Scarlet Pimpernel

Tough loss for the Blue Jays.  Though I didn't really have a dog in the fight (being a lowly Cleveland Guardians fan haha!), I was rooting for Toronto to win it.  Just because they were huge underdogs and I'm kind of tired of big market teams like LA always being up there every season.  Was time for a totally different winner this year.  I was almost hoping for a Seattle-Milwaukee Series, actually!

As much as the Dodgers' talent came through (Ohtani is insanely talented, and Yamamoto is nearly as incredible), the Jays really blew it.  Very frustrating.  I mean, come on...leadoff double in the bottom of the 8th with a then 4-3 lead, and they cannot push across one insurance run (would have rendered what was LA's tying home run in the 9th as moot)?  Then in the bottom of the 9th, bases loaded and one out in a 4-4 tie, and they can't score the walk-off winning run somehow?  And even in the 11th when down 5-4, they had a definite good chance to at least tie it, but blew it with a double-play to end the game and the Series.

I suppose, being a native Clevelander, it's only fitting that the former Guardian (Shane Bieber) coughed up what was the game-winning HR to the Dodgers!!  He must have forgotten that he's not playing for Cleveland now, LOL!!!

Oh and despite being disappointed in the outcome, what a Series!  A 9-run spot for the Jays in Game 1 was the 2nd largest inning in Series history, and TWO extra inning games (including the 18 inning drama).  This was the 4th extra-inning Game 7 in the "modern era" going back to Jack Morris (for the Twins) and his 10-inning pitching gem...and, as expected, Cleveland lost TWO of those (1997 in 11 innings vs. the Marlins, 2016 in 10 innings vs. the Cubs).

5 minutes ago, CAPE said:

Bob Chill's WDI is the primary element that suggests a big snow winter is incoming for the region. LFG!

Well, it has now been 10 winters since our last KU-HECS type storm, so there ya go!  I don't know what the "average" time is between such events, but I think historically it's been less than that(?).

On 10/15/2025 at 4:27 PM, WxWatcher007 said:

 

Getting back in the gym. 

Yeah, bones are lookin' a bit flabby there after a couple of years of retirement ease!  Gotta watch how many souls you consume each winter, ya know!!!

15 hours ago, pazzo83 said:

Shohei Ohtani isn't a real human

Ohtani is a once-in-a-lifetime...or even less often than that!...baseball player.  He's just insanely talented.  I don't think there's been a player even close to him, who was both a scary-good pitcher as well as an even scarier-good hitter/slugger and baserunner (steals).  Maybe someone like Babe Ruth, who was a good pitcher and of course a hitter (though I think his best slugging was after he stopped pitching, when he was with the Yankees?).  I think the only accomplishment Ohtani hasn't (yet?) gotten was the Cy Young.  I wouldn't be surprised if he ever wins that and an MVP in the same season at some point, along with various hitting awards.

10 hours ago, TSSN+ said:

In other news since I haven’t been on here since last winter. I got engaged July 27th and our wedding is May 17th.

 

Congrats to you (and her)...and best wishes in your new life together!!!

15 minutes ago, Weather Will said:

WB 18Z ICON is a disaster for western burbs 

I can see the Ji Meltdown Zone from my house (if this were winter)!!! 

1 hour ago, WxWatcher007 said:

Indeed

Is this what the Reaper is doing in retirement to earn a few extra bucks?  A graveyard greeter...sort of like a Wallmart greeter!!!  (You can welcome people by saying "Good Morgue-ning!!) 

2 hours ago, high risk said:

 If you had said that the models had major disagreement and inconsistency all week, you would have been correct.   But you wrote that the "models had nothing about this until now".   That is spectacularly and embarrassingly wrong.    You can read discussion about this being a legitimate threat in the medium range as far back as Monday.   

Thank you for this, I was thinking exactly the same thing.  This potential was showing up in much of the guidance going back to Sunday or Monday as I recall.  And it was mentioned in discussions even at that time.  I was a bit surprised that LWX was still being optimistic holding off any real mention of rain for awhile, but I guess they wanted to keep the then-longer range forecast consistent and the same until there was a better indication in the guidance.  And they did actually allude to the uncertainty and possibility of a Nor'Easter type system for the latter part of this weekend.

28 minutes ago, mappy said:

I’m working a table at Hampstead's Fall Fest Saturday, hoping any rain that does come in, happens after 4pm

Well, I hope/think much of Saturday should be OK from what I've looked at across much of the area.  I know where you're coming from, as I, myself, am planning to go to the MD Renaissance Festival again on Saturday.  I won't be surprised if there are a few light or brief showers in the afternoon (which wouldn't be too horribly bad) but it seems like the more consistent and heavier rain would hold off until Saturday evening and beyond.  At least hopefully!

Happy Belated, @WxWatcher007!!!  I would ask how old you are, but we all know the Reaper is AGELESS!!

6 hours ago, yoda said:

Hope you had a great birthday @mappy 

Sorry I'm late, I'm in England right now 

Aye, laddie!  Grab yourself a few drams of single-malt Scotch, call everyone a bastard, and...

oh wait!  You said ENGLAND!  Sorry, my  bad!  My Scots-Irish background got in the way!

But seriously, I hope you have a fun time there!  I've been to England/Scotland a couple of times years ago (mainly London and Edinburgh).  It was great, and I hope to go back again sometime!  I do recall that at various local pubs, I never had the same beer twice!

