for the Valentine's Day event, I think it would be one of the better winters.  And we got the somewhat unexpected 5-6" of wet snow later in February (I think the 25th).  That season actually was awful in December and early January...but mid-January through February was pretty cool and active.  I actually liked that winter overall.

--The entire 2 week period from Jan. 30-Feb. 10, 2010.  Even having grown up in northeast OH and having experienced many big winters, that 2 week period here in 2010 was about the snowiest and most incredible that I've seen.  Where I was in Silver Spring at the time, I received 6.3" on Jan. 30, 5.0" on Feb. 2, 23.5" on Feb. 5-6, and 12.0" on Feb. 9-10.  I recall going to bed on Feb. 9 after some snow and there was freezing rain falling by then, thinking we were in for a huge bust.  Woke up on the 10th to whiteout and blizzard conditions that continued through the day.  And of course, you cannot mention that winter 2009-10 without also mentioning the 1st HECS of that season on Dec. 18-19, 2009 (20.0" where I am)...oh, and of course, happy anniversary to @mappy every year on Dec. 19!!

--Winter 2013-14.  Damn near wall-to-wall with tracking events.  Not a single HECS, but loaded with several moderate events.  Hell, even @Bob Chill said he was exhausted by the end of March!  Plus it was the 2nd year in a row that snow fell on my birthday on March 25 (happened in 2013 as well).

--3 weeks from mid-February to early March 2015.  Holy cow what a ride!  Yeah, a late bloomer of a season but another extremely cold February (colder than 2007!) and this time we cashed in on some good snows.  March had an ice event the first weekend of the month and then a nifty moderate event on the 5th.  February 14 also had what is perhaps my favorite "minor" event, a couple of snow squalls with an Arctic front dropped 2" in less than an hour, followed by bitter cold and wind which ushered in that amazing 3 week period!

--January 22-23, 2016.  What can you say?  The blizzard of 2016 HECS!  That storm was so well forecast and just a classic setup.  I remember sitting in a coffee shop the Saturday a week before looking at AmWx, and after the 12Z models came in everyone KNEW a big event was all but guaranteed, it was just a matter of the details.  A few days prior to that was a small clipper that dropped an inch of dry snow that resulted in icy roads.  I know a lot of people love to hate on that winter saying it was a one and done season...but what a ONE!  And that was after ridiculously warm (+10 degree departure) December.  We also did get a small snow and ice event around mid-February that year, which tends to get overlooked.

--January 11-12, 2019.  I know this may have affected the DC area more, but it was a neat event that dropped 11"!!  I recall LWX going kind of big on the snow amounts which seemed risky at the time, but that turned out to be correct.

[But, my all-time favorite event from anywhere I lived was the great Ohio Blizzard of Jan. 26-27, 1978!!!  No, it was not a prolific snow producer in northeast OH (maybe 6-12" overall).  However, that storm was so damned severe it's hard to top.  It set low pressure records from the southeast US to Canada, including 28.28" (957 mb) as the center of the storm passed right over Cleveland.  Temperatures dropping 30 degrees in a 2 hour period (from mid-40s at 4AM to the teens by 6AM), then single digits most of the remainder of the day on the 26th with whiteout conditions.  Wind gusts to 80+ MPH and unreal low wind chills.  They were literally telling people to NOT go outside.  We still had about a foot of old, crusty snow on the ground and the drifts that resulted from the blizzard were quite incredible.  I remember Dick Goddard, the local meteorologist (and a very good forecaster) saying that for the only time in his long career, he told people on the 11PM news show to not expect to travel anywhere the next day, even though at that time it was still pretty mild and kind of drizzly out.  The Ohio Turnpike (I-80/90) was closed from gate to gate for the only time ever.  The National Guard had to be called in for relief efforts after the storm.  That winter, 1977-78, was the second incredible one after the brutal and record-setting cold winter the year before in 1976-77.]

On 7/8/2023 at 8:33 AM, mappy said:

Ooof I’m battered and bruised this am. Took a line drive to the face at second last night, tipped my glove at the last moment before hitting my jaw area, thankfully deflected the worst of the smack. Then made a diving play to win us the game. 

Oh that sucks, hope you are OK!  But nice to make a play that helped win the game!  I've seen my share of injuries in this softball league I used to play for and it's no joke.  A few years ago in 2019, I broke a finger playing 1st base (normally, I'm an outfielder but played 1st a few times).  On this one play, there was a wild and hard throw from our 3rd baseman that I had to dive for.  The ball nicked my gloved hand just wrong and bent my pinky finger back somehow.  At least I kept it in play and avoided the runner advancing to 2nd!  I attempted to bat in the bottom half of that inning but couldn't continue, so that was the end of my season.  Had to get a pin in the finger for about 6 weeks.  I don't play anymore, COVID kind of canceled any season in 2020 and 2021 though the league started back up last year.  Plus, just too much other stuff going on (and I'm getting a bit old for that now hahaha!).  But it was fun playing for about 17 seasons in that league, especially the tournament weekend each year!

On 7/7/2023 at 10:34 AM, Kay said:

Thanks! I'm glad you enjoyed your trip as well

Happy belated birthday, @WxWatcher007 !

Very late to the party here, didn't even realize it was @WxWatcher007's birthday recently.  So I'll also wish a happy belated to the ever-ageless Reaper!