On 6/27/2025 at 12:59 PM, mappy said:

Thank you!

A belated happy birthday to you, mappy!!!  I hope you had a good one!  Everyone deserves something good on their birthday, that's my philosophy and belief.

On 6/19/2025 at 8:20 AM, H2O said:

You could be a Nats fan right now too

...or a Guardians fan! 

On 6/19/2025 at 8:54 PM, snowfan said:

Wednesday looks pleasant.

 

Now that the summer solstice has just passed, I begin to wonder...when does the sun angle no longer allow for near triple-digit temperatures or hotter??  I'm guessing maybe...around Dec. 21 typically??? 

On 5/4/2025 at 8:37 AM, Ji said:

How we looking?

It's over.  Winter cancel! 

On 5/30/2025 at 11:10 PM, George BM said:

 

 

 

 

I've finally reached the great egg.

You know...I heard someone joke once (maybe it was a comedian?) that we should live our lives in reverse.  Start out dealing with death, then go through any pains of old age (get off my lawn!), then have a regular job with a good salary, then party it up in college, deal with high school, then be a kid again without any real worries, be a toddler not having much knowledge of anything, and finally...end your life as an orgasm! 

10 minutes ago, WxUSAF said:

Looks like 3-6z start time this evening south to north across the region

I'm worried that as soon as the heavy snow rates start, we'll be right near the back edge and it won't be anything more than a low-end advisory event that will melt by Thursday morning...

...

...

Oh wait, sorry, I was stuck in January again!!  It's May 12th, please proceed as normal!!  

On 5/11/2025 at 5:45 PM, CAPE said:

Higher terrain to the west, esp upslope areas. Probably not in the metros.

12z Euro probably has the right idea.

LOL Gulf of America in a NWS AFD. Pathetic.

 

LOL indeed...though to be fair (and trying not to tread the politics line too much!) using "Gulf of America" is almost certainly a requirement now, no matter what one may think of that terminology.  I suppose one can get around it by simply saying "the Gulf region" or something like that.  Getting back on the topic of weather, this upcoming soaker is much needed (obviously!).  Will be interesting to see how some of the heavier amounts work out.

A spectacular double-rainbow from last Sunday (May the Fourth Be With You Day!!!)

5 hours ago, mappy said:

Beautiful photos @Scarlet Pimpernel 

Im heading to a garden with tulips on the 18th, very excited! 

Thank you!  A lot of people in my neighborhood have them in their yards, and there are a lot of those planters along several roads that have them as well each year.  Very stunning flowers for sure!  My favorite perhaps are the ones that have the reddish and yellow color streaks on them.  Hope you're able to see lots of nice ones at that garden when you go in a couple of weeks!  Seems like they're a little earlier than usual (?) perhaps, even around here in metro DC.  I saw them just starting to come up the other week, and they're now really out and going.

And a few more!...

@mappy...TULIPS for you!  Several images to follow...

On 3/14/2025 at 6:07 PM, CAPE said:

Eh I like March in general. Transitional month. Back and forth. Sometimes we get snow but not lately. In general I prefer March and April to be more on the cool side like Fall(my favorite season). Relentless warm/hot and humid will come soon enough, and typically lasts 5+ months.

Agree.  Unlike perhaps some in here, I really like good March snows when we get them!  Who cares if generally they get melted away within a couple of days.  And we've had some solid ones over the years.  I'm not a big fan of 40s-50s and cloudy/drizzle, but you cannot escape that around here in March or April (sometimes even May!).  So you deal with it and enjoy either the snow events we do get in March, or the 60s-70s pleasant spring weather as things come alive again.  And I also agree, we'll see God-awful heat and humidity soon enough, and for far too long of a time!  That much is guaranteed every single year.  Actually, outside winter when there are snow chances (such as they are!) my favorite season is fall...the changing leaves, crisper evenings and nights after the heat of summer, it generally tends to be pleasant out, plus looking forward to all the upcoming Holidays the latter part of the year.

9 hours ago, Maestrobjwa said:

Glad you clarified that...I would've thought ya did it just to troll OCD people 

LOL!!!  Nah, I wouldn't do that!  I guess I figured people might wonder why the hell I didn't just crop it to be right in the middle of the image.  Which would have been fine, I normally do that afterward with lunar photos I take.  But in this instance, I noticed all the stars visible around it, so I wanted to crop it such that they would also be visible.  Plus, just an artistic license here, sometimes keeping space on either side of a main subject creates an interesting balance, or imbalance.  If I had done a time series of the eclipse as it approached totality, I would have centered it of course, for that.  In fact, 3 years ago (last total lunar eclipse visible in this area) I did just that.  For this one, knowing there would be a lot of cloud cover and the fact that it was middle of the night (3 years ago was near sunrise, pre-dawn hours, and it was clear!), I didn't really care to wander outside several times hoping to capture gaps in the clouds.  So I decided to just  go out right around totality.  I almost was going to give up on this one, to be honest!  I went out around 2:45am, wandered around looking in the approximate area where the moon was supposed to be and...nothing!  Very frustrating.  I was about to just call it a failure and go back to bed, when I then saw it in a thin gap through the clouds.  I stuck around for about 20 more minutes, there were more decent gaps here and there, and I grabbed several shots (hoping a few would turn out decent enough!).